Bisbee daily review., 1910-09-01

Some years ago I visited the far west. passing through a region that had been infested by the worst ele- ment of society.
 l put up one night at the house of John Murphy. a sheep raiser. His ranch house was not large. but com. fortable. and its decorations showed evidence of refinement His wife was a woman who impressed me as one having considerable eauipoise and character. After supper l went out on the porch to have a smoke with Murphy and listened with interest to his account of the building up of his region. During our conversation l stated the opinion that men were what women made them. Then he told me his story.
 You're dead right. stranger" he said. land I'm one of the men tha, has been made by a woman. When l came to this country it was from an eastern city. and my education was derived from the dime novel was waif. with no father or mother to iustiil into me the fact that however
 brave the road agents and others of
 whom l read they were acting on wrong principle. As 1t was. l ad-
 mired them. and almost before 1 be- came man scraped up enough mon- ey to bring me out here to live the life of my heroes of the dime novel. "I soon got to be head man among them and for eight years lived life
 that I would give anything I have to forget. have to be thankful for only
 one thing. During that frightful pc riod I never took life l didn't ac- cumulate any money, and if l had should later on have got rid of it ''One evening I stopped at house | and knocked at the door. l intended | to ask for some supper. expecting once inside to get my bearings for valua- | bles and take them away with me. l | had started in with the intention of confining my operations to stage coaches. army paymasters and the ! like. but a man is always going either uphill or downhill. and as 1 was | necessarily going down I wasn't above taking anything could get my hands on, even from a woman
 "A woman came to the door. She l was young and fairly good looking. To my request for some supper she gave a smiling assent. asking me to come in and make myself comfortable. She went into the kitchen, and l looked about me. There was a chimney in the room where I was with no fire l knew a chimney was q favorite place 1 to hide money, and. going to the fire | place, stopped and looked up. On | projecting brick l saw a small box. | which I appropriated and. lifting the cover. saw a lot of bills and loose change. I slipped it all in my pocket | and put the box back in the chimney. By and by the young woman came
 in and set good supper on the table | I ate my fill and when l had finished | took out one of the coins I had taken | from the box and handed it to her.
 No she said. there's nothing to pay. You're quite welcome to your
 supper. I hope it has done you good. You looked tired and hungry when you
 came in. and felt sorry for you. So l have given you the best in the ! house.
 That was the first lesson in kindli-
 ness ever received. At any rate. it was the first that ever took hold of | me. When I thought of the contents
 of the box in my pocket and my offer
 ing one of her own coins in p4yment
 for her kindness, not the least part of which was the way she offered it. my
 despicable meanness seemed to shrivel | me all up. I couldn't look her in the face.
 | "'You don't need to go on,' she said We have a spare bed upstairs q was thinking how would get the
 money back in the box in the chir1-
 ney, and it occurred to me that if
 stayed there ali night could slip down i7 the night and do the job. So | said: Thank you, miss. If you don't mind I reckon will. It'll be a | great accommodation to me-
 "'No more than to me. My brother
 and his wife have gone away for a few days and left me alone with the
 children. They say that Murphy's
 gang is operating in the neighbor-
 hood, and wouldn't mind having a
 man in the house.
 "Tn that case.' I said, I think m
 sleep on that lounge, and I'll guaran-
 tee that no man gets upstairs unless i le goes over my dead body
 "T knew two of my men would be
 along there that night. and I reckoned
 they'd take in anything by the way.
 The first thing I did before turning
 in was to put the money back in the
 box. When I'd done that felt the
 first of a kind of comfort I'd never
 experienced before. I didn't go to
 sleep. wanting to be awake if any one
 called. In the middle of the night my
 two men, Pete Barnickei and Cobra
 do Bill did call I showered bullets
 everywhere about them except just
 where they were, and they concluded
 there m1st be a whole vigilance com
 mittee inside. When they had gone
 heard a soft voice call down the
 stairs:
 ".Thank you
 "Just you go to sleep. Pm in com.
 mand here.'