Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1912-06-20
CHAPTER XIV.
The Train Butcher.

MdIOly was dragging out q riSer-
able existence with a companion who
was neither maid, wife. nor widow
and to whom he was neither bachelor.
husband, 0 relict.
They were suffering brain-fag from
their one topic Of conversation. and
heart-fag from rapture deferred. Mar
jorie had pretended to take a nap
and Mallory had pretended that he
would leave her for her W sake.
Their contradictory chains were be-
ginning to gail.
Mallory sat in the smoking DOM.
and threw aside a h~alf-finished cigar.
Life was indeed nauseous when to-
bacco turned rank on his lips. He
watched without interest the stupen-
dous scenery Whirling past the train;
granite r%aYines, Internal grotesques
of architecture and diablerie, the
Giants Teapot, the Devils Slide, the
Pulpit Rock, the Hanging Rock,
splashes Of mineral color, as II titanic
paint pots had been spilled or flung
against the cliffs, sudden nueaes OF
green pine-worlds, dreary ~grayeysrds
of sand and sagebrush, mountain
streams in frothing pglics.
His jaded soul could not respond to
any OF these thrillers, the dime-noY-
els and m~eIodramatic third-acts of ma
ture. But with the arrival of a train
boy, who had got on at Evanston with
a batch Of Salt Lake City newspa-
pers, he woke a little.
The other men came trooping
round, like sheep at a h~erd-boy's
whistle or chickens when a pan of
grain is brought into the yard. The
train butcher" had a nasal s~ing-song,
but his strain might have been the
PIED Piper's tune emptying HameItn
OF its grown-ups. The charms Of fir
tation, matrimonial bliss ard fem
mime beauty We're forgotten, and the
males tlocEed to the delights of stock
market reports, political or racing or
dramatic or sporting or criminal
news. Even Asb&on braved the eyes
OF his fellow men for the luxury of
burying his S in a fresh paper.
Papers, gents? Yes? MOI" the
train butcher chanted. salt Lake pa
pers, Ogden papers, all the latest pa
pers, comic papers, magazines, Pc
r%iodicals,"
Here, boy" said Ashton, swapping
his fingers, whats the latest New
York paper?"
Last Sat'day's."
Six days old? read that before l
left New York. Well, give me that
Salt Lake paper, It has yesterdays
stock market, | suppose"
yes, sir" He passed over the
sheet and made change, without abat-
ing his monody: Papers, gents. Yes?
No? Salt Lake pa"
"Whash latesh from Chicago?" said
Wellington.
Mondays"
II read that ~before-that breakfast
began" laughed Little Jimmie. well,
give me Salt Lake Bazoo. 1t has bashe.
ball news, I s'pose,"
Yes, sir" the butcher answered,
and his tone grew reverent as he
said: "The Giants won. Mr.. Mattyson
vas pitching. Papers, gents, all the
latest papers, magazines, periodicals"
Wedgewood extended a languid
hand: Whats the latest issue of the
London Times?"
Never heard of it,"
Wedgewood almost tainted, and re-
turned to his Baedeker of the United
States.
DR.. Temple summoned the lad: II
don't suppose you have the Ypsilanti
Eagle?"
The butcher regarded him with pity,
and shifted: Il carry newspapers, not
poultry"
well, give me the" he saw a
pink weekly of rather picturesque ap-
p%earance, and the adventure attracted
him. "Ill take this-also the Out
look" He folded the pink within the
green, and entered into a new and
startling world-a sort of journalistic
Summing tour.
Give me any old thing" said MAI
lory, and flung open an Ogden jour
nal till he found the sporting page,
where his eyes frightened. by jove,
a ten-inning game! MatthewsOn in
~ hov"