Evening star., 1919-12-28
GANGWAY FOR SUDIE BELLE

winch claim is some record for a
seVehteen-y -year-old miss from Tupper-
town, N. Y.
mayDe you never heard of that classic
purs' expect i wouldn't have either
~ hadnt been for Sulphur Steve"
'ehhs' course, that wasn't the name on
tie prass plate down in front of his
BROAD street offices, but understand II
was the one he was best known bv
among the stock exchange crowd. You
could easy guess why after you'd heard
MN express his emotions when he was
wen stirred up. for he was an easy and
fluent cusser
amt givin' you that second handed
either. No, Sulphur Steve had been a
reg lar of mine here at the physical
culture studio long enough for me to
know most of his little traits as well as
some that wasn't quite so we'll adver-
used. For instance. where he took his
oegree In profane language. 1t was out
IN The Black Hills drivin a siX-mule
supply team over roads that was mainly
antelope trails and hadn't been i'm
proved any when he met EN-
So you see Mr.. jerks must have been
once he'd put in twenty years followin'
new strikes of pay dirt Not drivin'
mules all the time. He graduated from
that to full blown mining engineer and
it wasn't until he was over fifty that
he came east to discover that the big
money wasn't in stakin' claims out in
the wilds, but by openin' offices right
Eere in New York and unloadn' lninn'
stocks on ambitious investors who
wanted to get rich without workn' up
any hand callouses. From that he got
TO be general operator; gold, silver.
copper, anything dug out OF the ground
except potatoes and carrots: until the
youngster who'd run away from home
when he was sixteen with total capital
Of $3.75 and a Johanathan Crook jack
knife had come to be one of our promi-
nent plutes, with ten-room suite at
the Perzazzer Hotel, three chins, his
favorite table at Dels, and spotted
liver that sent him to Shorty McCabe's
for medicine ball treatment about every
so often.
First off / used to think he was
just hard-boiled old pirate who had
a soul like a withered hickory nut
and the disposition Of a rogue ele-
phant. AS for his business ethics
and private morals. the less said OF
them the better. But as we got bet
ter acquainted l got wise to the fact
that he wasn't half as had as he let
on to be. ] expect l must have said
something of the kind once for I re-
member his gettin' confidential and
tellin' me was more than half right.
In fact, Shorty" says he. II am
almost perfect and an upright man,
such as Job was. Only that side Of
my life I live vicaniOusly."
"Eh?" says 7, gawpin' at him.
Through my brother, the Hon.
Matthew Jenks," says he. He has
done the respectable and the reli-
gious for both Of us. insisted on
his starting that way. and I've kept
him at it. He's not going to lose by
it in the end, either. I've fixed all
that"
Seems Matthew was couple of
years younger and he was the one
the old folks depended on when Steve
cleared out. p He didn't want to stay,
either. But Steve kept writing back
TO him how he must, and teilin' what
a rough time he was havin'. and now
and then sendin' him q money order
to keep him cheered up. 1t was Steve
who advised him to get a job in the
bank, and urged him to join the
church. and egged him on to marryin'
the girl he used to be sweet on him
self. And when Steve made his first
big stake almost his next move was
to buy enough bank shares so he
could put Matthew IN as president.
And all this without the two ever
having seen each other for more'n
forty years. But hardly a week went
by without Steve writin to Matt and
Mats writin' to Steve. He had a
picture Of the Hon. Matthew on his
desk. and carried around snap shots
Of his two nieces, one a young lady
well along in the twenties, the other
just q kid.
Hes even brought up a family for
me. shorty" says Sulphur Steve to
me.
Il should think you'd want to run
up there and see him some day?"
suggested once.
80 would" says steve. ''if 1 could
do 1t without his seeing me. Besides.
hs would ask me to say the blessing
at dinner. A fine object I'd be, Shorty,