Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1906-07-13
Copyright. 1900, by S. S.
Mcclure Co.

Maze turned to the master mechanic |
from where Delaroo lay. "Neighbor
you might as well know It now as airy
time. Don't you say so, Martie? Mar
tie, what do you say?" MaEtie burst
into tears, but through them Neighbor
caught the engineers broken confes-
sion. "Neighbor, I'm color blind" The
master mechanic sat stunned
True as Gods word You might as
we'll know II now There's the man
that stood between me and the loss of
my job. It's been coming on me for
two years. lie knew ii. That's why he
stayed In my cab. He stayed because
was color blind. He knowed I'd git
ketched the minute new fireman come
in. Neighbor. He watched the signals,
Delaroo. I'm color blind, God help
me"
Maze Sampson sat down by the cot
fin. Martie hushed her crying. The
three sat In the darkness.
ut wouldn't worry me so much II II
wasn't fr the family, Neighbor. The
woman-and the boys. / amt much
a-savln'; you know that. If you can
gi' me n job l can get bread an butter
out Of. give II to me. can't pull
train. My eyes ent out with this man
here. l wish to God 1t was me, and him
standing over. A man that's color
blind and don't know thing on Gods
earth but runnin an engine Is worse
n dead man."
Neighbor went nome thinking.
u,ho,. burtoI naior0o nrf avnu thor,
they were not through with him. Della
roo had insurance in every order in
the Bend, which meant almost every
one on earth. There was no end to his
benefit certificates and no known bene-
ficiaries. But when they overhauled his
trunk they found every last certificate
filed away up to the last paid assess
ment and the last quarters dues. Then
came a shock. People found out there
was beneficiary. While the fratcrs
I. we'd busy shaking their passes Dciaroo
had quietly been directing the right
honorable recording secretaries to make
the benefits run to Neighbor, and so
every dollar of his insurance ran. No
body was more thunderstruck ut the
discovery than the master mechanic
himself.
Yet Delaroo meant something by II.
After Nelghbor had studied over 1t
nights the best of month; after MAZE
| Sampson had tried to take the color
test and failed, as he persistently said
he would; after he had gone TO tinker
ing in the roundhouse, and from tinker
ing respectfully, and by degrees down
the hill to wiping at S1.40 day, with
time and n half for overtime, Neighbor
bethought himself all Of n sudden one
day of paper Delaroo had once given
him and asked him to keep.
He had put II away in the storekcep-
er's safe with his own papers and the
drawings of his extension front enc
patent-and safely forgotten all about
II. II was the day they had TO go into
the county court about the will that
was not, when he recollected Delaroo's
paper and pulled it out of It's envelope
There was only half sheet of paper
inside. with this writing from Delaroo
to Neighbor:
II. u. A.-What Is coming to me on in
surance give to Marty Sampson, wife OF
| Rispk., p. DELAROUX
When the master mechanic read thai
before the probate judge, Maize Samp'
son took a-trembling; Martie hid her
face in her shawl, crying again. May
be n gimmer of what 1t meant came
for the first time in her life over her
Maybe she remembered Delaroo as he
used to sit with them under the kero
sene lamp while MAZE untiringly
pounded the money question into him
smoking as he listened. and MartiC
mended oil never ending trousers
looking from Maize Sampson, heated
with monologue. to his wife, patiently
stltching-no comments, just looking
as Pierre Delaroux could look.
Strange. Nelghbor thought II, and yet
maybe, not so strange. 1t was all there
in the paper-the torn, worn little boob
OF Delaroo's life. She was the only
woman on earth that had ever done
him kindness.
Nobody at Medicine Bend quite un
derstood 1t, but nobody at Medicine
Bend quite suspected that under all the
barrenncss up ut Maze SIMPSONS al
ambition could have survived; yet ont
had. Martie had an ambition. Way
down under her faded eyes and hel
faded dress there was an ambition, anC
that for the least promising subjects II
the Rocky mountains - the brickbats
Under the amending mending and th'
poverty and the toll Martie, who never
put her nose out of doors, who never
attended church social. never ven
tured even to free public school show
had an ambition for the boys. Sh'
wanted the two biggest to go to thu