Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-06

SMl0S1EACET~ the mountains ana Jne SKY,
%esiiGS@ and the guests all one size,
socially, though some were as
moor as Country rock" and some were as ricn
as high grade quartz. .
II was away back in the early days OF Montana,
before railroads and all that sort of thing, had
knocked the romance out of the mining country
and cut down the limit. Which also, branded the
frontier and herded it with the nurrah OF ouiis
and bears and alleged civilization, making the
real thing bareback to the hazy past
II was in those days that a little lrlsnman
with heart considerably bigger than MS pouy
unlettered, as to books, crude as 10 conVen'ion
but with the pluck and persistency or MS race
and that would hold a cyclone by the neck II CIR
cumstances demanded racked around tnat reeioh.
Tommy Cruise his name and ne was llhe
tho famous cruise of the widow, in that he never
give out" Tommy had located claim away
up the gulch, on Silver Creek ABOUT eisn'een
miles northwest of Helena.
If was a longdrawn horny handed rastle tnat
Tommy had with the poverty in the prospect ana
all the pesticatn that poverty picks up ana piies
in Now and then Tommy took out little goid'
but it was just enough to prolong the agony ap,
parently It seemed to just sort of grade the way
a little for gray hair and rheumat1cs But loHi
my kept diggin and a breakin rock NOW anu
then when he went down to Helena, the mountain
metropolis for more grub and stun, was all ne
saw of the world and all 1t saw OF him.
Sometimes Tommy took down httIe o, ,,a. tne
"yaller wherewith, and sometlmes ne uiu "
Mostly, he didn't ,,.
Things were not oily for Tommy in eighteen
years of this, and but for two or three fellows
u
thing and stood by with a grub-stake Wheh
things were pinching out Tommy would nave Ger
tainly had to lie down with cold feet.
One day there came rumor tnat Iommy hau
struck 1t thick and sweet
Sure enough he had. His never-let-go had land
ed the real thing. He had hit bonanza tnat
swelled when he struck it. There was fortune
that made common, everyday millionaire look
like a rube at a circus. Nowadays 1t would nave
meant touring-cars a whole chorus, the briny In
your own boat London and Paris for resta-DlL
fun all the way along and bubbe-water TOT
breakfast. ,
Anyhow it was Mr.. Thomas Cruise, now with
more to come.
Tommy sold two-thirds interest in his mine
for a couple of millions-got the stuff in real
money at that-retired his luck to Helena,
staked one of his good friends to a bank and dld
business with him, another-a newspaper man
to a brand new print-shop and money to run IL,
then Tommy sat himself down in the Cosmopol-
itan Hotel to pass the balance of his days in what
seemed to him to be the harvesthome and the
highcolored hammock of human ease, happiness
and hilarity.
The world wagged we'll with Tommy. He didn't
get a big head pouter chest, any, nor did
he fizz up with outward show of blowitis to be
a good fellow and an easy mark. He put MS
capital into sure stocks and government bonds
and cut the coupons. Rather he had this last
done for him by trusted friend, for Tommy
could neither read wXite with fluent facility.
However, about two seasons of this ease on the
paed Mr. Cruise. Things were coming
too monotonous. He cast about him for some
sort of jolly diversion and then he made another
strike.
Whether or not the idea terminated in his own
think-tank or came tip from friend, he con-
cluded to marry.
young woman just old enough for her first