The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-04-11

D
\ were placed in a hat and ten men were
selected. Every one of the lucky ten
was ordered to black his boots, take
I his trousers out of them. wear coat
Z il he lad one and report at the tavern
that evenin' for introduction by Miss
! Bowers.
THE next mornin' Mr.. Parkhurst
called for Huggins.
"'Well, Huggins,' he said when the
old man appeared. how did it turn out
| last nightT
"'At the courtin'? Tofable. Sir
tol'able. Three men proposed to gals
| as TUX 'em, four men was too nary
to 20 down with any of the gals. two
men wanted the same gal and was
killed I'm a shootin' match afterward
One man got up on his ear with gal
! who wouldn't have him and said he
4 had a wife already in Frisco and didn't
want no more of 'em. This Leaves
seven gals for the next drawin' and
three men less to be provided for
Seven names were next drawn and
! presented the same evenin. This was
Higgins report of the second pair on:
"'Three paired off. one feller was
drunk and wasn't let in to the courtin
Three men wanted the same gal. They
had triangular fight. the survivor to
win; little feller with red hair winner
Gal wouldn't have him That leaves
four gals for prizes
in this way eleven of the gals was
paired. leavin' one. the purtiest of the
lot, to be disposed Of. All the fellerS
wanted her from the first, and most
Of the men that got killed was fightin'
for her. But she wouldn't have none
of em. She's mighty particular. seein'
she's had twenty men to pick from.
She's got snappin' black eyes, kind OF
reddish hair and is purity and plump
as a robin.
Now, If you want to work out a
scheme for furnishin' 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
Becky Riggs, bein' the only unmarried
woman left in the camp-Miss Bowers
had gone back for another load-and
every man left wantin her. set up a
confiagntion. Every day there was a
Hght about her, and some one was sure
to be killed The wives begged her to
choose some one and stop the f1ghtin'
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 filled the bill.
"Well. 1t got SO bad at last. so many
good men bein' 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 n word.
Things KEEP goin' from bad to worse.
Some of the men Miss Riggs had re-
fused TUX to 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 IL 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 a car.
load Of women. The president wrote
that Miss Bowers had come back and
wouldn't advise no more gals to 20
to sich benighted place. This looked
purity black. Mr.. Parkhurst called for
old Ben Huggins and axed him what
was best to be done.
"'When l was livin' with my ole
woman. Mr.. Parkhurst.' Higgins said
knowinly. i found out that women
must have their way
What do you mean by thatr
well. sir. there's nothin' fur n pur.
ty gal here but to git married. Every
man here has axed Miss Riggs but
one
!" i thought they had all asked her.
No. sir: there's one left, and the
KNOWN ones among the wives say
that's the one she wants
"'Who is he?'
81 think It's you. sir
| ~?
Yes, sir-you.'
You must be mistaken.
| IF am the women amt
| He didn't say no more about II
but | noticed that he was sprucin' IN
He'd been wearin' flannel shirt. ant
fust thing | knowed he had put on |,
boiled one. Then he went to the bar
Der and got q shave. After supper
seen him lookin' 1t himself In q aias,
that hung beside the roller towel a
the tavern. Next he headed for th,
cabin where Miss Riggs was stayin'.
The young woman was perfectl,
aware that the manager understoo,
the situation. Furthermore. abe ha,
brought with her some becomin' cos
.x.l A. n