The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-10
Copyrighted BY Frank II. Spearman.

SouaethiS llke--anQ Wnen> Ifley SLoppeu
again to throw off crackers and beer and
catsup, Maize went back and entered the
infected car like a lion tanner on try lodge
signals and things on him. MAZE ad-
vanced and gave the countersign. It was
not cordially received. He tried another
and another-and another; his passes
were lost in the air. The smallpox man
Maize with anything. He was not only
delirous, but by this time so frightfully
broken out that Maize couldn't have
touched a sound spot with a Masonic sig
nal of distress. Finally the venturesome
engineer walked closer into the dark cor
ner where the sick man lay-and, by
Heaven! it was the Indian wiper, Delaroo.
3 When Maize Sampson got back into the
cab he could not speak-at least, not for
publication. He was tearing mad and
Isputtered like safety. He gathered up
his cushion and a water bottle and bot
tie that would explode If water touched
1t and crawled with his plumber into the
box-car He Strengthened Delaroo up and
out and gave him a drink, and by way of
sanitary precaution took one personally,
for he himself had never had the small
poX-but once. When he had done this
little for Delaroo he finished his run and
came back to the Bend hauling his pest
house box-car. The fireman quit the cab
Immediately after Maize exposed himself:
only by signals. The Anderson operator
wired ahead that Maize Sampson was
bringing back a man with smallpox on
80" and when Maize, bullying out Of the
264 cab, pulled into the division yard mo-
body would come within a mile of him.
He set out the box-car below the stock
pens, cross-lots from his house up on the
hill, and, not being able to get advice
from anybody else, went home to consult
Martie. Rs. t-
Tho there were a great many women in
Medicine Bend, Maize Sampson looked to
but one, Martie, the little washed out wo-
man up at Sampson's-wife, mother,
nurse, cook, slave-Martie.
No particular color hair; no particular
color eyes; no particular color gown; no
particular cut to it. A plain bit of a wo-
man, mother Of six boys, large and small,
and wife of great big wind-bag engineer,
big as three of her by actual measure
ment. By the time Maize had taken coun-
sci and walked downtown prominent
business men were Tending off his ap-
proach with shotguns. The city marshal
from behindsa bomb-proof asked what he
was going to do with his patient, and Maize
retorted he was going to take him home
He wasn't g. M. r. w. of T. nor a P. S.
G.. of w. E., but he was a roundhouse
man, and between Maize and railroad
man.. a wiper even, there was a bond
stronger than grip or password or jolly
business of any kind. The other things
Maize. without realizing it, merely played
at; but as to the railroad lay-if rail-
Rroad man was the right sort he could
borrow anything the big fellow had,
money, plug tobacco, pipe, water bottle,
strong bottle, it made no odds what. And,
on the other hand, Maize wouldn't hest
tate to borrow any or all of these things in
return; the railroad man who got ahead
of MAZE Sampson in this respect had
lo1o i,,oc 70 h1
the business. ......
| The doughty engineer lifted and dragged
and hauled Delaroo home with him. Il
there was no hospital, Martie had said
no pesthouse, no nothing, just bring him
home. They had all had the smallpox uI
4 doctor. had said lately the baby appeared
i to need, something They had really 1ev-
I erything up at SIMPSONS sooner or later
measles, diphtheria, Group, everything OF
earth except money. And Martie Samp
son, with the washing and mending ani
scrubbing and cooking, nursed the outcas
wiper thru his smallpox. The baby tool
it, of course, and Martie nursed the bah!
, thru and went on just the same as before
mending, cooking, scrubbing
Delaroo when he got well went to firing
Neighbor offered the job as kind of con
; ISOLATION prize; and he went to firing OF
, the 264 for Maize Sampson. r. 80.
. | IL WIS tLSIA ~ludC N1dJe[- LOOK beldTO(
fairly in hand and showed him the un
: speakable folly of trying to get thru thu
world without the comradeship and bene
: fits Of the B. s. LIS Of u, and the frater
} Of the order of the double barreled star O
MacDuff. Delaroo caught good deal O
it on the sidings, where they lay most O
their time, lodging first class trains; art
evenings when they got in from thei
) runs Delaroo, having nowhere else t,
go, used to wander after supper
up to SIMPSONS. At SIMPSONS HI
} would sit in the shade of the LAM
and smoke while Maize, in his shirt
} sleeves, held forth on the benevolent or
ders, and one boy crawled thru the bow
els Of the organ and another pulled off tn,
tablecloth-Delaroo always saving thu
7 lamp-and a third harassed the dog, ant
. fourth stuck pins in fifth-and Martie
sitting on the dim side of the shade, S,
the operation would not appear too glar
: ing, mended at Maje's mammoth trousers
Delaroo would sit and listen to Maj
and watch the heave Of the organ witt
r the boy and the current of the table
cloth with the lamp, and the quarter il
? and watch Martie's perpetual motion
/ fingers for a whole evening, and go bacl
to the clearinghouse without passing
< word with anybody on earth, he wa
that silent.
: In this way the big, bluffing enginee
.
8 cret benevolent orders in Medicine Benz
!. that meant pretty much every one o.
. earth. There arose always, however, Il
t connection with the limitations Of Delaro
one hitch; he never seemed quite to know
t whom he wanted to leave his insuranc
e money to. He could go the most com
I plicated catechism without a hitch ever
!; time, for Maize spent weeks on the siding
;, drilling him, until it came to naming tn
g beneficiary; there he stuck. Nobody coul
:. get out Of him to whom he wanted hi
J, money to go.
e Had he no relatives back in the noun
tains? Nobody up in the Spider country
t No wives or daughters or fathers or moth
s ers or friends or anything? Delaroo al
ways shook his head. If they persisted h
: shook his head. MAZE Sampson, sittin
a after supper, would ask, and Martie, whe
o the dishes were sidetracked, would begi
d to sew and listen, and Delaroo, of course
9 would listen, but never by any chanc
: would he answer; not even when Maj
e tried to explain how it bore on 16 to
d He declined to discuss any ratio or
r name any beneficiary whatsoever. TIL
o right honorable recording secretarie
o fumed and denounced 1t as irregular, an
: Maize Sampson wore holes in his elbow
gesticulating, but in the matter Of distri
9 buting his personal share Of the unearne
It increment Delaroo expressed no prefer
g ence whatsoever. He paid his dues; h
d made his passes; he sat in his place. Whe
x more could be required? II they put hil
t in a post OF honor he filed it with
e silent dignity If they set him to guar
e the outer portal he guarded well; it wa
d perilous rather for visiting frater I
e even a local brother to try getting pas
!, Delaroo il he was rusty in the ritual NJ