The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-28

. like man; it has something that be-
longs to it that don't belong to no other
ranch. same as I have Just the same
number Of eyes and noses and so forth
that you. drew on your ticket. yet you
air't me no more'n~ I'm you. This was
a kind of sOber-minded- concern; 1t was
a thoughtful sort of a ranch, where
everybody went about his work quiet.
/ guess ii was largely because the boys
was mostly old-timers, given to argu-
Ing about WAY was this and how come
that. ArgueF Caesar! 1t was regu-
lar debating society.
''Wind-RtVer Smith picked up a book
in the old mans room that told about
the Injuns bein' civilized way back be-
fore the big high water, and how one
gang Of ,em took to the prairie and the
other gang to the bad whisky business.
Well. he and ChaWley Tawnson-'mem-
Der Chawley and his toothe And you'd
have time 70 tail-down and burn a steer
before Chawley got the next word out
We'll, they got arguin' about whether it
weren't so. Smithy was for the book,
avn reed it, and Chawley scorned it.
The argument LASTED a month, and as
neither one Of 'em knew anything
about an Injun, except what YOU can
gather from looking him over the rife
sight, you can imagine what a contri-
button to history listened to. Thet's
the kind Of place the Ellis ranch was,
and nice old farm she was, too.
I'd been working there about three
months. when along come a man that
looked like old man Troubles only son.
OF all the Sorrowful faces you ever see.
his was the longest and thinnest It
made any other human countenance I
ever seen look like a niger minstrel
show. -.--
we were short-handed, as the old
man had begun to put up hay and work
some OF the stock in corrals for the
winter, so we took our new brother on.
ttls name was Ezekiel George Wash
ing ggS-tuneful number for COW
outht!-and his name didn't come any
where near doing him justice at that.
Ezekiel knew his biz and turned in
days work right straight along, but
when you'd sayz.Nice day, Scraggs?'
ned heave such sigh you could feel
the draught all the way acrost the bull
pen and only shake his head.
Up to this time Wind-River had en-
Joysd cinch on the mournful act. He'd
had girl some time durin' the Mex
lean war, and she'd borrowed Smiths
roll and skipped with another man. SD
If we crowded Smitny TOO hard in de-
bate, ne used to slip behind that girl
and say Oh. Well! You fellers will
knew better when you've had more
experiences, although we might have
been talkin' about what's best for FROST
bite at the time.
He noticed this new man Scraggs
seemed to hold over him a trifie in sad
ness, and he thought he'd find out why.
You appear to me like man that's
seen trouble says he.
Frouole!' says Scraggs- Trouble!
Then he spit out OF the door and turned
MS back deliberately. IiSA there wasn't
any use conVersin' on the subject, IN
less IN the presence of an equal.
Scraggs was a hard man 10 break
INTO but Snithy scratched his head and
took a brace.
I've met With misfortune myself
says he ->1-
"'Ah?' says scraggs. what's hap
pened TO youY He sounded as if he
didn't believe II amounted to much, and
Snithy warmed up. He ladled out his
woes ike a catalogue. How he'd been
blew up in mines; squizzIed down
mountain on a snowslide; chaWed by a
Dear; caught under a felIed- tree: sunk
on a Missouri river steamboat, and her
anre, SO you couldn't tell whether to
hoiier for the life savers or the fire en-
gine; shot up by Injuns and personal
Irlep0s; H1Stook for a horse thief by
the committee, and much else, closing
the list with his right bower And
Ar' Scraggs, have put my faith in
woman and she has done me to the tune
Of all I had
Have your says Scraggs, still per
Iectly polite and uninterested. Have
you removin' his pipe and splitting
carefully outdoors again. And then he
slid the joker atop of Smithy's play.
Well. have been7a Mormon saws he.
'What2 says all OF US
!" Yes. SIRE says Mr.. Scraggs, getting
his feet under him ana with a mourn
fui pride can't give you the least idea
OF. A Mormon; none Of your tinkerin'
httle Mormonettes. was ambitious;
hence E 6. w. Scraggs as YOU now,
behold him. In most countries a mans
-standin' is regulated by the number of
wives he amt got; in Utah it's just the
reverse-and a fair test, too, when you
come to thing Of it. wanted to be the