Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-07
Torchy
Continued from page 4

| "Geei' says L. You mad me gueSS1n ,
though! But you amt drawn any blank I'll
Skinny on your side. Mr.. Pepper, as long you'll
| let me-and that's no gust of wind, either
| And say, inside of three days I'd got the
| minn' business down to a science. Course it
was cinch All has to do is fold punches of
circulars, stick stamps on the envelops, and lug
| EN- up to the general p. 0. once day. That,
| and chasin' out after dollars worth of cigars
now and then for Mr.. Pepper, and keepin
| Sweetie jollied along, didn't make me round
shouldered.
CWEETIE was cut out for the undertaken
~ business, by rights. He took things hard,
he did. Every tick of the clock was a solemn
moment for him, and me gettin' stamp on
crooked was a case that called for heart to
heart talk. He used to show me the books he
was keepin', and the writn' was reg'lar as if
it, been done on job press.
You're a wonder you are, SweetIe, says /;
but some day your hand is going to Joggle,
and there'll be a blot on them pages, and then
| you'll die of heart disease"
Miss Allen, the typewriter fairy, was good
deal of frost. She was one of the kind that
| would blow her lunch money on havln her HAIR
done like some actress, and worry through the
week on an apple and two pieces of fudge at
noon | never had much use for her. She
called me just Boy, as though want hardly
human at all. She'd sit and pat that HAIR OF
hers by the hour fcelin to If all the diff rent
waves and punches still there. 1t was a
work of art all right; but it didn't leave her
time to think of much else | used to get her
wild by askin how the six other sisters was
comm on these days.
We didn't have any great rush of customers
in the office. About twice a day some one
would stray in; but gen rally they was lookin'
for other parties, and we didn't take in money
enough over the counter to pay the towel bill.
1t had me worried some, until tumbles that
the Glory Be mail order snap.
All them circulars we sent out told about the
mine. And say, after I'd read one of 'em ]
didn't see how it was we didn't have a crowd
THROWN money at us. 1t was good readln',
too, almost excitin as nickel hb'ry. I'd
never been right next to gold mine before,
and it got me bug eyed just thinkin' about It,.
Why, this mine of ours was one that the
Injuns had kept hid for years and years, KILN
off every white man that stuck his nose into the
same county. But after awhile a feiler by the
name of Dakota l. an turned lnJun, got himsel
adopted by the ,r.be, and monkcy ed aro'r'
until he found the mire. 1t near b in1cd him
the first squint he got of them .ig chunks of
gold. The Injuns caugh, MN It it and finished
the business with no. IRONS. Then they roasted
m over a fire some and turned HIM loose to
oy himself. lie was tougher a motorman,
/ -, gh He didn't die for years after that but
he never said nothin' about the gold mine until
he was nearly all in. Then he told his Oldest
| boy the tale and gave him map OF the place,
maxim him swear he'd never 60 near it. The
| boy stuck to it, too. He grew up and kept
grocery store, and it wa It until after he d died
and he widow had sold out the store to Swede
| that the map showed up. The Swede snapped
| the map to a sclp drummer for half a dozen
cakes of scented shaving sticks, and the drum
mer goes explorin'
HE had a soap drummers luck. He didn't
- find any Injuns left. Most of EN- had Cied
off and the rest had joined Wild West shows.
The gold mine there, though, with chunks
of solid gold lynn around as big as peach bas-
kets Mr.. Drummer looks until his eyes ache.
and then he hikes himself back East to get up
comp'ny to work the mine. He'd just made
plans to build solid gold mansion on Fifth
ave- and hire John d. Rockefeller for butler,
when he strays into one of these Gospel
missions and gets religion SO hard that he can't
shake it. Then he sees how selfish it would be
to keep all that gold for himself.
But how'll divvy iti" says he And who
With"
Then he decides that he'll divide with minis
tiers, because they'll use it best. So he gets up
this Glory Be Mining Company, and hires Mr..
Pepper to sell the stock at twenty-five cents a
| share to al .he preachers in the country.
Blamed if it wa mt straight goods! | looked
on the letters sent out, and every last one of
'em was to ministers. Talk about your easy
money! This was like pickin' it off the bushes.
Mr.. Pepper shows 'em how they can put in fifty
| or hundred dollars and in three or four years