The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1908-10-31
f| e q /: /:

clded when Plkey McGlnn'S chimney
caught fire, and in that flame the
Brickvilian hope of a metropolis in
the heart of the Bad Lands went up
IN smoke.
Brickville didn't realize it at the
moment, because, paradoxical as it may
seem, the little blaze which destroy ed
the town was easily got under con
( troll The place hadn't progressed as
far as a fire department. and it would
, not have helped matters If it had A
/ tipsy cowboy who had been sampliug 2
Pikeys hardware vaulted to the back
of a wolfish-looking cayuse. yelled a
few times in hearty Montana fashion,
and then swung his RATA at the chin
ney. AS the moose fell fair about the
stack of bricks he dug spurs into the
sides of his mount and made a run
upon the rope.
The chimney came down with A
crash; the fire was out; the fate Of
/ Brickville was written.
That is why the town does not ap-
pear upon any map. But II ever you
| have ridden over the Northern Pa
/ cifc you can probably recall long
! and narrow valley to the north as you
| passed out of the Bad Lands of Dako-
Ia into the Bad Lands of Montana.
/ That is where Brickville stood. The
soil all about is hard and dry and red
| and there is no verdure. Not an,
where in sight is there a tree. The
/ side hills are scanned with black stra-
ia, and the rains have carried stains
from these and streaked the valley
with them on both sides OF the muddy
/ little stream which winds away to the
south.
| The black strata are seams OF bitU-
minous coal, and it was in mining this
coal that the BrickYillians made their
/ living. There is still pay in these
streaks. but the people who worked
them have drifted away, and on the
site of the town prairie dogs and COY
otes and rattlesnakes hold annual con
ventions which never adjourn.
II any place ever fully justified its
name, that place was Brickville Al
the height of its prosperity it had, ex-
elusive of sheds and stables, 81 one
story buildings. including the railroad
station, the saloon and the tonsorial
| parlor, and every one of them was of
| brick-even the sheds. There were
optimists who looked forward to a
brick courthouse and a brick jail,
and but for the fire in Pikey McGinns
| chimney these aspirations might have
been realized.
Pierre Succotash played perhaps the
most prominent part in Brickvile's
destruction. Pierre was a French-Ca-
madam. whose rear name had come in
/ to collision with Brickville's sense OF
propriety. and some of its letters were
dislocated by the shock. He had
been gold mining in British Column
bia, and no one had inquired very
closely into the reason of his coming
from gold to coal camp; it would
have established an uncomfortable
precedent. But he went nosing about
the wreck of that chimney, as he went
nosing into everything that happened
/ in town; and Fred Ritchie who con-
Quoted the tonsorial parlor,' which
was across the street from McGinn's.
saw him suddenly dart in and pick up
a broken brick.
Now Fred and Succotash had said
some unpleasant things to each other
once upon a time. and Fred, believ
/ ing that Pierre was counting trouble,
promptly ran in for his gun: but
when he came out Succotash was no.
where to be seen.
Next morning Pikey found that
some one had carried off nearly half
of his chimney bricks. and he prompt
| ly declared it to be the work of Slant
| eye McCafferty, his hated rival in the
hardware business. Mac denied this
in vigorous language, and a gunplay
was imminent when the whisky
agent happened along and announced
a reduction in rates by the barrel;
and then they had a drink, and or
dered half a barrel each, and the
hatchet was buried.
But war was on hotter than ever
next day. for the remainder of Pikey's
loose bricks had disappeared in the
night. Pikey swore that Slanteye was
planning a cheap extension to his gin
mill, and Mac retorted that he would
be fool indeed to go around picking
up hoodoos that had fallen from his
rivals leaky roof.
Then each got shotgun and stood
out in front of his saloon waiting for
the other to come along. And the
result of this was that trade fell OF
in both places, for Brickvilians knew
that shotguns scattered their charges
and they refused to slake their thirst
when there was a chance that stray
buckshot might next moment spring
them aleak. So it was that business
interests induced the rivals for a sec
ond time to declare a truce and then
the town breathed easier and drank
oftener.
A week later Succotash was a pas
| senPer on a XeSf-hnund exnreSs With