The border vidette. (Nogales, Ariz.) 1894-1934, 1903-04-04
THE CHUCk-A-WALLA.
How 1t Exterminated Bugs and Saved
SheehyS Life.

Special Correspondence to THE vIDErrE.
The old saying. "cast bread upol
the waters and it will come back" wa
never better exemplifed than in th
recent experience of Jerry Sheehy. tn
popular young San Rafael cattleman
Along towards the latter part o
January, while wandering about hi
domain, viewing the havoc wroush
by recent snow storm, Jerry found {
poor little, measly Chuck a-W ALA
Being naturally tendcrhearted, Jerry
took the half frozen animal home
placed it near the fire and soon haC
the satisfaction of seeing signs of re-
turning life. Finally with the
warmth of the fire and food administ-
cred by Jerry, the animal fully revived
and instead of being frightened at his
new surroundings as this kind usually
are, he seemed to be very we'll pie ,sed
and would allow his benefactor to pick
him up and stroke him without the
least alarm. Jerry could not but
notice how gentle the animal was and
soon conceived the notion of trainin 9
and making a pet of him. Having
nothing much to do but think over his
past sins, Jerry quickly acted on the
thought and by dint of much patience
and perseverance in due time had the
animal so he would perform all sorts
of amusing tricks. Not only was he
useful in helping to pass away many
an otherwise tedious hour, but he soon
proved to be deadly enemy to any
flies, bugs, ants, or other small insects
that ventured within reach of his
voracious jaws. A few days ago, at
an auction sale over at Fort Huachuca,
a large double bed wos one of the
articles to be disposed of. Jerry prob
ably looking forward to no far-dls
tant day when it would come in handy,
promptly bought it, bore it home,
spread out his little role of padding on
it, and soon had a bed fit for king.
The first night he slept on it, he did
not rest as we'll as he had anticipated,
a nd on arising in the morning noticed
that his body was completely covered
with large sized welts. Jerry was very
much puzzled; he felt his pulse,
looked at his tongue, consulted all the
almanacs he had in the house, and
finally diagnosed the case rs smallpox.
"Well, just as we'll now as any time"
thought he, resignedly, and began
preparations for long seige
of illness, of course making his will in
view of fatal termination of the
Toward evening the only
alarming symptom of the dread disease
was an intense itching. Jerry was
sorely perplexed at this new phase of
the case, for according to the best of
his knowledge the irritation never
until the disease had Just
about run its course. just then
bright id, a struck him. "Aha, l
nave it now" he thought to himself;
this blamed grippe [ had for the past
week, is nothing but the smallpox,
md now L am just getting over it.
Well I'll have t. be careful how
scratch these Jumps as they say they
ire liable to leave pits in fellows
ace, and I'll be darned if can afford
20 lose any cf my good looks, especially
It this stage of the game"
That night Jerry went to bed feel
ng pretty we'll III both mind and body
md soon fell into a sound sleep |
However he had not been long asleep
when he was awakened by a sensation !
IS if ten thousand needles were prick
ng him. "Jumping Christofer Colum-
'us!" exclaimed Jerry, I alwys heard
hat smallpox was holy terror, but
never knew it acted like this" Just
hen feeling a movement as if some
hing were crawling over him he lit a
match, threw back the covers, and 10
nd behold, there were fifty-seven
housand, (at least Jerry estimated
hem at that number) of the largest,
ungriest, blood-thirstest bed-bugs a
IAN ever saw, scampering in all
irections.
What little sleep Jerry got the rest
the night was on the reverse side