The Washington herald., 1921-05-08

vestigate.
But / hear couple Of yelis and
see two men running up the street
in leather overalls and high -heeled
boots and cartwheel hats One man
is six or eight feet high, with OPEN
plumbed joints and a heartbroken
cast Of eountenance. He picks up
the watch that has stuck in the
mud. The other man. who 10 little.
with pink hair and white eyes. goes
for the empty case. and says. I
win.' Then the elevated pessimist
goes down under his leather leg
holsters and hands q handful of
twenty-dollar gold pieces to his
albino friend. I don't know how
much money It was; 1t looked as big
as an earthQuake-relief fund to me.
"T'n have this here case filled mp
with works says Shorty, and.
throw you again for five hundred
I'm your company says the high
man. tn meet you at the Smoked
Dog Saloon an hour from now
The little man hustles away with
q kind Of Swiss movement toward
. jewelry store. The heartbroken
person stoops over and takes q tele-
scopic view of my haberdashery.
"Them's . mighty slick outfit of
habiliments you have got on. Mr..
Man. says he. TIL bet . hoss you
never acquired the right, title and
Atascosa City
why, no. says I, being ready
enough to exchange personalities
with this moneyed monument OF
melancholy. I had this suit tai
lored from a special line Of coater-
icks. vestures. and paintings in st.
Louis. Would you mind putting me
saner says 1, on this vatch-throw-
ing contest? I've been used to Sec
ing timepieces treated with more
politeness and esteenf-except wom-
ems watches. Of course, which by
nature they abuse by cracking wal
nuts with EN-, and having 'em tax
en- showing in tintype pictures.'
me and George he explains.
are up from the ranch. having a
spell of fun. Up to last month we
owned four sections of watered
grazing down on the San Miguel.
But along comes one of these oil
prospectors and begins to bore. He
strikes . gusher that flows out
twenty thousand-or maybe II was
twenty milIion-barrels of oil q day.
And me and George gets one hum
dred and nifty thousand dollars
seventy-five thousand dollars apiece
for the land. So now and then
we saddles UP and hits the breeze
for Atascosa City for few days Of
excitement and damage. Here's a
little bunch OF the dinero that
drawed out of the bank this morn
ing says he, and shows a roll of
twenties and nfties as big around
as a sleeping-car pillow. The yel-
lowbacks gIowed like a sunset on
the gable end of John DIS barn. My
knees got weak, and I sat down on
the edge of the board sidewalk.
You must have knocked around
right smart goes on this oil
Grease-us. 'T shouldn't be surprised
IL you have saw towns more livelier
than what Atascosa City is. Some
times II seems to me that there
ought to be some more ways of hav-
ing a good time than there Is here.
specially when you've got plenty of
money and don't mind spending IL.
Then this Mother Cary's chick of
the desert sits down by me and we
hold a conversationfest- 1t seems
that he was money-poor. He'd lived
in ranch camps all his life; and he
confessed to me that his supreme
idea of luxury was to ride into
camp tired out from q roundup,
eat a peck of Mexican beans, hobble
his brains with a pint of raw
whisky. and go to sleep with his
boots for q pillow. When this
and his pink but perky partner,
cAorOA hn-
, to this clump of out-houses called
Atascosa City, you know what hap
pened to them. They had money to
buy anything they wanted: but they
didn't know what to want. Theil
ideas of spendthriftiness were lin.
tied to three-whisky, saddles and
gold watches. II there was any
thing else in the world to throw
away fortunes on, they had never
heard about II. So, when they
wanted to have a hot time, they'd
ride into town and get a city direc-
tory and stand in front of the plin-
cipal saloon and call up the popu:
lation alphabetically for free drinks
Then they would order three OF
four new California saddles from
the storekeeper. and play crack-ioc
IN the sidewalk with twenty dollar
gold pieces. Betting who could
throw his gold watch the farthest
was an inspiration of Georges; but
even that was getting monotonous
WAS I on to the opportunity
Listen.
Tn thirty minutes 1 had dashee
of a word picture Of metropolitan
joys that made life in Atascos,
City look as dull as a trip to Cone,
Island with your own wife. In re,
minutes more we shook hands OF
an agreement that I was to act a.
his guide, interpreter and friend il
and to the aforesaid wassail an,
amenity. And Solomon Mills, whicl
was his name, was to pay all ex
penses for a month. At the end o
that time, II I had made good a
director-general of the rowdy life
lars And then, to clinch the bar
gain, we called the roll of Atascos,
City and put all of its citizens ex
cept the ladies and minors unde
the table, except one man name,
Horace westervelt st. Clair. Jus
for that we bought a couple of hat
fuls of cheap. silver watches an,
egged him out of town with 'em
We wound up by dragging the har
ness-maker out of bed and settin,
him to work on three new saddles
and then we went to sleep acros
the railroad track at the depot, jus
to annoy the s. A & A. p. Thinl
of having sevsnty-hve thousan,
dollars and trying to avoid the Ills
grace Of dying rich in a town lik
that
The next day George, who wa
married or something. started hacl