The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23
THIs is the story of Runty Smithers,
 as told to me by various and sundry
citizens of Paradise, Ariz:

lHHIS is the story of Runty Smithers, as told to me by various and sundry A citizens of Paradise Ariz.:
 Archibald Anstruther smithers was born of rich and respectable parents in the city of Richmond, Ind. His education was that of the young men of the middle states. He was taught to have faith, re- spect his conscience and be honest. He knew there were people In the world with little regard for law and order, for he had read books and newspapers, but they figured as things remote, like Pom peH and the fixed stars. His upraising was on strictly conventional lines; his scheme of existence was bounded by the limited experience obtained among a re- fined and intellectual acquantanceship. A delicate constitution compelled him to forego the rougher sports of youth, so he devoted his time mainly to the pur- suit of knowledge-book knowledge, which is learning. Of world knowledge he was ignorant. A slight impeachment in his speech, the disadvantage of which he was prone to magnify, made him shy in the presence of strangers. A well-marked idiosyncrasy In his character was his fear of bodily injury. It was more than tim idity; 1t was abject physical cowardice AS moral courage and sense of duty were among his most prominent traits, his ut-
  tuated. Developing tubercular tendencies during his last year at college, this studious, quiet, timid young man was given a letter of credit and much advice by his busy father. a chamois skin un- dervest and a cloudburst of tears by his loving mother and departed for Arizona to seek robust health his physician pre- dicted an outdoor life in that latitude would confer.
 When Archibald Anstruther reached Paradise his general appearance must have failed, in many respects to coin eide with the atmosphere of that hustling community. Big Bill Jernigan informed me, frankly but confldentially that "he certainly looked like the devil" As sub sequent questioning developed the fact that MT. Jernigan had not seen His Sa- tanic majesty as yet, I have always as- sumed his language to have been flgura- tive on that occasion. From other sources l gathered that Archibald Anstruther was short and slight, thin and pale of face hollow chested and with scholarly stoOp to his shoulders. The spectacles he wore were rendered necessary by extreme near sightedness Following a custom of the free and unfettered west, Lonesome Iinthicum dubbed him "Runty" at their first interview, and Runty he remained to the end of the story.
 MT Smthers neither drank, smoked nor gambled. He did not know how to load or fire a gun and used knife only for the subdivision of his food. On the few occasions he was present at altercations between two or more gentlemen he had I was informed went white and hot footed for cover" It was perhaps but na- tura1 that the rough and ready residents of Paradise should hold him, at first, in light esteem. He was incongruous-a ten der foot. He did not fit. Physically, and in many ways mentally and morally, he was everything that they were not But when Billy Earles broncho stepped in a hole and broke Bily's leg instead of the