The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-08-11


Great Caesar Martini" he
says, you don't mean to tell me
that you're going up into that
crowd of hayseeds-to hang over
q fence and watch some one run,
do you? Why any one should
want to rum" he says, when
they can keep still, is beyond me.
Ill be here when you get back"
And he stretched out on the pine
needles again.
We found there was a dickens
OF a crowd at the fair ground,
five or six hundred folks, / should
think, and more coming all the
time.
- Hartley gave one look around
ht the gang and his nose turned
up to IL o'clock.
you wait a spell, Mr.. Hart
ley" says |. Lets cruise round
q little first"
Sc we went showing along
through the crowd, getting our
toes tramped on and lodging
peddlers and such like every 9TH
or minute. There was the test
your strength" machine and the
merry-go-round and the "ossified
man" in a tent. Pretty soon we
come to where the Teller was sell
ing the f Pluribus Unum candy
red, white and blue, and a slab
as big as a brick for a dime.
Hartley stopped and stares at
n.
For heavens sakel" says he,
"What do they do with that?"
do with it?" says l. Eat It,
of course"
There was a little red-headed
youngster scooting in and out
among the folks knees and
caught him by the shoulder. chi,
Andrew Jackl" Says. 1. Want
some candy?"
He looked up at me as pert and
sassy as a blackbird on a scare
crows shoulder.
BET your natural" says he. I
jumped.
Lord" says 1; 81 eal'late he
knows you"
Hartley smiled. How do they
sell that-that Portland cement %
says he. "Give me some," he says,
handing a half dollar to the Teller
behind the oil-cloth counter. The
man chiseled off enough for a
fair-sized tombstone and handed
It out. Hartley passed IL to the
boy. He bit off a hunk that
made him look like he had the
humps on one side, and COM
menced to MUNICH 1t.
"There!" says l. That's proof
enough, amt it?"
Just them Major Philander
Phinney, he's chairman of the
Eastwich selectmen and pretty
night half as big as he thinks he
Is; he stood on tip-toe on the
judges stand and bellered that
the creased pig contest was open
to boys under fifteen, and that
the one that caught the pig and
hung on to it would get five dol
lars.
In less than three shakes of a
herring's hind leg there was boys
enough on that field to start a re-
form school.
"Hello!" says Hartley, there's
our Portland cement youngster.
He'll never run with that marble
quarry inside of him"
: Sure enough, there was the boy
that had tackled the candy. 1
could see his red head blazing
like a lightning bug. Next thing l
new the starter-Issachar Tiddit,
'twas-he opens the lid to the pig
box and hollers Col"
The line dropped. That little
lone pig see twenty odd pair of
hands shooting toward him, and
he fetched one yell like tug
boat whistle and put down the
field, with the whole crew be-
hind him.
Well, when that pig started he
made a straight course for the
lower end of the field, where the
= celebrator's rigs was hitched, but
the sight of the horses and all
scared him, I guess, and he jibed
and back he came again. Already
half the boys had given up the
job, but that little chap with the
red hair had been right up with
the mourners. Then one of the
boys made a flying jump and dove
head first right on top of the
critters shiny black back. In a
shake he was the underpinning,
so to speak, of a sort of monu-
ment of boys, all fighting like
dogs over a woodchuck.
Next thing / knew the pig shot
out from underneath the pile
same as IL he'd been fired out of
q cannon. Down the field he
went and the only one of the
chasers in front of him was that
little red head. He makes q
grab. misses, and the pig keeps
straight on, right into the crowd
of men and horses and carriages.
Look QUIT" yells everybody.
LET him goi" But that little
shaver want built that way. I'm
der the ropes he dives, right
where the jam of wheels and
hoofs was thickest. The horses
rared up and jumped and backed.
Tou could hear wheels grinding
and men yelling and women
screaming.
I was one of the first over that