Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1906-07-07

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"Just an able jawed
liar" suggested Callahan through be-
nevolent blush haze.
"Delaroo's story wasn't any lie,
though" muttered Neighbor. "But a
fellow would think 1t was to hear it.
Now, he would, for a fact, wouldn't
he2"
If you want him, quick and short, it
would be-whiskers secret societies,
statistics and plug tobacco, the latter
mostly worked up. That was Maize
Sampson.
Bluntly, a wind bag; 27O pounds of
atmosphere, up on benevolent frater-
mites, up on politics, up on the money
question, up on everything. The seven
financial conspiracies engaged Maize
SIMPSONS attention pretty continual
~ and had for him a practical appli-
cation. There were never less than
seven conspiracies afoot in Medicine
Bend to make Maize Sampson pay up.
Pay? Indeed, he did pay. He was
always paying. 1t was not question
of paying; not at ALL It was a ques
ton of paying up, which is different.
The children-they were brickbats,
tow headed, putty faced, wash eyed
youngsters of all sizes and conditions.
About Maize Simpsons children there
was but one distinguishing character
istic-they were all boys, nothing but
boys, and they spread all over town.
Was there a baby run over? 1t was
MAZE SIMPSONS. Was there a child
lost? Maize Simpsons. Was there a
violently large headed, coarse featured,
hangdog, gathering sort of a chap any
where around-in the street, station,
roundhouse, yards, stock pens? 1t was
q brickbat, sure-one of Maze Samp-
sons brickbat boys.
The Simpsons were at the end Of the
street and the end of the street was
up the mountain. Maize SIMPSONS lot
''raired," as Neighbor put it-stood on
its hind legs His house had a startling
tumble over aspect as you approached
it. The back end Of his lot ran up into
the sheer, but he marked the line sharp
ly by a kind Of horizontal fence, be-
cause the cliff just above belonged to
the corporation that owned everything
else on earth around Medicine Bend.
MAZE Sampson did not propose to let
any grasping corporation encroach on
his lines, so he built, and added to from
time to time, a cluster Of things on the
hind end of his lot-an eruption Of
small buildings like pimples on boys
nose, running down in size from the
barn to the last drygoods box the boys
had heaved up the slope for doghouse.
To add to the variety some one Of the
structures was always getting away in
the wind, and If anything smaller than
a hotel was seen careening across lots
in a Medicine Bend breeze it was spot
ted without further Investigation as
Maze SIMPSONS. When the gale abated
Joe McBracken, who conducted the 10
cal dray line, was pretty sure to be
seen with a henhouse Or a wood shed,
or something likewise, loaded on his
trucks headed for Maize SIMPSONS.
Once the whole lean-to of the house blew
off, but Joe McBracken stood ready
for any emergency. He met the nav
erick addition at the foot Of the grade,
loaded it on his house moving truck
hitched on four bronchos, crawled in
side the structure and, getting the lines
through the front window, drove up
Main street before the wind had gone
down. Joe was photographed in the
act, and afterward used the exhibit in
getting judgment against Maze Samp-
son for his bill.
Now, a man like Maize wouldn't be
likely to have very much Of run nor
very much Of an engine He had the
264, an old pop bottle, with stack like
a tepee turned upside down. For run
he had always trains Nos. % and 30,
the local freights, with an accommoda-
ton coach east Of Anderson. There
were times Of stress frequently on the
West End, times when everybody ran
first in first out, except Maize Sampson.
He always ran Nos 20 and 80 west to
Silver River and back. pettifogging,
cheap, jerk water run with no rights to
speak of, not even against respectable
handcars.
The only things Maize Sampson did
not have to dodge were tramps, blanket
Indians and telegraph poles; everything
else side tracked Nos. 20 and 80 and Maize
Sampson. Almost every body on through
trains must at some time have seen
MAZE Sampson putting on siding as
Moore or Mullen shot by on No. Or
No. 2. Maze was so big and his cab
90 little that when he got his head
through the window you couldn't see
very much Of the cab for shoulders and
whiskers and things. From the car
window be looked like fourteen-year-
old boy springing out Of ten-year-old
Jacket. Three things only made MAZE
tolerable. First, the number Of benevo-
lent orders he belonged to; second, De-
iaroo; third. Martie.
Mate Sampson was joiner and a
sitter up. He would join anything on
the West End that had ritual, grip
and a password, and he would sit up
MIGHT after nipht With av,rh<S5u %y,ox