Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1904-01-13
BLUE EYED JOE b3aESTON
Lorlginal.1

| who's that slender blue eyed ten
derfoot looking fellow over there?" in
CURED a passenger of the stage driver
during change of horses, pointing TO a
man standing in the door of the express
| Office
| THAT? That's Joe Eggleston He
| amt so meek as he looks. Jist We get
up alongside of me on the box for the
next relay, and I'll tell you somethin'
| about him.
In few minutes the driver got the
reins in between his fingers, the man
holding the leaders let go and they
flung away down the road
.'Waal, as to Joe Eggleston," said the
driver when the pace had settled down.
u always thought Joe quiet, inoffen-
siye chap with no great spunk till his
affair with Jennie Robbins. Jennie's
| people were poor enough to eat gopher
meat and as Jennie was as purity as a
| pictur and had all the men in the
neighborhood in love with her they
wanted her to make q good match.
Jennie was only fourteen at the time
they set their hearts ON her marryin'
Phil Steere, a big cattleman, but she
| had all the monkey shines of a woman
of twenty. She wasn't havin' much of
a time when Steere asked for her, so
she didn't object thinkin' that with his
money she might make things hum.
He was forty, crossgrained and mean
| as sawdust,
"She hadn't much moren said yes
when along comes Joe Eggleston nine
teen years old and as fair lookin' for a
man as Jennie was for a gal. The
men didn't think much of him. He
seemed timid sort of a Teller and
| most of the time didn't even carry
| gun. He was a clerk in the express
office, and man that dabbles in ink
isn't ginerally much good for blood
But the wimmen all seemed to cotton
to him. He had a way of lookin' at 'em
out of them blue eyes of his'n. At any
rate him and Jennie jist went together
like two magnets. Joe knowed that
she was laid out for Steere, but that
didn't keep him from bein' about with
her hull lot.
zone day Joe SEE to her, seq he,
Jennie, there's goin' to be a weddin'
down at the City hotel in Park City,
Park City was a relay station for the
stage line, and, as to parks, they was
on the maps of the town that was to
be. What dye say SEE Joe, to us
goin'? After the pair git hitched there's
TO be a dance
"1'll go with We, Joe,' she SEE, but If
Mr.. Steere finds it out he'll put holes
enough in yer body to make a culender
of ye. Have ye got gun?
"'There's plenty of guns in the office
SEE Joe. I'll take a couple along in
case Mr.. Steere gifts on to u.s.
'They lit out after dark, but, as bad
luck would have it, one of Steere's cow
boys saw 'em and went off to tell the
big cattleman that his little bird had
flown, Steere was kind of paralyZed at
fust, but the more he thought about a
measly clerk takin' his gal away from
him the madden he got. He mounted
the fastest horse he could find and dug
out in the direction Joe and Jennie had
started. He followed 'em all right
enough till he came to where the road
forked then he took the wrong fork.
This is why they got to Park City long
before him. If they was goin' to git
| married. they'd "a had time enough
for q dozen hitchin's before he come
up, but Joe hadn't no money to support
wife. They was jist follerin' the in
stincts of two children of nature. 1t
beats anything the way SIGH will run
their heads into a moose jist for little
fun!
"Waal, the weddin' was over, and the
guests was all a-slingin' lively leg in
the dinin' room, the tables bein' piled
up agin the wall. A fiddler stood on a
bar'l scrapin' away and calm Ladies
changer 'Alaman leftr and all that.
Joe was a-slingin' Jennie in turn cor
ners' when all of a student Steere rode
up to the open door and begun to pump
lead into the room. The change that
come over that dance was remarkable.
There was screamin' of wimmen and
a swearin' of men, though none of the
men raised a gun, for they never sup
posed Steere would be shootin' that
away onless he was backed by dozen
or more of his cowboys back in the
dark holdin the drop on the crowd.
''Then was when Joe showed up.
Catchin' sight of Steere outside and
KNOWN we'll what was up, he drawed
with his left hand, for Steere had
winged his right, and begun shootin,
movin' for'ard at the same time. Jen-
uie she got out his other weapon, and
as soon as he had emptied the first
handed it to him, and he kept on pump
| in.
| zone of Joe's shots knocked the big
| eattleman off'n his horse. Then one of
| the men said to Joe, 'Ye little fool, git
| out of this while We have chance.
Some on 'em hurtled Joe and Jennie
out back door, and they made tracks
! for home, leavin' Steere to be carried
| upstairs to a room, where he lay for
q month not KNOWN whether he was