The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-04
Dei0roO

! amt no story teller
lust an abie-jawed liar" suggested
Callahan through a benevolent BLUSH
haze.
'.Delaroo's story wasn't any lie,
though muttered Neighbor. but a
fellow would think it was TO hear it; now
he would, for fact. wouldn't hep
II you want him, quick and short, 1t
would be; whiskers. secret societies. sta
tistics and plug tobacco-the latter most
ly worked up. That was Maize Samp-
son.
BiuntIy. a wind-bag; two hundred and
seventy pounds OF atmosphere Up on
benevolent fraternities, up on politics, up
on the money question, up on every
thing. The Seven Financial Conspiracies
engaged Maze Samps6n's attention pretty
continually. and had for him a practical
application: there were never less than
seven conspiracies afoot in Medicine Bend
to make Maze Sampson pay up.
Pay? Indeed, he did pay. He was al
ways paying. 1t was not a question of pay
ing. Not at all. 1t was a question of pay
ing up, which is different.
The children-they were brickbats. Tow
headed, putty-faced, wash-eyed youngsters
Simpsons children there was but one dis
tinsuishing characteristic. they were all
boys, nothing but boys. and they spread
al over town. Was there baby run over?
II was Maze SIMPSONS. Was there child
lost? Maze Simpsons. Was there
violently large-headed. coarse-featured,
hang-dog gathering sort of a chap any
where around? In the street. station,
soundhouse. yards, stock pens? 1t was
q brickbat sure one of Maze Simpsons
brickbat boys.
The Simpsons were at the end Of the
street, and the end Of the street up
the mountain. Maze SIMPSONS lot,
''raired." as Neighbor put it-stood on
fits hind legs His house had startling
tumble-over aspect as you approached 1T.
The back end Of his LOT ran up into the
sheer. but he marked the line sharply by
. kind Of horizontal fence, because the
cliff just above belonged TO the corpora
ticn that owned everything else on earth
around Medicine Berd.
Maze Sampson die not propose to let
any grasping corporation encroach on his
lines so he built, and added to from time
to time, cluster of things on the hind
end of his lot-an eruption of small build
fngs like pimples a boys nose, running
down In size from the barn to the last dry
goods box the boys had heaved UP the
slope for doghouse. To add to the varie-
ty. some one OF the structures was always
getting away in the wind and If anything
smaller than a hotel was seen careening
across lots in a Medicine Bend breeze it
was spotted without further investigation
as Maze Simpsons. When the gale
abated, Joe McBracken, who conducted the
local dray line. was pretty sure to be seen
with henhouse or a woodshed, or some
thing likewise, loaded on his trucks headed
for Maze Simpsons. Once the whole
lean-to Of the house blew off, but Joe Nc
Bracken stood ready for any emergency.
He met the maverick addition at the foot
of the grade. loaded 1t on his house-mov-
ing truck, hitched on four bronchos,
craw1ed inside the structure, and getting
the lines through the front window. drove
up Main street before the wind had gone
down. Joe was photographed In the act
and afterward used the exhibit In getting
judgment against Maze Sampson for his
bill
Now a man like Maze wouldn't be
likely to have very much Of a run nor
very much OF engine. He had the 264;
an old pop bottle with a stack like a tepee
turned upside down. For a run he had al
ways trains No. % and so, the local freights.
with an accommodation coach east Of An
derson. There were times of stress fire.
quentiy on the west end, times when every
body ran first in first out, except MAZE
Sampson; he always ran 20 and 30 west to
Silver River and back. A pettifogging
cheap, Jerk-water run with no rights to
speak Of, not ever against respectable
hand-cars. The only thing Maze Samp-
son did not have to dodge were tramps,
blanket Indians and telegraph poles; every
thing else sidetracked % and 80 and Maize
Sampson. Almost everybody on through
trains must at some time have seen Maize
Sampson putting on a siding as Moore or
Mullen shot by on Number 1 or Number q
Maze was so big and his cab so little that
when he got his head through the window
you couldn't see very much Of the cab for
shoulders and whiskers and things From
the cab window he looked like a fourteen
year-oid boy sprfnging out Of ten-year-
old Jacket Three things only made MAZE
tolerable. First. the number Of benevolent
orders he belonged to; second Delaroo:
third. Martie.
Maze Sampson was q Joiner and a sitter
up. He would join anything on the west
end that had a ritual, a grip and a pass
word, and he would sit up night after night
with anybody that had broken leg or a
fever. and il nothing better offered. Maize
rather than go to bed, would tackle a man
with the stomach ache. This kind of took
the cuss of; but he was that peculiar he
would sit up all night with a sick man and
next day make everybody sick talking the
money question-at least everybody but
Dsiaroo. II Delaroo was bored he never
showed 1T. As long as Maze would talk
Delaroo would listen. That single word
was IN fact the key to Delaroo: Delaroo
vas a listener; for that reason nobody
knew much about him.
He wasn't a railroad man by birth. but
By adoption Delaroo came from the noun
tafns; he was just a plain mountain man.
6ome said his father was a trapper; IL So.
Il explained everything-the quiet, the
head bent inquiringly forward, the modest
unobtrusiveness of a man deaf. OF size
and shape nothing remarkable. Dearoo-
but a great listener. for though he looked
like deaf man he heard like dispatcher
and saw marvelously from out the ends of
his silent eyes. Delaroo for all the world
was a trapper.
He came into the service as a round
house sweeper; then Neighbor, after a
long time. put him at wiping Delaroo said