The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-24

FL 800 G/sgL
To some people Pegs Christmas
would have been anything but a pleas
ant one and the memory of it would be
nightmare but to Peg it was different.
1t was his Christmas that brought
him more than he had in the world
before-friendship.
It happened in western Kansas in the
early eighties. Two days before Christ
mas the wind blew a gale, the snow
and Sleet was driven before the wind
and the prafries of the short grass
est billiards. that ever brought suffering
to the settlers of the early days.
Peg was far from town before the
blizzard was thought of. The weather
was balmy, as prairie weather can be
just before the storm. The herds of
cattle, so soon to be lying stark and
frozen on the wind swept prairie, We're
grazing peacefully as unmindful of the
fate in store for them: as unmindful
as was Peg for the cruel suffering that
was to be his.
Peg had drifted into the year
before. He was homeless and friend
less and he renainded so. He was
queer fellow. He wanted friends, but
he was odd and as he spoke more Ger
man thanEnglish he did not make friends
| rapidly. He was poor. He did not own
a good saddle, nor a good pinto pony,
nor a broad brimmed hat, nor fine high
heeled boots, not silvered spurs. He was
"
quirements to pass him into short grass
society in the early days so he was
looked upon as rank outsider and
when he followed cattle on borrowed
clay bank crowbait and a second hand
army saddle he was nothing but an
outcast.
Life in western Kansas on the cattle
ranges, was lonesome enough in those
early days with friends, but without
friends
The blizzard grew in intensity. By
o'clock in the afternoon, two days be-
fore Christmas, the snow was drifting
and the wind was cutting like knife.
Peg, on his borrowed pony, made for an
old shack of a house. He reached there
before dark. He did not have food and
the fuel in the house was scarce.
He sat up all night keeping the ire
going. He used all the fuel and when
the day before Christmas came the
blizzard had reached its height, the
thermometer was some 20 degrees be-
| low zero, and Pag had burned all the
| rickety chairs, the table, the loose
boards of the floor. By noon of the
day before Christmas he had used All
the floor for fuel and still he was colo.
There was nothing to do but strike
out for town IL miles away.
His pony had drifted with the wind
along with the cattle driven before
the blizzard and was gone.
Peg houndered around for while
in the snow and did not make much
Roadway. He was cold and then
quietly that soothing numbness that
comes with gradual freezing stole
over him. He sank down and soon he
was warm, so warm and comfortable
He had not felt so good since the
storm started.
When the blizzard had abated some
what a rancher who was working
his way to town saw something stick
ing out of a drift of snow. 1t was a
shoe. Behind that shoe was a foot,
leg and a man.
Peg was found. It was hours be-
fore he was gotten to town and 1t was
wonder he was alive. There was
just a spark of life in him and it was
gradually famed into a fame. Peg
lived but when the doctors got through
with him he was minus the ends OF
his two legs and half OF one a. arm; ~,
didn't know what his German name
was. They didn't care. He had been
an outcast, TO be sure, but he needed
sympathy and he needed it more than
anyone else in the community. He
also needed a pair of peg legs. The
grocer on the corner started the work
by promising the new legs for Peg.
A rancher gave a pony, although it
looked doubtful if Peg could ever use
it except to a buggy. The harness
maker gave a saddle and bride. The
shoemaker promised a pair of boots.
if boots were any use on cork feet.
The hardware man gave the best pair
of spurs he had and threw in a brace
of Colts. The proprietor of the cloth
ing emporium gave the DISSeSC nat ne
had and a suit of clothes.
When Peg came to and opened his
eyes Christmas night all these gifts
were piled in the room in front of his
bed-all but the pony, which couldn't
very well be brought into the room, |
and the cork legs which had to come |
from the east.
But more than the presents to Peg |
were the people there in the room |
looking at him with kindly plying |
g1ances and all wishing him a Merry |
Christmas.
Most men who had lost two legs and |
an arm would not have felt merry. |
Peg felt that he had lost a good deal |
but he had gained more. He pulled |
through and lived to wear the hat, the |
boots, the spurs, the clothing and the |
cork legs and to ride the pony. He is |
living today in western Kansas and is |
well to do. He has had opportunity to |
help all who helped him. and others |
too, and he has never failed to be the |
first to offer assistance and friendship |
where assistance and friendship were |
needed.
Peg says that Christmas was the
greatest day of his life, to what is left |
of him.
POINTED PARAGRAPHS.