Weekly journal-miner. [volume] (Prescott, Ariz.) 1908-1929, 1914-06-03
MAKES MAcARoNI s~9 -
fh-e,- ~ OF IRON PIPE
(From Sundays Daily.)


his neck, stomach or forearm; VIII
can drag along twenty drays eac
with human being inside and all c
the twenty vehicles attached to
rope passed around his neck; VIII
can break two-inch plank over hi
head; who can take two decks @
cards, slam them together and the
tear off every one of the four corn
ers in his teeth; who can take al
inch pipe between those same Two
rles and bend it into a big, roun,
o.; who can-but what's the use
It can't be done, anyway.
And that's just what any one
more or less, might be justified il
saying if they hadn't met Texas,
who is now in Prescott.
What solar plexus is coming fol
the Thomases! Shades of Hercule.
and Omphale! By the way tina
cute little slogan is an idea o.
Texas" himself, who may use it il
a continent-wide tour to boost the
Frontier Day but OF this more anon
as the lady novelist says when she
gets her characters in tangle that
will require the next half dozen
chapters to straighten out.
His real name isn't Texas" Per-
haps you've guessed that much al
ready. That is the name, though.
under which he is known in several
parts of North America and other
odd holes and corners of the globe
IN which at one time or another he
has done his strong-arm stunts.
His real name-that which he
signs to his contracts and titles to
real estate-is Albert B. Richie. He
assumed the sobriquet because he
was fortunate enough to be born in
the Lone Star State thirty-six years
ago at Weattherford, Parker county.
Early, though, he commenced the
nomadic life that has been his since.
At the tender age of 5-though
there was nothing tender about his
muscles even then-he was taken
with his family to Chicago, and soon
after began to sell papers there on
Lake street, his first introduction to
the serious business of rustling for
his hot cakes and coffee.
When he was II years of age, he
weighed 15S pounds and could not
get anyone to believe that he was
day less than IS. He felt the lure
OF California.
Il expected, like a good many
other people at that time, to find
lemonade fountains gushing up any
old place, while the trees grew gold
as much as they did leaves" he says
nalvely, looking back at those days
in the late eighties and the early
nineties when the world not yet had
forgotten forty-nine and the won
derful years thereafter. at became
a case of California or bust with
me, and / figured that it wouldn't
be bust So we matte little wager
on 1t and | started out-with just a
dime in my pocket. | won my way
from place to place, earning living
by selling papers and shining shoes; /
sometimes | made good progress
to the goal of my dreams; some 1
times | didn't, but generally speak |
ing. l was getting nearer all the
time.
Just six weeks later, though, I |
entered San Francisco from the
south-with $50 in my pocket, all .
OF which had made on my way
in"
Any one who could make that
much on such a trip was not going
to starve in San Francisco in those
days. Texas" didn't. He went
back to his old game of selling pa
pers, his pitch this time being the
OF Kearney and Market
streets, where he did a roaring trade
in Chronicles"
1t wasn't so very long before he
became known around town in
sporting sircles. Soon he was con-
sldered the mascot OF the jockey
club OF the time when such men as
Riley Grammar. Lyons, Bill Thomas,
Lucky" Baldwin and white Hat"
followed the great game
here. In between times about now,
too, Texas worked at Thomas dye
house on Tenth street. just to learn
the trade. In those days he roomed
at the since defunct Denver House.
But the change was at hand for
him. Always endowed with far
more than ordinary muscular
strength and development. he dream
ed one night OF Sampson and his
mighty feats. Came, with waking
hours, the desire of emulation. He
secured from the blacksmith iron
bars OF from one 10 one and a
quarter inches in diameter each;
he bent them in his teeth, supported
four or five men on them across his
back and did other stunts Of like
nature, all tending to show that here
was a youth who should go far in
the strong man game. So thought
mis- sporting hackers; they did more
than think, showing their faith in
the mascot by collecting a purse OF
$50 for him. sending him down to
San Jose and advising him to start +
out for himself. He did. and for Il
twenty-five years has never stopped, /
accumulating in the process as much
kale and kudos as is good for the
average man, and much more than
the average man gets anyhow.
By the way, it should be related
that Texas put in two terms at
Stanford University in his California
days, where he was more known for
his prowess with the gloves-and
without them-and in athletics gen
IL Il,