Arizona republican., 1906-05-09
A DRUNKEN WAY
 OF HAVING A JOKE
That is What Lodged Welch in the
 City Jail.

| It pays to be good natured and to l live as much as possible on the jolly | side of life but one ought not to mix | too much liquor with his humor, for it | spells the flavor of both. IL did that very thing yesterday for a big fellow named Welch, who is now sobering up in the city jail and waiting to see whether he will have to face a simple charge of drunkenness or something of a really serious nature.
 Yesterday afternoon MT. Johnson, the coIOred horseman, was driving west on Jackson street, when two men of whom Welch was one. stepped out in the street and stopped him. Welch announced that they were deputy sheriffs and were on the trail of a rObber and demanded that Johnson turn over his sulky and horse to them. AS the animal driven was a valuable colt. the driver very naturally refused.
 He did not recognize the men as any of the local sheriffs, and thought that
 in any event the proceeding was ratn-
 CT unusual. in a town full of livery
 stables. The demand was repeated,
 and likewise the refusal, when the horseman managed to drive away from the hold-ups, unharmed. He was quite confident in doing so, for no weapons were fiourished and only vocal batter
 ies were turned upon him.
 Later in the day Johnson located Welcn, and Officer Moore placed him under arrest. He is a big six-foot Irishman and built in good propOr- | tions, making about as fine appear ing man physically, as one could find in the town. At the city hall he yer flied Johnsons story of the hOld-up, so ! far as relating what actually transpir- a1 l,rrt cafH it iolr had no evil motive behind it. He mad been drinking. and was talking with a friend when Johnson came along, and they thought it would be funny to | hold him up and possibly scare him. Asked what he would nave done had he secured the horse, he said he had only intended to ride up town to a sa- loon and buy a glass of beer. He did not want the horse but just wanted to have some fun with Johnson. He said ne knew he had done wrong, and was sorry for it. He did not know why he had done it, and meant no harm to anybody. He declared that he was i telling the truth, and that Johnson told l the truth, and there was nobody in tended to be nurt. though he could see
 now where he had made a very bad mistake just as he had done before
 many times in his life That's the
 truth he said, 'I said it, and I admit
 1t even if you hang me for it, though I
 really don't know why I said it; I just
 said it. that's all"
 Asked who the other spurious ban
 dit was, Welch said it was a former
 sheriff or deputy sheriff, but he was
 probably mistaken about that, for had
 it been anyone known around here,
 Johnson would have recognized him.
 It was probably another man who was
 more drunk than Welch and so badly
 juiced up that he kept off the street
 after the incident, thus avoiding ar
 rest.
 Earlier in the day WeIch, who seems
 to be man of more than ordinary
 good nature, attracted crowds around
 him on Washington street, by yolun-
 tary lectures on the philosophy of life. Wherever he could see two or three
 men gathered together, ne would ap-
 proach and advise them that most
 people made themselves miserable in
 this world by taking themselves and everything else too seriously, pointing
 out himself as a rare example of the
 happy lucky sort that get the
 most out of life. He said he was horn
 m Ireland forty-four years ago, and