The Press., 1911-06-14
A MINERS .... LOVE STORY By SAMUEL E. BRANT
Copyright by American Press -Asso--
 ciation, 1911,

III C1at1On, 1911.
 'aThe fun's all gone outen this yer country" said the old miner. ''Senc the railroads has been built ther hain't no more excitement, romand happenin's and all that. When VI travelled in these yere mountings il stagecoaches there was all sorts o things happenen, from lovemakin' t hair raisin'."
 He took long flat piece of tobacco out of his mouth, bit of piece an, resumed.
 "I've seen all sorts of things goin' ol in stageeoaches. I've been held ul by road agents half dozen times been chased by Indians; seen coupl that had never seen each other befor start out n a coach in the mornin' sanC married the same evenin' a hundret miles from where they started. Ant I had a romance oncet. | don't know exactly what you call romance meb by. What is tt?''
 ooh, where there's a lot of lov' going on."
 That's it-that's my case. Ther' was love enough to pull the coacl without no horses. I was ridin. iron Cheyenne to Denver, and the only pas senger Right out on the plains among the prairie dogs, not cabin in sigh nor a tree, either, I saw a young wo man a-footin' it along the road ahead I was sittin' with the driver and asked him what he thort she was doin' walk in that away. He said he didn't know and didn't keer. Like enoug1 she'd ask him for a ride and she would not git it onless she paid her fare.
 "When we reached her she stepped outen the road and looked up at us sort of pitiful. She was a young thing-not over eighteen-though she was purty tall. I asked the driver. tC stop. He refined in, and said to the gal: aE
 "'Want a lift, missY
 "sTd like one,' she said in hoarse voice, coughin', but haven't any money ',..'
 "'Git up,' says the driver, says he But stopped him, tellin' him I'd pay the gals fare to Denver, I got down and opened the door. She got in. follered her and set down beside her. She was mighty 'bleeged to me for payin' her fare and cottoned to me right away.
 "She had red cheeks and was purity as a pictur', all except her hair, that looked as if it hadn't never been combed. It was tousled all, over her forehead. I axed her if she'd like a comb outen my satchel for to straight en 1t out. She larfed and said that was the way ladies wore their hair. I axed her what ladies, and she said ladies from the eastern states, where there was big towns. @ a.
 ''Of course, she bein' under obliga- tions to me for payin' her fare, we got on mighty fast. One thing led to another, and we was thicker and thicker with every relay. Lucky for me nobody got in, though there warn't much danger of that, for there wasn't a settlement between Cheyenne and Denver. I pumps her to know who she was, and finally she let out that she had been lady's maid to an off, cer's wife at Fort --. She was goin' to St. Louis to see her mother, who was sick. She'd spent all her money stagin' 1t and was walkfn' :tfie rest of the way, except when she could git lift.
 "Well, we kep' gittin' thicker and &RNRn1rnyo All o\1 T h0exH1VN $n mo 1nvn like steam engine. Then when I'd got through tellin' her how purity she was and how I loved her I come down to business and tole her I'd struck hole up on Clear creek pam nin' out $500 to the ton: that I was mighty lonely and wanted, wife to help me spend the money was mak- in'. ... ..
 ''She said she wouldn't give up her sick mother for no gold mine and was goin' right on to St. Louis. tried to coax her, but it didn't do no good She At shy after that, and the shier she fit the more tried to persuade her.
 "When we got within about ten miles of Denver she opened the door and was goin' to git out, but I tux hold, of her and held her. She turned round, and never see sich change in any one in my life. She was just boilin'.
 "'I beg yer pardon said. I didn't intend to insult you. I was just goin' to try onct more to get you to listen to- .a .E4
 "'You keep your hands off meY she hollered in a different kind of a voice from before. I'm goin' to git out of the coach, you bloomin' idiot, and if you try to keep me I'll knock you into the middle of next week.
 ''It was wonderful how that love that had been swellin' up in my heart like a balloon collapsed and was a-sinkin' down like the outside with the gas all out of 1t.
 "sWho air you, and what you doin' in them togsY hollered.
 "'I don't care now who knowsv-they won't foller me this far. Pm de- serter from the .-th infantry, station. ed at Fort -.'. t.
 ''With that he jumped down on. to the road and skedaddled in a. southwest and that was the last seen of him.
 ''I got up with the driver. He was 1t to kill himself. ]. I knowed she was deserter,' he said, from the fust. There is scarcely trip make ! this way that don't overhaul one or more of lem. Sometimes, they're inl uniform, sometimes in citizens togs, and oncet in awhile some young un with peach cheeks I'll travel as a wo- man." .r.~ .fi
 
 A Taste For Soap.
 Surely one of the queerest of tastes was that of the historian Prescott. of | up h.Azn lifn in Ilonnn Mrs Hmnh Lrrnnor