Gilpin observer., 1916-06-15
THE GUTTER

Below ia printed q portion Of the
stcry wrihten by Arnold Dunstone.
OF Black Hawk, which won the prize
OF $500 offered by Robt. Sayre for
the best English composition writ
ten by a high-school pupdl. The re-
majinder OF the story will be printed
next week. It Is not only we'll writ
ten but having local color, makes in
teresting reading:
Arthur Collins, Jr., commonly
known as Art, was the son Of a
wealthy mining man Mr.. Collins, who
was also known as Art when he was
a boy. Mr.. Collins was borl and
raised In mining camp, but after
making a fair fortune he had moved
to hhe city to give his son a better
education. Mr.. Collins was man
among men and the old timers Of the
camp never tired of telling of his
feats of strength and skill.
His son Arthur was different. He
was a substitute catcher on the high
sci ool base ball team and the only
one beside the regular catcher cap
able OF filling that position. At the
big game between his school and
another school the catcher was hit
on the wrist with the ball and was
thereby put out of the game. Art
was put in his place but Art was
afraid He was a fine catcher but
he was afraid. He let many balls
go by him because he was afraid to
try for them. Thru his errors two
men brought in runs and won the
game for the opposing high school.
Everybody knew why the game was
lost and in the locker room after the
game none of the boys spoke to him
except as. they passed out they hisset
"Quitter!
Yes he was a quitter. He himself
admitted 1t but it wasn't his fault.
He couldn't make himself catch those
balls. They were coming swift and
might have hurt him. He thought
this as Re walked home alone.
Several little incidents like this
one showed UP Arts character. This
hunt his father who had never been
afraid of anything. Many times he
had had talks with his son trying
to get him to be man and to have
some backbone hut none of them
seemed to do any good.
The ball game was the last straw
Mr. COLLINS had seen the game and
his sons actions completely disgust
ed him. He reached hCnne before Ar
and made UP his mind. to send Art
to his mine. THE vagabond," which
was situated on the top Of hill six
teen miles from the nearest town
up there" he said, '%fe men are
real men and II they don't make a
man OF Arthur before school Etarts
again will be greatly mistaken"
That night he called Art into his
study. "You will Start for the VagaI
bond in the morning" he said, sc
be ready to leave on the $3.50 train
l saw you at the ball game today and
have heard what the boys called you
They were perfectly right, you are q
quitter. am thru talking to you
and am going to let you make mar
CT yourself. Ycu will leave tomorrow
for the mine and will stay there un
til you and are both sure that you
are no longer gutter. That is all
This speech s:urg Art to the quick
To have his father call him quittel
WAS worse than anything he coult
laNe said. Art almost reverenced hi
father and never tired CT listening tc
his exploits but now he had called
lTm quitter and had sent him away
He started to say something in his
defense but his father cut him shor'
with, "Tfhat win do" Art knew tba'
this was final and walked out of the
room with his head hanging and tear,
in his eyes.
Art had been to the mine severa
times with his father and knew what
kind of a place 1t was. The mime
was way up on the top of noun
tain just above timberline. An aeria
trem ran from the mine 10 the mil
a mile or more below at the bottom
of the gulch. A little way from uhe
mill was the boarding house com
pletely hidden from sight by large
pine trees. There was no wagor
road to the mine and only one mar
row footpath and the clearing made
for the tram. 1t was beautiful, pic
turesque spot ard when seen from
q distance 1t looked like one vas
green carpet with white figures IL
1t and stretched from the creek al
most to the top of the mountain.