The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-07-14
SHOULD HAVE KEPT
HIS MOUTH SHUT
Had He Not Shown His worries,
He Would Have Made a
Fortune.
CIRCUS AGENT WHO
WAS JUST LIKE PARROT
He Talked Too Much and as Re-
suit Riches Went Like
Balloon in Air.

'sMe for the country until this Elks
business is over said retired cir
Gus agent in the Philadelphia North
American. Not that I don't like the
Elks. for they are Just what they call
themselves-the best people on earth.
And I don 7 object to crowds. [ have
been used TO them as a daily thing for
years
But every time ] see an elk s tooth
il makes me sick and the store win
dows are full of them. You can walk
block on Chestnut street without
passing a jcwelry store window that
is filled up with them
How do they make me sickl Well,
II tell YOU ] lost n fortune through
them once, and / have been so sore at
myself ever since that whenever | see
one Of them | go around the nearest
corner and kick myself. Why, say, L
had fortune in them things IN the
palm of my hands and wouldn't close
my fingers around II.
'"If / had a-cornered all them teeth
when / had the chance, almost forced
on me. | wouldn Il have 10 think it
great treat TO get n few days down at
the shore-I could live there in a swell
cottage all the time II | liked. You
sec il was this way.
Circuses Play Hound and Hare.
''Tbe season Of 81 the Forepaugh
show wss chasing the Sells Brothers
show out through The northwest. and
drove them so hard that they finally
shipped their show to Australia, where
we did not want to follow them. L
made my headquarters for about
month around Pocatello, Ida. 1t was
little crossing station then, but 1t
was good place from which 10 move
10 the four points of the compass. Po-
catello is good. big town now, and
it has been built up largely on elk s
teeth.
9 But ] am getting ahead of my
story. Pocatello IS on the Fort Sill
Indian reservation. Across the tracks
from the railroad station were two or
three little stores that sold something
besides liquor and faro chips.
''0ue of them was run by poor,
delicate little widow, who had weak
lungs and had gone out there so that
she could live and bring up her boy.
He was about the only thing her hus-
band had left her when he died.
Well, she started a little store out
there. It was pretty punk looking
shop. She had few yards of calico on
her shelves, some pins, needles and
thread, little candy, few cookies
and so on in her outfit but her biggest
stock was all kinds of glass beads, of
al colors, that she sold to the Indians
Likewise she had a few fish hooks.
and, wanting some one day, went over
to her place TO get them. She sold
them two for q bit, so [ took four
q quarters worth.
Teeth as Legal Tender.
Reaching behind the counter. she
lifted over two big paper boxes and
set them on the counter. Then she
sorted them over till she picked out
three big fine elk's teeth and handed
them to me.
whats these things9" says L
f'They are your change,' said she.
S'These big teeth are our small money
out here. The Indians use them for
money, and give and take on these
big teeth for a quarter, and two Of the
smaller ones are also 25 cents in this
country. l am soTy If you don't like
them, and if you want me to / will go
over to the depot and get the agent to
give me the money for them
"Never mind, says I, for I did not
want to give the poor woman any
trouble, and she seemed to be dis
tressed about it. So / put the teeth
in my pocket, and before came away
/ had taken in dozen or SO of them.
[ had a lot Of friends who were Elks
back here at home, and so I brought
them with me.
Eks Grab at Them.
Well. you can just imagine how
they grabbed for them, and ther l
learned that they were So or So apiece
here at that time. I made up my mind
that the next time I went out into that
country / would just nail all the elk
bring them back here and sell them.
1T so happened that ] went back
TO Pocatello the following winter ahead
of hall show, and I went over to see
the widow with the elk teeth. / asked
her how many she had, and she told
She was getting too much money intc
them, she said. They were what she
had saved up as her profits, and they
were the same as Uncle Sans money
to her out there, but she knew they
wouldn t go back East. whore her boy
was In school
'eThel, what do I do but up and tel
her of my scheme I had been thinking
OF, and, feeling so sorry for the pool
thing / told her to hold on to tn,
teeth.
'tThe order of Elks WAS growing s.
fast and the elk were being killed off
and every Elk had to have one or twt
Of these teeth, and that If they wer
worth 50 or So apiece back East, thel
she could guess what they would b.
worth In very few years.
just gave the whole snap away
And at that she told me that sh
thanked me very much, but she woul
let me have all | wanted at the sam
figure that the Indians held them al
That speech weakened me, and when
left Pocatello that came day droppe
the subject from my mind
Lo! The Transformation.
'"Wel, 1 went back there some 81
or seven years ago, Her boy ha