The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1909-09-04

BORN TO BE HANGED
b. CAROLINE LocKHART
(copyright, b J. y. Lppincott Coz

Samuel stotts. in his taxpayer
house on his 100 acres Of homestead
'sage-brush. gazed At his inhamed
'face in his sscent mirror. and
thought. for something ike the thou
sandth time, what . fne long neck he
had BY which to hang. sandwiched
IN between the epithets OF opprobrium
which he was bestowing literally up
o. Mr.. McAdoo were disJointed sen
tsnces from which one might have
gathered that "the psychological mo-
msnt" in his life arrived.
"I1l kill him. by ding!" said stotts
through his shut teeth. 'The NANCY
son of . sheep herder! I've told him
once and I've told him twice. and II
he does It once more. I'll puncture
him. ia rather be hung for KILN
NcAdoo than any man in the Basin"
McAdoo, the chronic omceholder in
the town on the edge Of which stotts
had taken up his homestead. had
thwarted. antasonized. and enrased
him from the beginning. Az mayor.
McAdoo had ordered Stotts arrested
for allowing his cows to browse In the
main streets. stotts went to jail
rather than pay his fine. saying he
needed . rest, anyhow. Al constable.
McAdoo put Stott's dogs in the pound
and enforced the two-dollar dog tax.
A water commissioner. he shut on
Stott's water supply. saying that
6totts was watering more horses than
he paid for-all of which 6totts en-
dured with what. for him. was meek
asss. Finally. McAdoo became post
master. and. in brilliant moment,
conceived the idea of answering sun
Dry advertisements in Stotts' name.
II was the custom of the adult pop
ulation of the town to assemble In the
post ONCE during the distribution OF
the mail. where each box renter stood
BY his box watching like . dog at
rabbit-hole. Everybody teok keen
interest In the mail Of everybody else.
and 1t was not considered poor taste
to speculate. and comment freely. up
on the contents and appearance Of
each others letters, or to crane ones
neck to look into ones neighbours
mail.box.
When stotts received . postal card
urging him to send ten cents and
learn how to raise mushrooms in his
cellar, 1t was the occasion OF some
merriment-chiefy because Stotts had
no cellar. The next mail brought q
notification of the shipment, accord
Ing to request, Of six-gallon bottle
Of catArrh cure-express charges,
| $1.36. The outside of the envelope
was decorated with the wood cut Of =
vulgar person snorting steam like a
Siegfried dragon. Stotts was dis
tinctly annoyed and refused to receive
the six-gallon bottle.
When McAdoo opened the once the
next morning at seven O'Clock stotts
was waiting for him.
1T you put any more of those
cussed things in my box" said stotts,
shaking with excitement, "there1l be
trouble"
what things7" inquired McAdoo.
innocently.
stotts gave him one lurid look and
turned on his heel. That night he
received frame and colored
Worsteds to enable him to earn pin
money in his home. also a voluminoua
pamphlet and a printed slip for him
to NIL out describing more fully thar
he had In his letter the symptoms Of
the painful disease which aniicted
him.
Stotts hurled the embroidery frame
and the pamphlet through the general
al III - F.
the veins standing out ON his forehead
with the effort he made to contro
himself.
NM McAdoo." he suffered
I'm goin' to k-k-kill you II 20,
don't q-q-quit maxim a fool of me!
McAdoo smiled at him tolerantly.
The news of stotts' singular mai
had spread to such an extent that Pee
pie began to drive in from the oountr,
70 see what he would draw.
At last, when stotts started for hi
mail. he oiled his gun. His letter DO,
was full, a. usual, and 90 was tn,
post once. the crowd pushing eagerl,
forward TO inspect the contents of tn
former.
have besn suhacient provocation TO
murder. McAdoo handed out a box.
bottle, and several one-csnt letter.
The box contained . glass ball, no
unlike . glass doorknob, and a not
from . fortune teller in Chicago, apo
ogixing for the delay in sending same
and containing . request for a dolla
for the instructions which would az
able stotts to tell fortunes by mean
Of the glass globe and earn a COZ
Portable income for himself and fan
lily.
Stotts had no family, but the youn
woman clerk in the general mercha,
!, disc store, standing at his elbow 4
o the time, had an attraction for Stott
which always took him through til
6ress-~0oila deDartmant on HIS NOV