The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1909-08-28

HP'''u ny 'he chs' vi Jos'ph W. Nlhfk'
son, formerly justice Of the district
court Of Omaha. The Judge wandered
away from home, rs he had once nigh
teen years before. when his folks
found him be was doing honest work
on farm under an assumed name
They said he was temporarily dersng
ed, aud maybe he was. In the sight
Of the world any man who would for.
sake n lucrative law practice and take
to the hay fields has something loose
in his cabcza. The Judge himself did
mo, explain H. lie said that he sim.
ply had an itching to do honest work
once more, 10 feel the sweat Of normal
labor run down his body, and to heave
hay and daily with the south end Of
a cultivator drawn by a strawberry
mule and hogbaek bay. lie used to
bs dandy at that sort Of game, aud
just wanted 10 see IL the accumulated
tripc Of sedentary life could be work.
ed OF. lie shook his professional garb
and put on = hickory shirt and a pair
of overalls. For the first time in
eighteen years he felt that he could
really breathe. Then taking along only
tobacco money, he hit the grit. The
first farmer he asked for n job thought
he was blg fat, bluhing tramp, and
set the dog on him. The next one set
him ON to u wood pile and he spit ON
his hands and went at H. II was =
bit awkward at first, but in little
while be caught on and made the chips
ny in a different way from that to
which he had been accustomed. The
next farmer needed hay hands and af.
ter n few days Of awful and consuming
soreness he found he could throw n
forkful Of timothy clean over the load
ed wagon, and the hands voted him a
wolf with u red tail. lie was prouder
Of IL than he had been Of a $25,0O0 fee.
In few weeks the tripe vanished aud
hand. lie could bind his station with
any young wbelp, and eat as he had
thought impossible few months be
fore. lie never even belchcd after the
stunt was over he could sleep on n
board and get up in the morning be.
fore day, feed the critters and come
in for brcakfa without having a dark
brown taste in his mouth. II was
Just like IL used to he when he was
young man, when he was struggling
along like chump to read law, and
had n fool iden that IL was D step up to
be u professional man. lie had work
ed hard at that, aud achieved some
fame. All that he had got out of II
personally was his bOaid aud clothes
aud the dyspepsia. What did II all
amount to anyhow, The only breath
Of real untaintcd air was when he
went To somebody's funeral The only
Whit OF u bayfield, in eighteen years
was once when he was going out to
Broken Bow To make a speech, and the
said Whit was heavily charged with
coal smoke. lie hadn Z heard Il catbird
singing in an apple tree occasionally stop
ping his melody to howl for the eat,
since Heck was u pup. All these years
he had been eooped up by manmade
conventions, and tied hard and iast to
a treadmill that is without hope ex.
eept some costly flowers and n coffin
before IL was time. The fields called
him. lie longed for the rustic Of the
corn blades, the zip of the mower, and
shell at noon, lie wanted to be just
simply u natural man once more, and
see how it felt. He was getting along
simply fine when his folks found him
aud spoiled It all and he either had to
go back into the grind or given a
free ride to the bug house aud have
his property ruled over by cockeyed
deacon AS guardian.
What allied the Judge was simply
the call Of the wild, for the exulta.
tion that comes 10 man when he beats
nature in wrestle and makes the
earth yield To its only c0nqueror. The
philosophers call it "the recrudes.
cence of the primitive man." | am
not sure that | know just what that
means. do know what allied the
judge. lie had simply gotten u belly
full Of the false conditions, the per
verted customs, the strained ethics Of
modern life. In the artificial current
OF the cities he had found by sad ex
periehce that every other man was q
liar, The hyproerite and the saint rub
shoulders every day, ana It takes q
darn smart fellow 10 tell which ID
which. The sun rises over dirty roof
and sets in the smudge Of dust from
tho wheels of the automobile Of soms
son.of-agun who has to be sued fol
his poll tar. Every body is on the skin
Graft 10 In the air. Everybody triei
to be what they are not, and the cock
tail and the demitasse take the plac,
/ Of buttermilk and a long sweet swil
Of cold spring water without ,yphoit
germs. It 10 she fashion Of the time