The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1907-09-12
Jerry and His Vacation.

bank whole month. He and Frank
Martin went to Los Angeles. Well,
it was like this. Jerry had never
been in a larger city than Bisbee,
until he came to Clifton, so after
living here for a year he decided
that he knew enough of the city ways
to go inside" You know when the
Mercury begins lowering around a
hundred in Arizona towns some of
the people have to go to the coast
where the feas are plentiful, where
the mosquitoes have full sway, where
the people dress neglige. They call
that going inside" Yes, Jerry has
been "inside.''
Frank told me he had an awful
time keeping Jerry out of trouble for
the first week or two, but after that
he got along fine. Jerry had some
very close calls while in the city.
We went to the theatre one night
while Jerry was there and of course
being Arizonans and little blooded,
we took Il box. We told Jerry that
we would go, and that we could get
nothing but box-as it was the first
night of the "Half Breed and the
seats were sold early. He was to
meet us at s o'clock and we parted
for an hour or two to fill a business
engagement, but a few minutes be-
fore 8 o'clock we found ourselves at
the Burbank with no Jerry in sight.
As we had a few minutes to spare,
and Jerry had the tickets, we loitered
out in front watching the people who
we're rapidly crowding in. Pretty
soon we saw a commotion and thought
d fire call had been turned in but it was
Jerry with large dry goods box.
We asked him what he was doing
with that box and he said that he
could get nothing but a box seat and
that he had found good one down
the street and had brought it with
him. We explained very gently to
him that there was a difference and
he left the box outside. Jerry is
great base ball enthusiast and he was
in the city but few days when he
SOI LhC JOD VI hh ping III liz 1AOo
Angeles and Portland teams. By re-
ferring to the papers you will see
that J. j. Kelly umpired.
Jerry is a great swimmer and he
has told some marvellous stories of
his great feats, swimming Brewery
Gulch in Bisbee, on several different
occasions. Last Sunday a week ago
Jerry invited US to go with with him
down to Venice and take swim. AS
it was Jerry's treat he took the lead
land when arriving at the beach we
started Immediately for the bath
house. In just a few moments we
heard some one knocking on our door
and upon inquiry learned that it was
Jerry. He was in trouble and his
suit was not large enough. We let
him in and really his suit was short,
so we consented to exchange and you
ought to have seen how handsome he
was as he strolled across the beach to
the water. Credit must be given him
for one thing, he is not afraid of the
water. He was doing some great
and a great crowd had gathered on
the pier % watch him. He soon got
tired and suggested that we go to
the bar for rest. AS ii was some lit
tie distance, we did not care to
start, but the re-assuring ''come on
from Jerry, as he lashed forth, en-
couraged us to follow. He began with
that magnificent stroke that made
him famous when he use to swim
brewery Gulch,' looking back oc-
casionally to see that we were still
following. AS he has not been in
training for long time and is not as
hard of muscle as he used to be he de-
cided that he would rest a moment,
not dreaming that the water would
be over his head. His head went I'M
der and his feet did not touch the
bottom. We were looking his way as
he came up and saw the agonized ex-
preston on his face, a moment more
and another great wave sweptover him
him as he cried for help combined a
kind of gurgllng sound lit was Jerry
swallowing salt water). We told him
to keep up courage, and really, for
drowning man, he was the bravest
ever saw. Outside of the frantic
gestures, the spouting and the awful
expression of his face he was just as
calm and natural as he is at any
time. A moment more fellow
blther and myself reached him just
as he came up for the third and last
time. We took hold of him and told
him to straighten out his feet. AS
he clutched hold of US we could tell
that he was nearly gone and could
not understand what we were saying
but his head partially cleared and he
put his feet down and stood up. The
water didn't quite reach his bathing
suit! So you see what is liable to
overcome even the best of swim
mers. Jerry had tried to go to the
bottom from the crest of one of the
high waves and not doing so, thought
he was in deep water and came near
drowning. If you don't believe this