Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1911-03-11


his back He stopped in the middle of
the road Looking about, his eyes
rested upon a weather-beaten sign
board upon which had once been
painted the picture of a black bear
resting upon it's launches. For more
than hundred years this sign board
had been swinging to and fro as II
reckoning and inviting passersby to
enter the little inn that was standing
some Is or 20 feet back from the
road. It took Mr. Herman Weisgar-
Der several minutes to decipher the
inscription beneath the faded picture.
When he had succeeded, as he thought,
he muttered audibly, Dish ish de
blaze Der black bear vas inn, und
l shust myself will walk in nit him"
Bracing up a little and stroking his
chin he stepped with a heightened
stride into the little front room that
served as an Office for the Black Bear
Inn. Here he found himself in the
presence of pleasant-faced woman
who smiled coquettishly.
He greeted her in his own tongue,
in which she replied, and the CONVEX
sation was now carried on briskly in
the German language 1t was a bux-
ON widow on the one hand and a ras-
Carly COuuI0I101tST OH l10 OlAcI
was a longtime rogue, but she was
honest and unsuspicious. With her
the world was good, with him it was
dog eat dog and the devil take the
hindmost- The widow Hartz was al
together too unsophisticated to pene-
| trate the dark recesses of the hollow
hearted man that had by chance come
suddenly into the affairs of her life.
| She judged him by her own heart
and little dreamed of the misery so
soon to follow her chance acquaint-
| ance with Herman Weisgarber-
| Her husband had died about two
years before At this time her heart
was conferred on her son, young man
/ nearly twenty years of age John
Hartz, thanks TO the training of his
| father, was honest and Industrious.
The Black Bear Inn and the little
| farm adjoining was a sacred inheri-
lance from his paternal grandfather.
The Inn was now somewhat out of
date, but was still doing its part to-
wards furnishing the mother and son
living and little to lay up for a
rainy day. Johns father had taught
him to stand firmly for the right in
all things
MI Weisgarber's gray blue eyes
overhanging brows as he stood ex
planning to the widow Hartz regarding
himself The word tramp, now sc
aptly applied to the tie-path tourist
had not been coined in that day and
men OF his like were little understood
He said he was just out on pleasure
tour and that he travelled on foot as
a matter of choice. He was moving
1eisurely along that he might better
! enjoy the lovely scenery and pure
{ mountain air. His words were wei
chosen and deeply impressive as he
: cautiously worked his way up TO the
. point of offering to remain for a time
r and assist in the work about she I'M
and farm He had a smooth tongue
The turnpike, winding it's wa,
along up and down the sides, owe
and across the Allegheny mountain
was then the popular highway TO
drovers and wagoners upon their wa.
to and fro between Eastern Pennsyl
vania and Pittsburg- The peopl
' along this route were principally Gel
mans Some of them could neithe
read nor speak English They live
F, mainly ON what they produced an
: | had little occasion to spend thei
money Almost anything that locke
like money would pass. In thos
a days much of the paper none
In circulation was of the vii
q cat kind Between the counterfei
- and genuine issue there was but Ii
n tie choice One passed from hand I
: hand almost as readily as the othea
= Herman Weisgarber, as he Gale
% himself, had for many years been dod,
ing about from place to place N,
king a living by showing the Quee
IL
~ derstand the English language he wa
able to deceive the officers and e
cape arrest 1t was always Mich
, | yerstehe'' with him He shust didn
know noting bout baper monies"
To the widow Hartz he appeared
man of honor She measured b
character by her own and could Sc
81 no farther Six months had scarcei
nd passed from the time she met hi
81 until he became her husband
When John Hartz came in conta,
with his step-father he was homes
sh | and had he followed in the footstel
of his own father he would have T
IN manned So It did not take long
prove that he was susceptible al
easily drawn into ways that were dal
; , and forbidding- Step by step he w;
led along and craftily initiated in
: the mysterious doings of counterfe
-