The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-09
New York SUM-

goin' to find it handy for to have a
weepin within reach.
L don't have no great use FIR a
bungstarter in the way O. business, so
10 speak, bein' as my trade is mostly in
hard liquor, an what beer l sells
Keeps in bottles. 1 wouldn't feel like
the place was fitted up proper, though
Ell want fr havin' a bungstarter nigh
to hand"
'NOow 1 shouldn't reckon a gunb-
starter was no excellent weepin," OBJ
served Mr.. Owen Pepper 'I don't see
no advantage in a bungstarter,
ruther'n a good gum
There's a heap more things t you
don't see, said old man Greenhut, with
considerable asperity, nor them that
you do see. 1 don't p'tend to say as a
CUR amt good thing. If a man needs
a gun. an he's got gun, an he knows
now to use gun, a gun is what he
I wants, but even then it's more Of a
gun than it is a bungstarter, an a
bungstarter amt. An that's it.
Don't make so much difference what
a man has FIR a weepin, if he on'y
knows how TO use it.
Jim Whelpley wouldn't never use
nothin' but stick, but say, f you cd
"a saw the pains he took maxim one
o them sticks an tryin' it fore he'd
place dependence onto 1t you'd "a real
lied t mOre'n likely that these sticks
was some dependable.
He useter make 'em o. hickory
wood. an he had hickory logs IN stock
t he'd KEEP five or ten years seasonin'
He wouldn't use nothin' but the heart
O. the log, an he'd shave that down all
| 'twan't no bigger'n your little finger
just next to the handle, an FIN that it
tapered down to a pint like a needle
at t'Other end
The handle was some bigger, an all
carved pretty, SOS he cd hold 1t firm
| 'thouten it's slippin', but the rest of it
was as mooth as glass an as straight
as streak O. light. An he arrays had
a sort o. cap over the p'inted end, fitted
SOS it wouldn't slip off, but he cd snap
it off like crackin' a whip.
He'd work over one O. them sticks
off an on, FIR maybe a month, an then
he'd test it. If 'twa'n't stiff enough
| he'd throw il away.
"An' if twas too stiff, SOS t he
couldn't bend the pint an touch the
handle, want no good. He allays
had one on EN- on his hand, an he KEEP
| some on 'em at home, case of acct
dents"
We'll, what cd a man do with a
thing like that?" asked Owen Pepper,
sneeringly. Might be some good f'r a
rfdin' whip or to chase little boys outen
| the way, but we was talkin' of Wee
| pins"
Jim Whelpley had BEN to school in
| New Orleans" continued old man
| Greenhut. ignoring the interruption,
an when he come home in Greenville
he were called the best dedicated man
in Mississippi. II cd box with his feet.
| He cd hit The builseye nine times outen
ten, long range, with a rifle or a der
ringer.
| He cd throw a bowie knife an stick
| it in the center of a silver dollar at
/ twenty steps, an he'd learned fencin'
FIN a French p'fessor. till there
couldn't none o. them Creole bloods
down to New Orleans touch him with
! a raypeer-
THAT was what give him the idea of
a hickory stick Pears he looked on
/ fenCin' as the most artistic way o.
| f1ghtin', an he'd come to think shootin'
was foolish, an boxin' was coarse and
vulgar, an knife play was a mistake,
seem you have to throw knife
'thouten your men is night hand, an
when you've throwed 1t you amt got
no knife.
"Touchin' the use O hickory sticks in
| place of a raypeer, Jim Whelpley, use
ter say't wood was better'n steel if you
| had the right kind o. wood, bein' as
t'wa'n't so liable to snap, an more'n
that, a walkin' stick want liable fer
| to be took FIR a weepin, not till you
come to use it.
But when Jim Whe1pley come to use
one O them p'coolar walkin' sticks O.
hisn. well, say, he used it, an he sure
did justify what the good book says as
how 1t don't make much difference what
mans weepin is p'viding he's skilful.
They was a poker game on in the
Of orfa RS col
was tendin' bar, an Jim Whelpley set
| in. Joe Carter, t was Bits brother,
had come to Greenville with a pal o.
hisn firm Arkansas t knowed the game
some, an Doctor Patterson an Squire
Haskins lowed they'd take a few les
sons, an a few chips f they ed get
'em.
They wanted a fifth hand an Jim
Whelpley come ridin' up FIR a drink he
mostly did just once every night afore
goin' home to bed. He had his hick'ry
walkin' stick in his hand, same's he al
avs had, when he come in. I says to
him, Oncet:
'Whelpley,' says, you don't never
leave that stick home, do you?
AN he kind O. smiles, an he says,
Well, no, don't. You don't never see
a dog leavin' his teeth home, do you,
when he goes up the road? The dog
uDil kHOW just Wien lie IIlOuBnI nave
need of a few teeth
well, they asst Jim Whiipley, an he
said he didn't mind, so he set In with
that little walkin' stick standin' tween
his legs. 'Twan't usual, O. course, but
| them that knowed him knowed what it
meant, an them t didn't know him,
bein' Joe Carter an his pal, didn't
think nothin' of it.
They was playin' a tol'able stiff
game, nobody havin' said nothin' about
a limit, an the home talent bein' toP
able well to do citizens. If Carter an
his pal d been some slicker n they
was, moren likely they "a did Green
vile out O. consid able money that
night, but they hadn't no idee, natur-
al enough, o. the superior dedication
Jim Whelpley d had down to New Or
leans.
"Bein' as he want a p'fessional he
didn't never do no stunts with cards
hisself, but he cd "a did 'em, all right,
| f he'd saw At, an he knowed when they
was did, all right. They couldn't no
p'fessional give him no p'ints.
Them two pikers was consid' able
clumsy. Likely they'd practiced on yaps
an got more confidence n was good for
.