Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1917-06-29

selected Every one Of the lucky ten
was ordered to black his boots. take
his trousers out Of them, wear coat
If he had one aud report At the tavern
that eyenin' for Introduction by Mis-
Bowers,
"The next momin' Mr. parkhurst
called for Higgins
"Wel, lIuggins,' he said when the
old man appeared, how did 1t turn out
last nghtY
"'M the courtin'? Tolahe, sir,
tol'able, Three men proposed to gals
as TUX cm, four men was too Urinary
to 90 down with any Of the gals, two
men wanted the same gal ana was
Killed In n shootln match aftcrward
One man got UP on his ear with n gal
who wouldn't have him and said he
had wife already in Frisco and didn't
want no more Of 'em. This leaves
seven gals for the next drawn and
three men less TO be provided for
Seven MINES were next drawn and
presented the same evenn' This was
Higgins report of the second pair off
"'Thrcc paired off. One Teller was
drunk and wasn't let In to the courtln
Three men wanted the same gal. They
had a triangular fight, the survivor to
win; little Teller with red hair winner
Gal wouldn't have him, That leaves
four gals for prizes
an this way eleven Of the gals was
paired, leayn' one, the purtcst OF the
lot, to he disposed of, All the felers
wanted her from the first, and most
Of the men that got killed was hghtln'
for her But she wouldn't have none
of EN-. She's mighty particular, seem
she's had twenty men to pick from.
She's got snappln black eyes, kind of
reddish hair and is purity and plump
as n robin.
"Now, If YOU want to work out
scheme for furnshin' wives YOU don't
want nary Of the women to be jim
dandy one purity woman with the
old Nick In her will spoil any practical
plan that was ever got up, This gal,
Becky Riggs, beln the only unmarried
woman left in the camp-NliSs Bowers
had gone back for another load-and
every man left wantn' her, set up
conhagration, Every day there was
fight about her and some one was sure
to be killed. The wives begged her to
choose some one and stop the tightin',
But she wouldn't. Shed make b'lieve
she was goin' to take one of 'em and
then start In TO encourage another
II anything was needed to keep up the
list of casualties this filed the bill.
well, it got so bad at last, so many
good men ben' killed, that Mr.. Park
hurst sent Miss Riggs word that he'd
be pleased to furnish her ticket back
where she came from She sent word
to him that she'd ruther be an old
maid in Colorado than bloomin' mar
ried woman in the east. Then Mr.
ParkhurSt went to see her to reason
with her. She jist set there listenin
to him with her head on one side and
her nose In the air and didn't answer
never word.
Things KEEP goin' from bad to worse.
Some Of the men Miss Riggs had re-
fused tux 10 drink, and most of 'em
wouldn't work. 1t was impossible to
git other hands, and the dirt taken out
was gittin' less and less every day. 1t
begun to seem that if Miss Riggs wasn't
married or didn't go away the mine
would have to shet down. The presi-
dent wrote to know what was up.
Mr., Parkhurst wrote to send ON Il car
load of women. The president wrote
that Miss Bowers had come back and
wouldn't advise no more gals to go
to SIGH benighted place. This looked
purity black. Mr.. ParkhurSt called for
old Ben Higgins and aXed him what
was best to be done.
"When | was liyin' with my ole
woman, Mr.. Parkhurst,' higgins said
knowingly I found out that women
must have their way
"What do you mean by that"
"'Wcll, sir, there's nothin' fur a pur-
ty cal here but to cit married Every
man here has aXed Miss Riggs but |
one.
II thought they had all asked her.
"'No, sir; there's one left, and the
KNOWN Oncs among the wives say
that's the one she wants.
"'Who is heY
~ think it's you, sir
81?
eyes, sir-you.'
"'You must be mistaken.
If am The women amt
He didn't say no more about it,
but | noticed that he was sprucin' up.
He'd been wearin flannel shirt, and
fust thing l knowed he had put on q
boiled one. Then he went to the bar
Der and got shave. After supper |
seen him loOkin' at himself in ii glass
that hung beside the roller towel at
the tavern. Next he headed for the
cabin where Miss Riggs was stayin'.
The young woman was perfectly
aware that the manager understood
the situation. Furthermore. she had