St. Johns review. (Saint Johns, Or.) 1904-current, 1914-01-02
William Trips
Old Mother
BY NJ. QUAD
BY NJ. QUAD
Copyright, 1918. by Associated Lit
erary Press.

When | pick out one man from a
mining camp made up OF 800 run
aways, debt jumpers, cutthroats. gam.
blers. horse thieves and murderers and
call him wicked mean for the reader
to infer that he was right up and
down bad
Which was exactly the case with
William Trip.
Wicked! Well, he was that.
Such n swearer as William was! lie
would begin ms soon ~ his eyes were
open I'm the morning and Keep up q
steady Rre until 10 O'Clock at night
And he was cheat aud a llar.
You wonder that We didn't run him
out or hang him.
Well. somehow we always intended
to. but always put II on to n more
convenient date. The success Oi
bouncing u man depends n good deal
on who the man IL. ON our first gen
tie hint 10 William Trlpp that unless
he was packed up and out Of camp In
side of thirty minutes his anatomy
would he rlddlcd with bullets he pro-
ducrd n couple of revolvers. backed up
against tho Red Eye saloon and calm.
~ observed that he was aching for u
little excitement think his actions
NJ thnt particular tlmc had something
10 do with our giving him the rope
aud seeking to get along with his &C.
ccutric trnits NJ character
II move" said Elder Beacon one
night when we were talking about
williams had ways. that the com.
mltiec got the drop ON him and then
run him into the hills"
Just So hut who were the commit.
tee? That was nnpthcr point we could
never satisfactorily determine, and that
WIS another reason why William con.
tlnucd to abide with us.
Shootl Well. you never saw such an
eye and such nerve. Just ~ fnr M he
could see the bowl ~ u pipe In u mans
mouth he could smash Il with n bullet
Almost every hnt IN camp hnd nm mir
hole mndc by one Of his bullets. aud.
though ! WIS prcludlccd against VII
Ham. I had a. admit that he respected
NlfVl n NNNNH w HANNNiNk W ANfA hNAf
liut there came u halt In william
Trlpp's mad career and II happened
In q queer way. \ lire In his tent one
night burned up n lot or his traps. and
he hnd to make ride ~ thirty miles
ou Colonel Cooper's old mare Ia replace
tncm with new. The morning ho rode
ont ~ camp WIS the last time We saw
him. but we heard from dozen III
fcrcnt ones Just what happened About
twelve miles from our camp was the
Overland trail. nnd Just whore our own
trfl struck In WAS u pretty little val
loy with plenty ~ water aud wood II
WIS fnvorlto camping spot with I'M
migrants. aud the day William Trlpp
reached II he found hulf dozen wng
ons and ~ many families halted Tor
u breathing spell
The dcviliry IN Williams nature hub
blcd over when he struck that valley
aud hchcld such scene Of pence
children were playing around, women
wcrc washing Hnd mcnding. aud the
brnwny men were repairing wagons
aud harness aud whistllng over their
work William drew rein and gazed
upon the sceue for few minutes
Then ho out with his revolver Seated
before one ~ the hrcs was un old wo
man with her knitting In hand and u
pipe u her mouth n was n long shot
hut The evil one urged William 10 try
A. aud Try he did.
What happened7
Something even worse than murder
Tho bullet went straight for the old
womuu's head aud crashed into hci
hrain Then something awful follow
ed. She rose Ia her feet. whlrled
around 10 face the shooter. aud true
NJ sou live she seemed Ia look at him
FOR thirty seconds before she tottered
forward aud shrlekcd out,
William on. nay son william"
Then she pitched forward on the
grass ana WAS dead In second. aud
the red blood oozed nut aud made =
terrible stain IN the green grass
And William what did he do? lie
was like one turned 10 stone The old
woman's words plainly reached his
ears. aud he must have recognized heI
face. In the awful moment In which |
he sat gazing nc the corpse on the /
grass IL must have flashed across him |
that his poor mother had made that |
long Journey with neighbors for no
other purpose than 10 hunt him up he
The boy who had left her years ago
and had been the subject Of her night.
~ prayers ever since Wicked as he
Was he must have felt her devotion
md sacrifices
Aud theny
lie sat there In his saddle. his ewes
ON his mothers corpse. aud
he revolver stlll In his hand. The sit
lation had petrihed him While he sat
hus one of the immigrants. who. be
ieving that the camp was TO be at.
acked by a force. leveled his ride
'ver the wheel OF the wagon aud sent
bullet plowing through Williams
Ieart
An. we'll; it's years aud years ago.
nj the twin graves in the valley have
lng since been tpmpled out of sight.
nd White Dog plggings can be found
% more, but the day the news OF that
Wful tragedy came back 10 us we
ropped spade aud pick and could
.orG no more for the day. And after
long period of silence among the
len, who had instinctively gathered
round Judge Desire 10 hear his opin-
m the Judge arose aud said
"Fe.ler citizens. the wicked don't live
nj half his days, and dOn't you for.
II H."