The Green Forest tribune., 1908-10-30
.e..e..sa s.ss sE !: The Passing of Brickville l: : By Joseph N Quail IsI
By Joseph N. Quail
Copyright, by Shortstory Pub. Co)

The destiny of Brickville was de- cided when Pikey McGinn's chimney caught fire, and in that flame the Brickvillian hope of 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 destroyed the town was easily got under con trol. The place hadn't progressed as far as fire department, and it would rot have helped matters if it had. A tipsy cowboy who had been sampling Pikey's hardware vaulted to the back of wolfish-looking cayuse, yelled a few times in hearty Montana fashion, and then swung his riata at the chim- ney. As the moose fell fair about the stack of bricks he dug spurs into the sides of his mount and made run upon the rope.
 The chimney came down with crash; the fire was out; the fate of Brickville was written
 That is why the town does not ap- pear upon any map. But if ever you have ridden over the Northern Pa ciffc you can probably recall a long and narrow valley to the north as you passed out of the Bad Lands of Dako- ta 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 any where in sight is there a tree. The side hills are scanned with black stra- ta, 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 btu- minous coal, and it was in mining this coal that the Brickvillians 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.
 If any place ever fully justified it's thdl pldCS Dl iChFlIIc. At the height of it's prosperity it had, ex- elusive of sheds and stables, S7 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 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 Brickville's destruction. Pierre was a French-Ca- nadian, whose rear name had come in to collision with Brickville's sense of propriety, and some of it's letters were dislocated by the shock He had been gold mining in British Colum- bia, and no one had inquired very closely into the reason of his coming from a 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 ducted ''the tonsorial parlor," which was across the street from McGinns 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 time, and Fred, believ- ing that Pierre was courting trouble promptly ran in for his gun; but when he came cut 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 gunplay was imminent when the whisky agent happened along and announced reduction in rates by the barrel; and then they had a drink, and or dered half barrel each, and the hatchet was buried.
 But war was on hotter than ever l 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 off in both places, for Brickvillians knew that shotguns scattered their charges and they refused to slake their thirst when there was chance that a stray buckshot might next moment spring them aleak. So it was that business interests induced the rivals for d sec ond time to declare truce, and then the town breathed easier and drank oftener
 A week later Succotash was a pas senger on west bound express with a ticket to Glendive in his hat band. And the next east-bound freight brought in very scarce article some lumber-and a heavy iron roll CT marked with his name. On his re- turn he installed the roller in the brick shack where he slept and put a big paddock on the door. What he did in that place was the town mystery. But he was flush of money, and one day he caused sensation. He became the owner of saloon, having bought out Pikey McGinn-taking bar, stock, goodwill and building.
 Then, to the greater surprise of Brickville, he promptly sold to Pikey's