The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-16
THE SENSITIVE MAN.
Frequently Leaves a Good Job With.
cut Any Apparent Reason.
0lansas Clty Star)

AAduSaS 1il4 Dldi-l
Did you ever meet one of these SEN
sitiye men who are offended easily and
deeply? Men who fly off the handle,
call them. A cross word from the boss
may strike them in a tender spot. n
lump comes in his throat lie drops his
work, walks straight out the door and
never stops for a hundred miles. There
are lots of this kind Of men. How they
suffer; and 40 one knows. The employer
may wonder why the man did not turn
up for work the next morning. He did
not know he had offended
The observing man had observed some
thing.
An old man. "a fine old fellow, but one
of the y-Off-the-handle kind, came to
my house the other day he continued.
He was carrying his Vallse and had
walked from the Soldiers home in LeaV-
enworth. lie stopped, rested and talked
with me.
I'm a fool I guess he said, and I
have always been one. I just left good
home and without any reason. Just those
darned old cob pipes. Every one of those
old dodgers smoking a cob pipe. War
stories and cob pipes. / smoked one my
self when / went there, but when they
all lit up 1 threw mine away. l stood it
as long as / could. All OF sudden l
took my yalise and walked ont. I've got
q daughter in Salina and there aren't any
cob pipes there
He told many experiences of his life,
and il was one of rare interest. But al
ways al some high tension moment he had
taken French leave of his opportunities
and hiked with a frog in his throat. He
had worked at many trades. once he
was painting house. He was going on
joyfully with his work when he thought
he saw his boss peeping around corner
Dropped the Brush and Quit.
No one has to watch me when
work he said, as he descended from his
perch. laid down his brush and made for
the horizon without ever looking back
He became foreman of a sheep ranch. One
day as he was Saddling up to ride TO an
sitiVe cord with some chance remark. The
injured man rode away and kept riding
until, Wyoming far behind, he came upon
Fort Robinson, Neb. First and last the
little bumb of sensitiveness had driven
that man from pillar TO post over the
world and back again. And he was on
one of his Decline travels when ] first
saw him. He stopped long enough to tell
his fascII. ting story and continue his
straight-ecge migration. What an odd
life TO lead. The man had all the quail
ties that win i'm this world except one.
lie couldn't stand having his feelings
hurt. He had gone up and down the
winding roads of fortune. adventure and
romance, and all the journey ended no
where at last. Seems to me such a char
aCJer Is most interesting. though some
what tragic, Here is how he said he first
flew the track when he was a boy at
home:
1T was spring in New England. The
young man was tOiling on wooded slope
hauling logs with wagon. He was
happy In the VigOr of youth and the eX-
teTnal landscape appealed TO him with all
tue wonderful distinctness OF the season.
He heard the hum of insect life and
brCaLhed the OdOr of the earth and woods.
IL Was eNhiarating.
l.. HF.lt 81 D.. LA
was light he loaded the wagon high
with logs. The horses strained at the
traces and the wagon ChUckcd in way
that told il had all the load il could bear.
Then came trouble. One hub rolled uoOn
the top of a stump and stuck fast. The
driver studied the situation a moment rue
fully, Then he took his ak and attempted
10 chip the wood away from under the
The first blow broke the ak upon the
steel rim Of the hub.
Here was calamity. An ak was an AK
in those days, and the father of a family
say when an ak cashed in.
The boy fastened the log chain 20 the
opposite axle hitched his team to il and
tried TO pull the wagon off the stump that
way. The log chain broke. Then he
hitched the team to the tongue again and
tried TO turn away from the stump. The
wagon tongue broke. Then he unseFewed
the tan that held the Wedged wheel on
the axle. This time pull swung the load
free but the wheel being off, the axle
dipped 10 the ground, and the weight of
the logs crushed the axle 10 pieces. With
the broken chain. the broken AK, the
broken wagon and broken Sl1kit. the
boy drove into the baTnYard. lie took his
horses TO the barn and his father came
out 10 view the Wreckage. The father
picked up the broken log chain. Throwing
il aside. he examined the ak. Then he
looked at the broken wagon.
What the Father Said.
There was a tumult going on in the
boys breast, The next act of his father
meant worlds 10 him.
Why didn't you break your neck,
tOO% asked the father sarcastically.
The cord Of strangling emotion that
had been drawing tighter every moment
in the boy throat was severed. He
brc8Jhed free. 1t was all over. He put
the matters on the horses walked straight
through the other door of the barn.
through the woods, across the wheat and
the next thing he was doing was riding
a wheel horse TO a gun carriage in the
civil war. lie was only II years old
then. He saw four years of war because
his wagon WedgCd ON stump. SO in
significant things like that have ruled
his life as stcrnly as the fates ever since.
All of some mems lives are bound in
shadows ana in miseries but this poor
fellows life story is composed OF a
series OF Decline hikes.