The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1908-11-03

a thunderin' big lot of furs an skins.
Billy SEE to me one day, as how it 'ud
be best to take EN- to Frisco and sell
'em there, as we couldn't git half the
wuth of 'em here, an, besides, we
oughter have bit of a spell, anyway,
so l says bueno, we'll go. We hit the
trail fur Punta Arenas, where nearly
all our furs wus, and where we'd have
to ketch boat
There wusn't nuthin' but these car
go tramp steamers in the straits then,
and the Teller in the office there SEE
as how no boat won't come for awhile,
SO we put up at the Gaucho hotel,
run by a Australia, to wait till she
happened along.
wed been in this shack a couple
o days, an one evenin' / wus down
In the barroom, havin' quiet time by
myself, when all of a sudden l hears
Billy, yelling fer me to come there
quick. Well, l grabs my old Al,
thinkin' he's in seris trouble, and tears
back to his room.
sit down." SEE he, 81 got a bally
good scheme"
l slowed away the gun, disguised,
and gave i'm some advice bout fright.
enin' people with heart trouble, which
he took on motifs uf.
Look here" he SEE, we're goin' ter
make our forchin this trip, shore.
Wen rig up couple O. inkybaters.
and fill EN- with awstrich eggs, an
bout the time we git to Frisco
they'll be nearly ready to hatch, an
We can sell 'em alive to these rich
sports, and mebbe some to a circus or
menagery They'll fetch a fat price,
an we'd oughter git pile o. coin out
Nv EN-"
Billy was proper loco bout this
scheme, an KEEP tellin' it over an
over again, an latin an whackin' the
table with his fist, and plannin' how
we'd spend the money, til blamed if
he didn't git me reused up, too, an so
l said we'dd give it a trial, bein's it
'ud cost nothin'.
I'd never seen a inkybater on dooty
before, but Bill he'd been on a farm
up in Santa Fe, where there wus lots
Nv EN-, and then he's a mighty handy
chap with the tools, is Bill, so betwixt
us both we rugged up a couple of big
boxes, and got some sperit lamps off n
a schooner, an put some rings in the
boxes SOS to hang em up in the boat
with ropes, to keep 'em from rockin'
in bad weather.
That took couple O. days, an then
we started out in camp with the bosses
an some cargo baskets with wool in
'em, to fetch the eggs. You know
how plentiful is awstrich eggs now
in December? Well, they's lot more
plentiful than days, an we got the
bosses loaded in no time.
We got the eggs to Punta Arenas.
and filled up the inkybaters. Betwixt
EN- they held moren 400. All over
the outside Of the boxes we painted
in Spanish and English: Handle
with care" an "Delikit contents"
Purity soon the old boat hove in
sight-Englishman she wuz, bout 5000
tons.
When everything wuz aboard. Bill
went round to the first mate, tellin'
him bout our inkybaters, an paid i'm
ten dollars to let us put 'em up for'ard
in an empty storeroom. So we drove
some big staples in the ceilin an
swung up the boxes.
EVERYTHING wus goin' so easy that me
an Bill wuz gettin' more confident in
the scheme ev'ry mint.
A woman and two kids was the only
other passengers on board, cause in
them days mighty few people went up
the west coast.
We figgered the eggs 'ud hatch out
bout week after we got to Frisco.
an l reckon they would have, too; but
when we got up here to Callao an
loaded bit of cargo, a Teller, with
bunch Of soldiers, come aboard, an
said the plague had broken out an we
gotter stay in quarantine.
Well, the plague got wuss an wuss.
an we had to lie there for three weeks
befo' we got away, an the cap'in uf
the boat wasn't half as mad as me an
Bill, cause we foresees that the aw-
striches are going ter hatch on board
an cause trouble.
After we left Callao we couldn't git
inter any other port til after a bunch
of uffishuls had nosed round fur
couple of days, an finally the cap'in
SEE that we'd be two months behind
time when we got to Frisco.
One mornin' jest befo' we got to
Panama, Bill had look at the eggs,
an comes back madder'n a fresh
sheared ram. He says: 1.-THE aw-
striches are comm"
We hired the carpenter to make crates
for 'em, an it KEEP i'm working over
time to keep up with the demand. Bill
wouldn't let me do nothin', said he's
proper burd financeer, an wus goin
ter keep herd on 'em hisself
The cap'in wus a bit sore bout this
sudden cargo O. live stock, but Bill
Civ i'm a roll of fox skins an a
guanaco capa, an some furs to the
other officers, so they's Bills friends |
then, an the first mate told the cook |
to save all the leavin's an put 'em
in basket outside the galley, where
Bill could get 1t handy to feed the
chicks.
nt,f ~ Tho ,nyhoIa - 1900