Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1908-12-31
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Copyright. by Bobbs-Merrill Coz

which hangs before the door OF the
market, Karl Engels fat spaniel sleeps
the deep sleep of noontide and of re-
pletion. Within, Karl Engel himself
leans back in his chair, with his
pudgy hands clasped over his fat stom-
ach, and-dozes. The young reporter
who stands on the street corner wait
ing for a car which is TO bear him
down 10 his daily tasks, for the hun
dredth time tells himself gloomily
that the world is composed entirely of
the bourgeoisie, and that Karl Engel
in particular, doing there in the
butcher shop, is bourgeois TO the nth
power.
Whistling aggressively, Karl's as
sistant comes in from his belated
luncheon and resumes his apron. The
wholesalers wagon backs up to the
sidewalk, and Karl, bestirring him
self to bicker with the driver concern
ing the choice of meats, presently
staggers back into the shop under an
imposing quarter of beef. With a
mighty heave, he lifts ii so that ii
shall catch the hook, and as it swings
into place on the rack, he brings 1t
TO a standstill with resounding slap
that is really caress, and murmurs
10 himself: Zach, he was a fine fel-
low now. He came from out there
For though Karl's body was cab
ined within the narrow precincts OF a
metropolitan meat market his soul
Jared far abroad into the celestial
spaces of the western wilds- into that
fair, free, fabulous land of Bret Harte
and large pistols, of Mayne Reid and
savage beasts, of Harry Castleman and
mad Mexicans. Out there the good,
brave beef cattle roamed up and down,
paving the earth, until the circling
'lasso' laid them low; out there the
insidous Indian added arrows to ones
person and rare Zest TO every enter
prise; and, there was gold and blood
and fire-a mans world. Ach HIM
mel. some day he would go, even he,
Karl Engel, of Market street would
go out there, away from beeves which
were but stiff and bloodless simula
era, away from men who were but
pale, soulless shadows, away from
yes, one must be prepared to make
brown glass at Kohlberg's on the
corner
With each recurring spring there
came days when. occasion permitting
Karl would shuttle uneasily up and
down the sawdusted floor of the shop,
instead OF doing in his chair Al
ways then, Paul Ludwig, the assistant,
W. n IN n
of his own, would inquire quite perth
nently why, then, he did not go out
there. But always Karl would sigh
gloomily, and defer the day of depart
ure until his bank account should have
reached the definite and delectable
sum of $4,000; and gradually the
springtime and the Wanderlust would
wear away together.
Yet, at last, on rare, balmy day in
March, there came news that the death
of that far-away uncle which sets so
many ambitions at liberty to vault,
had placed to Karl's credit a multi
tude of marks, which, when trans
lated into the good round dollars of
the republic, brought the bank account
well above the determined sum. Karl
was now his own man; and Karl, after
pacing up and down in the sawdust
for a stormy hour, thumped down his
fist upon the cleaver-block and spoke
with the stern voice OF mighty resolve.
He would go; tomorrow he would go,
and Paul Ludwig must run the shop
and hire a new assistant
Sleepless hours of preparation en-
sued. First the making of his will,
In which, as a childless widower. he
bequeathed the bank account to his
brothers little girl and the shop to the
faithful Paul Ludwig. Next, the packing
Of the ancient leather trunk-an OPP
GRAFTON that for years he had re-
hearsed and secretly prepared for.
Side by side in its capacious depths
were tucked the Mackinac blanket-suit
which he had bought nine years be-
fore. on hearing its cold-resisting vir-
tues praised by reformed lumber
Jack in Kohlberg's back room; the
slashed Mexican trousers of black vel
veteen which six years before he had
seen worn at the masked ball OF the
County Democracy, and had astutely
traced back to the costumers whence
they came; the low-heeled farmers
boots which he had observed in the
window of a shop near the Union sta
ton; the harmless, necessary red
handkerchief and the smoked goggles
with which to combat the desert sun
With them, too, were placed the
'1asso" which on a glad, golden day
long ago. while over at the yards
to pay his bills, Karl had seen fall
from the saddle of one of the yard
herders; the big pistol upon which
he had looked with covetous eyes for
months. as 1t lay in the dusty pawn
shop window, until he had seen an
other customer considering IL and had
been frightened into immediate pur
chase; and last-but, oh, not least
the long, brass-mounted target rife
with its exaggerated butt-plate and
fore-end handle, with which Karl, al
the monthly meeting OF the Schutzen
verein. given solid rest and six min