Arizona republican., 1903-03-12

shoot O yournll do better than your eyes. l want to tell you right now this here is gun. shotgun, and it's my shotgun. I ain't no special proud of it, but you can bet your sweet life I ain't sorry none over it-"
 Gun? No?' interrupted Bib Tobe. "I don't reckon I'd ever guessed it. Will it shoot?"
 "Shoot! Dern your big. hoss-killing
 carcass. you can find out mighty quick if it'll shoot. Do you mind my paint
 pony over wonder? He's good for twen- ty-five dollars any day. The saddle and
 bridle is worth as much more. This
 here gun ain't loaded with nothing but
 number eight shot, but, little as they are, if you'll just step off fifty of the longest steps you can straddle and they don't draw blood and make you holler
 that there pony and the saddle and
 bridle is all your'n.''
 For the moment Big Tobe was taken aback by genuine surprise. But he was
 game and could not stand to take q
 dare. He made a line on the bare
 ground with his heel and then stepped
 off fifty steps. Good long ones, too, ha
 made them. His daredevil reck1essness stopped short of the slightest economy in any of them. At the end he stop- ped, back to his thoroughly approving and fascinated audience. and shouted: "All ready, let her go! Lemme know when you're through
 The last remark was superfluous. Silas toed the mark, raised the gun, took careful aim and did let her go.
 The old gun went off like a clap of
 thunder and filled the air with blue smoke. At one and the same time wild shriek of pain and horror went up to high Heaven telling everyone in
 blood-curdling tones that the target
 had failed to win the calico pony. Ten feet forward Big Tobe scoted as though trying to blow a furrow with his nose. Twenty feet moIe he paced on all fours in splendid imitation of horse single footing his very fastest. Then he rose up paving frantically with both hands
 and sped straight away toward the Gulf of Mexico.
 Someone shouted: "We got to ketch him boys" and the whole crowd start ed It would have been hopeless chase but three or four had mounted their ponies. Big Tobe was deaf to all cries l to stop or to lie down. No man dared | to ride in front of him and risk a col l lision. Finally a level headed horse
 man threw a rope and brought the
 runaway to the ground. For the first
 time in his life Big Tobe fainted. | Three hours later came old Dr. Mel
 drum on a hard-ridden horse in re-
 sponse to a most urgent hurry-up call.
 To this very day the old doctor has not quit talking about it.
 "Of all the fool things I ever heard of," said he, that's the foolishest. Why
 man alive, I picked moren seventy-five
 shot out of McAdoo's Big Tobe and
 didn't get 'em all, either. He sheds shot yet when he gets excited enough to swell up or move around lively. My.
 My, How that big sinner did rave and
 swear. It took four men to hold him down while I worked. He was just plastered from head to foot. ReXroat? i Why, do you know he went into the
 swamp and hid for three weeks for fear
 of the grand jury. He ain't paid me | full up yet for tending to his rheuma- tism and malaria
 The muzZle loader stands vindicated
 and respect for the venerable and the
 antique is supreme at Tightwad.-Rol-
 Lins Bingham in Kansas City Star.