The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-26
Rinkey and the Phony Lamp

pieces in the grammar school. And it
was no trick at all for him to look wall
eyed one minute, cross eyed the next,
and then straighten EN- out with a
jerk of his head. Maybe If it hadn't
been for that eye of Snick's I'd have
got further'n the eighth grade.
His star performance. though. was
when he did jugslin' act, keepin three
potatoes in the air. He'd follow the
murphies with his good eye and turn
the other one on the audience, and if
you didn't know how it was done, it
would give you the creeps up and down
the back, just watchin' him.
Say, you'd thought a Teller with tall
ent like that would have made a name
for himself. wouldn't you? Tryin' to be
sport was where Snick fell down,
though. He had the blood. all right
but no head. Why, when we used to
play marbles for keeps. Snick would
never know when TO quit. He'd shoot
away until he'd lost his last alley, and
then he'd pry out that glass eye of his
and chuck ii in the ring for another go.
Many a time Snick's gone home wearin'
a striped chiny or pink stony in
place of the store eye. and then his old
| lady would chase around lookin for
the kid that had won it off'm him.
There's such a thing as bein too good
a loser: but you could never make
Snick see it.
Well, I'd marked up five to the bad
on my books, and had read the latest
from Tonopah, and then Swiftly Joe and
me had worked an hour with a couple
of rockin' chair commodores from the
New York Yacht club. gettin 'em in
shape to answer Lipton's batch of
spring challenges. when Pinckney
blows In town a tubby, red-faced
party in a frock coat and a silk lid.
! shorty" saws he. Il want you to
know Sir Hunter Twiggle. Sir Hunter,
this is the Professor McCabe you've
heard about"
eff you heard it from Pinckney," says
1, don't believe more'n half of it,
With that we swaps the grip, and he
says he's glad to meet up with me.
But say. he hadn't been in the shop
| two minutes fore i was next to the
fact that he was another who'd had to
mate up his lamps with a specimen
from the glass counter.
They must be runnin' in pairs"
thinks 1. 'This'd be a good time TO
draw to three of a kind
Course. I didn't mention it, but
couldn't keep from watchin' how awk-
ward he handled his'n, compared to the
smooth way Snick could do il. l guess
Pinckney must have spotted me COM
in the steady gaze. for pretty soon he
gets me one side and whispers, Don't
appear to notice it."
"All right" says l: "I'll look at his
feet"
mo, no." says Pinckney, Just pre-
tend you haven't discovered it. He's
very sensitive on the subject-thinks NJ
one knows, and so on "
But it's as plain as a gold tooth"
says I.
II know" says Pinckney, but humor
him. He's the right sort"
! Pinckney want far off, either. For
a gent that acted as though he'd been
born wearin' high collar and a shiny
hat, Sir Twiggle wasn't no worse Bar
rim the stiffenin'. which didn't wear off
at ali, he was a decent kind of hatch
eater Bein' dignified was something
he couldn't help. You'd never guessed,
to look at him, that he'd ever been
mixed up in anything liveliern layin'
a church cornerstone. but it leaks out
that he had been through all kinds of
scraps In India, comes from the same
stock as the old Marquis of Queensbury,
and has followed the ring more or less
himself.
81 had the doubtful honor" says he,
bringin' both eyes into range on me. "of
backing a certain Mr.. Palmer, whom
we sent over here several years ago
after a belt"
He got mOren one belt" says I.
quite sO,'' says he, almost crackin'
a smile; "oEe belt too many, l fancy"
Say, that was a real puncherino, eh ?
amt sure but what he got off more
along the same line. for some of them
British kind is hard to know unless you
see 'em printed in the joke column.
Anyway, we has quite chin, and be-
he laft oh