Arizona republican., 1905-05-07

1 bodies. When I got to the end of the
 route and drove my team round and hitched up at t'other end, I had to take
 out the old Slawson fare-box and set
 1t up in front, for they didn't have no | conductors in early days. I s'pose I
 kind of hated to carry such a load of
 money, bein more or less of shirk, and I got into the way of turning her
 upside down and shakin' out a few nickels every time. They come out easy, I'll say that for 'em, and it want no trick at all to clean up a dollar or
 so every day. and twice as much on Sundays.
 Well, so long as all the boys was a'doin' the some thing, the loss want noticed, but somehow or other the company got a few honest men on the line. and they turned in so much more money than we did every night that the old man smelIed a mouse. He put
 in the new Willis patent fare-box that
 was durned hard to beat. It had a little three -cornered valve, and nothin' that went in would come out, either | by turnin' the box upside down, or by
 usiil' the wire pokers we experimented
 with. They want nothin' for it but to git keys, and so keys We got It look ed a heap more like stealth than it
 
 | I salted down my money in the Hi-
 hernian bank, and I called it my sink
 in fund. which it was for sure. sink in my soul down deeper and deeper in | to the bottomless pit. I'm a-goin' to
 make a clean breast of it, howsom- ever. and l own up I was about as bad as the rest of 'em, and four times as sharp at the game.
 1 After a while the system was inn proved, and the company got new roll | in stock with two-horse cars. l was conductor then, and I ran on No. 27 till I was off the road. The. Gardner punch was my first experience in knockin down fares right in the face and eyes of everybody. and l had fig l Gered a way to hold out" long be- l fore I had the nerve to try it. But Lord! it was as easy as fa!lin' off log
 when you knew how.
 Next they sprung the regular bell punch on us, the kind you punch in the presence of the passenjaire." We had no trouble with that. They was dummy palm-bell manufactured all most simultaneous, and we'd ring up fares without punchin' at all. The breastplate registers was worked sim liar. with a bell inside your vest con- nected with a button. It was as easy as pie providin' nobody watched the numbers on the indicator while you was ringin' up.
 I left the road before they adopted the stationary registers or clock ma chimes. I admit they're ingenious. but still I ain't got no doubt that given good big crowd and no spotters. I could manage to make my expenses with the rest of the boys.
 T211t I wont ronnd ROhfn Hoods barn to spin out the story. The result was that after about fifteen yeears of patient, unremittin' industry. I had somethin' like 900 in the bank. and what was left of my New England conscience shootin' through me like rheumatism. It didn't bother me so much at first but when once Brewster blood begins to boil it don't slow up in a hurry.
 I tried to settle down and get into some quiet business, where I wouldn't have no more trickery to do than may be put a little terra alba in the sugar and peanuts in the coffee But after lookin' round I hankered after maxim money easier. and so I bought minin' stocks and hung on. assessment after assessment. like grim Death, till, by Jimminy! one day I'll be durned if I didn't calculate l had $S0.000 to the good, if I sold. I pulled out the day before the slump.
 Now, all this time. bein' of a South Shore family of seafaring men mostly. had a hankerin' after the water. So. when the first lots was cut up out to the Beach. I bought a parcel of land on the shore. I used to go out there all the time to sit on my own sand. and recollect how it used to feel to get a good dry heat on my bare legs when I was a boy down to Duxbury. If they had only been clans there. I'd have been as happy as pollywog in a hogs head of rain water.
 One day I was walkin' out there. and as I passed the companys stables see a sign out, Cars for Sale. Cheap" and I went in to see 'em. l speered round the yard till what did I see but old 27. my car. settin there without wheels. lookin as shabby as Jobs cati l asked the foreman how much they wanted for it, and I got it for ten dol lars. I hired a dray and moved the thing out to the beach that very after noon. I set it up on two sills on my lot calculatin I could use it for cabin to hang out in, over Sunday, and it was as steady as Plymouth Rock. and made as cute a little room as you'd want 10 see INerE tune went l tinkered round and fixed her up more. till had a good bunk at one end. lock CTS under the seats and a trim little eel lar beneath. where I kept canned stuff.
 'Twan't long before I regularly moved there and stayed for good. Just from force of habit, I expect, at first, l rang two bells every time I got on, and one bell before I got off. and I always kept it up, just as if the old car was really on the rails. I never went in and sat down but I felt as if No. 27 was poundin, along toward Wood wards Gardens with the hosses on a jog trot. Sometimes when the rain was drivin' down and the wind blowin' like all possessed, and it was pitch dark outside, with the surf roIlin,' I'd set down my pipe and go out on the plat form and set my brake up just as tight as l could. I don't know why, but it kind of give me a sense of security.
 But it want long before No. 27 be- craT n fn Rf I (