The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-07
WHY HE HAD TO BUY.
The Luck of the Man Who Found the
One Red Ear of Corn.
(Washington Star.l

between San Francisco and Stockton.
said a man who's now pretty sort of re
spectacle. Took me a long time {
wise up to 1t that they were breaking
it OF in me in that game. I'd neve
seen any of the four before, but whel
they invited me to sit into the four
limit game why, says 1 to myself,
might as well drop my twenty-nin
bones that way as any other.
There weren't any real chips, bu
one OF the four strangeTs-he said n,
followed the county fairs with trottinl
norses-had couple of huge prize ear!
OF corn in his vaIise that he'd picked vi
at one of the fairs, and Sc we shuckeC
those ears and played with grains Of
corn. Big yaller grains they were
Hard to handle, and found mine pref
ty hard to hold on to-
Every time I got hold Of anythins
they had me topped, and at the end oil
an hour or SOIL was nursing five or siz
OF those yellow grains, each represent
ing Two bits, like a man I'D near the
north pole might nurse the last few OF
q box OF matches And I'd tunbled &c
1t that at least one of the four was
dealing from the bottom, and Of course
that put me hep to it that all four OF
them were playing cahoots.
well, when I got down to my last
nVe OF SIX grains Of corn 1 had an idea.
Ia watched 'em load the boat Of
Stockton that afternoon, and I'd seen
EN- hoist hundred or so bags of corn
ABOARD. One of the bags had busted in
being hoisted in, and it was yaIIer corn.
all right enough.
Wen, as 1 say. when got down 10
my last few grains of corn. I had this
idea Of mine. You see 1 couldn't wait
TN l went positively broke on the corn
Ia bought from the banker who had
the TWO ears, because 1 didn't of course
nave any more coin to buy q new stack:
ana II I'd gone out leaving no corn
chips behind at all and had sat in again
Win grains OF corn, why OF course
they'd have got wise to me as having
COPIED some outside corn somewhere.
50 with these five or six beans vet
remaining 1 excused myself from the
game Tor minute and went out. Went
right down to the deck where 7 knew
the corn was. It was pretty dark down
there and nobody around. I found fine
heaped-up bags of corn all right and
got out my pnocketIxnife and jabbed q
liole IN one Of the burlap bags and
puIied OUT an ear of corn. L shucked
the ear there in the darkness and mt
about hundred Of the grains in ~
pocket. They were worth two hits
apiece to me and it looked prettv soft
Ihen hustled back and rejoined the
game. DIDN'T have any luck with the
nVe or six remaining grains of waller
corn that I'd left on the table for a
pllnd, and so when it came nv ante 7
just reached furtively into nv nocLet
and showed in one of the grains of corr
below. ---'~'S VII
Well was hep to the mess was
III 2
grain Of corn to the center. bI,t II ms
TOO late. They'd all noticed Il.
1T was red grain of corn. that's all
,Ihey called my attention to it.
were playing with yaller corn. vou
KNOW, hombrey,' they said to mo
told EN- knew it, and L got right
GUY OF the game. They'd have killed
me- OF course, II they'd been sure
enough men, but they were just skin
ners' ana so 1 pulled out OF the game
men and there without any hothar
How's that for getting a million 10 one
chance wailop out of the hard mol
Dag! There must have been sbout q
hllliion ears Of corn in those bags down
on the deck, and I'd blundered unon tba
only red ear in the ruil DANCED Iavout
l guess my Jonahdoo that time wasn't
twins, what?" e''h
Wen, 1 got pretty punk dose in Ia
coma one time" said another of the
punch: was on the pazazz SO bad
Ia, tlle,t tiiIle Inat the sure-enough eats
me- PO''0iS u
. plugged and maced around. but |
I'VE ones, We're hard to spring. Finally |
down at the depot, 1 nailed a e,uv IA |
known back this way. He was iust |
ABOUT to hop train for the east when |
ldpeIed MN Told him that I jes |
nachully had to eat and that ne was n
81, wen, ne was one of these jamwasas /
that figured maybe I wanted the -
Tor rum. and so he said he'd stake me
to meal ticket. There was a litfIe
chink eating dump across the street
rom the station, and he trudged over
there and bought out a seven-day meal
ticket for me, good for twenty-one
squares.
That was the incest green ticket
Win places all marked out for the res
-aurant cashiers punch, that ever 7 |
saw. He slipped me the green meal
lard and made his getaway on the
rain, and 1 started TO lope across the
street to have the first punch put i'm |
hat meal ticket. Never was so hungry /
n my life before or since. and was /
lighting myself, holding the ticket out i
1t arms length as 1 crossed the street L
rs to whether I'd begin on pork chops Il
u nam anu SSkS-
We'll. I'd just reached the curb lead II
ng over to the restaurant on which I II
lad the green meal ticket. when a II
neasly little flicker of wind sailed II
-round the corner and fiuttered the tick II
t out of my hand. 1t dropped on the II
stone tagging right IN front Of the res
aurant.
I was hOtfOoting over to pick Il I'D. II
when big Swede 1umberjack, wearing
lObnaiied brogans, darted around the
'orher. He had one of those glazed
trips in his hand and he was beating II
to the station to catch q local for his
lumber camp I was just bending over
o grab my green meal ticket, when
lown came the heel of one Of that Scan
hobnailed brokans smack
lab on my unused meal ticket, and with
lis hobnails he punched out each and
very one Of those meals Just as slick |
5 If the job had been done with a we'll
lied punch
Poorly rum deal, at that old pal"
one Of the listeners
Like blazes IL wasl" said the mar
ator. IT walked down the street cussin'
~ ornery luck. but just three minutes
tier that restaurant was blown up into | /
ne air by highbinders' dynamite, and If
d been in there, eating, why"
They decided that 1t was the buy of
he man who'd found the one red ear of :
orn. n
Il