Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-08-27
THE WORLDS BIG BULLY
kansas City Star.1

Years ago in the old home town
there was, big bully. Everybody
was afraid of him. Even the city
marshal, who wore a star shaped on
the pattern of Jupiter, and carried
a revolver which stuck out of his
hip pocket SO that every one could
see it, and handled club, always
made it point to be in another
part of town when the bully start
ed something"
The clerks in the grocery stores
always accepted the bully's word in
any dispute as to the matter of
change. A Methodist would agree
with him if the bully declared for
immersion as the proper form OF
baptism. Full-grown men gave him
the sidewalk. When the bully would
get drunk and go on a tear" the
old home town stayed in at nights
and didn't use the streets; children
ran for shelter when they saw the
big bully coming.
There was a tradition in the town
that the big bully could whip field
full of ordinary men with one hand
tied behind him. Even the more
conservative citizens believed that if
Sullivan or Corbett or Fitzsimmons
should come to the old home town
the sporting world would be due for
sensational news item.
One day there came into the town
a quiet little man who had the ap-
pearance of one seeking a tubercu-
losis sanatorium. So far as enc
could judge he might have been
either an invalid or a professor in
a young women's seminary. 1t was
an unusually dull day in the old
home town, and the stranger saw
no one on the street to ask for a
direction for finding a citizen he
wanted to see, except the town
bully, for he always was on the
street. His wife took in" washing
and his daughter worked out" and
supported him in idleness. The
stranger did not take kindly to the
direction the big bully gave him,
and told him so.
You're a courteous chap" the
stranger said with sarcasm which
the big bully did not like.
'.Mebbe you can improve me-" the
big bully said.
II cam" the stranger replied. And
he did.
Before the old home town knew
that trouble was brewing the
stranger had tumbled it's idol into
the street. He BACKED his eyes
broke his nose, cuffed his ears, and
made him get down on his knees in
the street and apologize to him fol
his rudeness.
That evening young grocery
clerk came out from behind the
counter and gave the big bully an
other thrashing, and the city mar
shall, picking up courage, grabbed
the town bully and led him off te
the old home town Jail and locked
him up. The next morning the po'
lice judge fined him $25 and costs
and being unable to pay they pu
the town bully on the rock pile ant
made him pound rock. In weei
the children were calling to hin
when he walked down the street
asking him the directions for reach
ing various places in the town, ant
his wife, following the lead of the
others, one morning chased hin
out of the house and wouldn't le
= him come back again. The big bull.
left the town an exile from the place
where he had for years ruled thu
roost."
The story of the old home town.
big bully is recalled by an extrac
from the interesting letter from
Henry j. Allen in the Sunday Star
". finally we were goint
down on the other side of the noun
tain and came to the track of {
railroad. On one side of it wer'
these astounding words on the iroI
side, Halt then 'Das Ubertreter
der Balm list verboten.' We went OF
across. The 'verboten' sign ism
quite as efficacious as it was foul
years ago in these parts"