The daily Alaskan., 1915-08-24
How Jimmie Kept His Horse
By F. A. MITCHEL

- Jimmie, there's nothing to eat in the house. You've got to sell Ginger"
 "Maw, cant do 1t That horse and me is like brothers"
 But We can't starve, and the horse is all there is left"
 Jim and his mother lived in a new town on the bank of the Missis- slppI river. The population was varie- gated, excitable and believed in the future of the town, which was called Jones City after Its founder. Jim was fifteen years old and born with q predlsposition to horseAesh. Some one had given him q colt, which he had traded for a mare, and after number of other trades Ginger, the apple of Jim's eye, was acquired.
 Jim left hIs mother and went out to the river bank, exceedingly sOr- rowful. The mighty stream rolled tif- ty feet below. Jim was so disconso- late that he thought of ending his troubles by jumping into the water. But 1t couldn't end them, because he could swim like q duck and was sure that when 1t came to drowning he would paddle ashore.
 Anyway he was opposed to the jump without taking Ginger with him. Gin ger would back. But he might blind fold the horse and he would go over without knowing 1t. The more the boy thought of the matter the stronger grew in him desire to take that leap on Ginger's baCk-not now for sui cidal purposes, but because 1t would be a daring feat. If he announced his intention of doing so what crowd would collect to see the leap! Every one in Jones City would turn out.
 There were 5000 persons in the town. Now, suppose every man, wo- man and child could be made to pay 50 cents to see the show. That would be $1,500. Ginger wouldn't bring more than $50 at most
 What an ideal
 Having got into Jim's head, he couldn't get it out It buzzed and sz- zled, but 1t stuck. Jim thought he would try to sec what he could do with Ginger blindfolded. He tied a hand kerchief around the horses eyes, mounted him and tried to make him go. The experiment for awhile fail ed, but so great was the animals con- fdence in his master that he soon be- came reconciled to walking in the dark while Jim guided him. Then he would consent to trot slowly. And so by de- grees Jim got him to move quite rapid ly under the handkerchief.
 By this time the idea had blOomed in the boys brain. The bluff from which he thought of jumping was perpendic- ular and the water beneath 1t forty feet deep. Jim considered the danger to be that the horse in his struggle might injure his rider. He didn't think much of any other danger. It was en- tIrely matter of nerve.
 One day Jim appeared in q pool room and showed q paper under the nose of the proprietor. It contained a state ment that Jim Hawkins proposed for $1OO0 to jump on his horse Ginger off the bank into the river in front of the town. The proprietor looked at Jim as if making a mental estimate for his coffin, then, taking up a pen, signed for $25. Jim left the place with subscrip- tions for over S200, and before night the whole amount had been subscribed. It was stipulated that the money was to be placed in the hands of MT. Jones, to be paid to Jlm's mother, for 1t was not considered probable that Jim would come out of the stunt alive.
 The only person in Jones City who did not know of the approaching enter tainment was Jim's mother, and he had persuaded her to visit her sister on the day. 1t was to take place. The ap-: