The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-07

The Cub came to the paper
in Topeka direct from a smaller
town and a smaller paper. The town
he came from and the paper he left
were both good, in fact about the best
in the state, next to the Topeka COM
bination.
The Cub was timid. so timid that the
first time he was sent to secure the
news concerning the death of a prom
inent man he walked past the house,
back and forth, dozen times before
he had the nerve to go up the front
steps and disturb the solemn looking fes-
toon of Grape by hunting for the han
die to the door bell. Several times he
had worked up courage enough to make
the ascent of those steps but his nerve
Ial1ed him at the bottom step. Finally
ne made run for it. To him it was
IKE running the gauntlet but when
WITHIN ten feet of the steps he started
on on trot and was at the top Of
the steps and had rung the bell almost
before he knew it. He would have re-
treated then but he knew that who
ever came to the door would see him
making ms escape.
70 his great surprise the friend of
the family who met him was most
gracious and took him right in to see
the subject of the article and furnished
him with a typewritten biograph and
after all
It was long after that when he came
to Topeka The editor he worked for
knew that the making of the Gun
would be to send him to a larger town.
He recommended him for vacancy in
Iopeka- The recommendation was
sutIlclent without the future employer
even having a look at the Cub.
The Cub arrived at the Topeka news
paper office early one morning. He was
so shy that he hardly had the nerve to
ask the city editor what he should do.
He was sent down to the shops to gath
er railroad news. He left the Office at
o'clock. The first man he spoke to in
the shop district was one of those large,
pompous engineers with a big, gruff
voice. This said engineer is a kind
enough fellow when you know him
and he knows you. but when approach
ed by strangers he likes to rumble that
big voice of his and look at the new
conner with disdain.
That's just what the engineer did to
the Cub. The Cub took the 1890 o'clock
train back to the town where he began
his newspaper work. He didn't even
go back to the Topeka office. That big
voiced, pompous engineer scared him
away from town, Wasn't much to
scare a fellow, was it?
Some time after that, a year or two,
the Cub came back to Topeka to try
It again. This time he stuck. He had
been working a year or SO and had
gotten some of the scare worn off when
one Sunday he heard that the sheriff
was after some escaped convicts from
the federal penitentiary, at Leaven-
worth. The Cub lost no time in get
ting a buggy and he was ten minutes
behind the sheriff on the run to Pau
line. The convicts were there and the
sheriff was, too, and so was the Cub.
Then things happened The convicts
captured the sheriff and took his re-
volver away from him and held him in
farm house as hostage. A patrol
sacrf1V fa1d of
sheriffs were sent out from Topeka. to
rescue the sheriff The brave police
men and deputy sheriffs got behind
trees, fences and barns and fired their
revolvers whenever a twig snapped
There was an open space between the
officers and the house. The convicts
started to make their escape, knowing
that the police were scared.
Out across the open started the con-
victs with the sheriff between them.
The police and deputies crouched lower
behind the barns and trees The Cub
was Disguised. He was afraid of gruff
voiced engineers and Grape on front
doors but he wasn't any more scared
of those convicts than if they had been
armed with pea shooters instead of
rifles and revolvers.
Come on, you fellows" shouted the
Cub and out across the open he start
ed. All he had to defend himself with
was his pencil. The officers sulked
but they knew what that pencil would
DO IN the way OF DldhlIlS d SLOIy VI
their actions for the next days paper
and they were forced to make bluff.
Come on" shouted the Cub and he
kept on running right for the convicts.
The officers fired few shots, did
heap of yelling and kept far enough
away from the convicts to let them
escape without trouble.
The Cub stood in that open space
between the line of blue coats and the
convicts and looked first at the enemy
and then at the officers. Then he took
out his note paper and jotted down a
few thoughts that occurred to him. He
was disguised. He was the only one
who got within 100 yards OF those con-
victs, except the sheriff who couldn't
get away.
The officers were afraid to follow the
convicts after they freed the sheriff
1t was dark and the officers had no
searchlights The Cub hunted around
alone for them for while and then
came back to town and wrote his
story for the next days paper
He told how the sheriff's son shout
ed ais that YOU PAP" at the captured
sheriff. The officers remember that
story and they remember that the Cub
didn't say a word about himself TAX
ing any conspicuous part in the festiv-
tiles and he didn't half tell how much
afraid the officers We're
He was lenient with them for he re-
membered how he was scared by that
or11ff voiced engineer and how he re-
treated clear from the limits OF the
town.
Texas now and If q genuine Texas
shooting scrape takes place he'll feel
perfectly at home.
REFLECTIONS OF A BACHELOR.
rTTrorn the New York Press