The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-29
By
SEWELL FORD


( reg lars that keeps the shop open, and
a few of the boys to drop around now
and then; so I'm willing to let it go at
that. Course, though, / amt no side
stopper. I takes what's comm an
tries to look pleasant.
But this little hOt-foot act with
Rajah and Pinckney had me dizzy for
a few rounds. sure as ever. And L
wouldn't thought it of Pinckney. Why,
when he first shows up here l says to
myself: Next floor. Reginald, for the
manicure" He was one of that kind !:
slim, white-livered, feather-weight
style of chap-looked like he'd been
trainin' on Welsh rabbits and Egyptian
cigarettes a. the club for about year.
rs this Professor McCabe?" says he.
You win" says l. 'What'I 1T be?
Me class in crochet amt begun yet"
He kind of looked me over steady
like, and then he passes out a card
which says as how he was Lionel
Pinckney Ogden Bruce.
do / have my choice?" SAYS I
Cause if I do 1 nips onto Pinckney-
it's cute. Well, Pinckney. what's do
ing?"
He Grapes himself on a chair, gets
his little silver-headed stick balanced
just so between his knees, pulls his
trousers up to high-water mark, and
Pup. And, say! when he got through
felt as though he knew it all, from
how much Ia weigh in at to where
had my laundry done. Yes. Pinckney
had a full set Of eyes. They were
black. not just ordinary black, same's
a hole in hat, but shiny an sparklin'
like patent feathers in the sun. If it
hadn't been for them eyes you might
have thought he was one of the eight
day kind that was just about to run
down. / ought TO have got next to
Pinckney's model, just by his lamps;
but l didn't. I'm learnin, though, and
if I last long enough III be a wise guy
some day.
Well. when Pinckney finishes his CEN
sus of me he says: Professor. I wish
TO take a private course, or whatever
you call il. I would like to engage
your exclusive services for about three
weeks"
chic. chicr' says I. Things like
that come high, young man.
Pinckney digs up q sweet little check
hook, unlimbers a fountain pen, and
asks: How much. please?"
Seem as this is the slack season
with me. I'll make it fifty per-" says I.
Hour or day." says he.
Maybe l was ,bTeathin' a bit hard. but
7 says careless like: oh, call it fifty
q day ana expenses"
Business with the pen. That's for
.s1he first week" says Pinckney, and I
/ see he'd reckoned in Sunday and all.
when can you come on" says l.
''TN begin now, If you don't mind"
says he.
Then it was up to me: so l goes to
work. Inside of ten minutes I had a
fair notion of how Pinckney was put
up. He wasn't as skinny as he'd looked
from the outside, but ] saw that It
wouldn't be safe to try the mitts; I
might forget and put a little steam into
a Dunch-then it would be a case of
sweepin' up the pieces.
Hold that out" says l, chuckin' him
the shot bag.
He put II out; but all there was in
him was braein' that arm.
What you need says I. is little
easy trackwork in the open, plenty of
cold water before breakfast, and sleep
sn ten-hour doses.
7 couldn't sleep five hours at
stretch much less ten." says he.
Wen take something for that" says
running toys, sweaters, towels and
things. and goes downstairs where
Pinckney has big plum-colored homi-
eide wagon waitin' for him.
Tell Goggles to point for Jerome
ave-" says /. There's a track out
there we can use"
ON the way up Pinckney lets loose a
hint or two that gives me an outline
map of his particular case. He hadn't
been hittin' up any real paresis pace,
so far as ] could make out He'd Just
been trying to keep even with the cou-
pOns and dividends that the old man
bad left him. burnin' it as il came in.
.and he'd run out of matches. Guess
Where was a bunch of millinery some
Where in the background, too. for he
was anxious about how he'd feel
around Horse Show time Maybe
Pinckney had made his plans to be
more or less agreeable about then, but
when he got a kaleidoscope picture of
himself in a sanitarium he had a scare
thrown into him. Next some one gives
him tin of the physical culture stu
dio and he pixies for Shorty McCabe.
Wen, I've trained would-be champs
TO pull down gate receipts and brokers
10 so against the market. Once I nut
trust lawyer in condition to bunkc, a
state legislature that wanted to set his
bosses to breakin' stone; but I'd never
tried to pump red cOrpuscles into an
amateur Romeo before. There was the
three-nfty, though. and I sails in to
make good
Head up now. elbows in. weight on
Eyour toes, an we're off in A bunch
Nays l. Steady there, take if easv'
Tftfs amt no hundred-yard sprint This
IS IA mile performance. There. that's
better. Dog trot IL to the three-ouar
ters. and if your cork amt pulled bv
then you can squirt under the wire"
But Pinckney had lost all his ambi
ton before we'd got half round. At the
finish he was breathin more air than
his wind tanks had known in months
Now fer the second lap" SAYS 7
What? Around that fence again p,
says Pinckney. why, l saw ali there
was to see last time. Can't we try a
new one2"
do you think mile tracks come in
clusters?" says l.
Why not just run up the road?"
Rsks Pinckney.
f'rhe road ii is" says /.
We fixed il 1p that Goggles was to
follow along with the goose cart and
hOnk-honk the quarters to us as he
read 'em on his speed clock. We were
three miles nearer Albany when we
quit. and Pinckney was leakin' like a
squeezed sponge.
Throw her wide open and pull up a
, Il I