Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1924-12-05
DECIDED
TO BECOME
A CROOK
By MILES ovERHOLT
d. Doubleday. Page q Coy


from him.
Yes, ma'am, Zeb up and showed me
how to make rubber from cactus ant
right away l began to feel myself
stretching, and by that knew / wat
going to become crooked.
Well, anyway, Zeb told me how tC
make rubber from the cactus plant
and thought could make 1t. But
lacked something - brains, mebbe
Still I went and built me a rubber
factory on my ranch out there on the
Cache lie Poudre river. Anyway, II
looked like a factory.
This here ranch Of mine was prac-
tically all cactus. It looked like q
ranch that needed a shave, but didn't
have the price.
shack, was lake full of mud-black,
oozy, sticky midland no self-respect-
ing cactus would grow In the darn
stuff Otherwise the cactus was not
very smart.
1 reckon / would have starved plumb
to death If an occasional wild duck,
or some other water fowl, hadn't been
buncoed into the belief that my lake
had water In 1t. But that is where
those fowls were in error They as
certained that mournful fact as soon
as they stuck a couple of feet into
the lakes vertebrae. They just natur-
ally stayed there as a permanent fix
ture, and II hadn't come along and
knocked their heads off, they would
have died a painful death Of starva-
ton.
Well, anyway, that was all my ranch
was good for-cactus and catching
wild ducks, but leaning little heavy
on the cactus. So after Zeb Kootch,
the crook, had told me how to make
rubber for commercial purposes out of
my cactus, why, l up and built me a
machine and started to rubber. But
the rules, or formula, or whatever 1t
was he gave me, were too elastic, or
something, and no rubber ever hap
pened.
to feel myself getting crooked.
Yes, ma'am, l decided to flim-flam
some eastern sucker, and this Is how
did that same:
sent back East and bought ten
barrels Of crude rubber. Then / filled
my extractor full of cactus and mixed
1t well with the rubber, and started
the engine. Well, sir, 1t worked fine
the refuse of the cactus came out
one chute, the rubber, all covered with
goo from the cactus, rolled out the
other, and a man that didn't know
hardly anything would have believed
what | intended telling him about 1t
He was due to swallow the hokun
that merely shoveled the cactus into
the mouth of the extractor, and tbs
little whirling dlnguses and dew-dadi
inside would convert It into first-clas,
rubber.
So I went over to the city anC
stopped at the big hotel and waited
till the suckers began to get ripe sol
I could pick me one. Well, / did II.
His name was Walter p. Anthem,
and he owned six hundred acres o
land, which may have been what tn
matter was with him. l dunno Any
way, invelgled him into conversation
Of n high order of intelligence, waitin
for somebody to say Rubber" o
something like that SOS could &c
into the subject at hand. And whe
| saw nm automobile 20 by with
busted tire, why, 1t was very easy II
deed.
So one thing led on to another, an
pretty soon he said he had read som'
thing like what was telling hin
Shucks, Of course he did. | was r,
peating something had read all tn
time.
"But can 1t be done?" he wondered
SIS 1t possible to make commercii
rubber out of your cactus plantsH
should revolutionize the rubber lndu
try, If 1t is possible" he said,
ut not only is possible, it's bein
done" said, leaning heavy on ever
other syllable. "Tm doing 1t myself
I said.
mol" he typed. "Why, that's might
interesting. I'd like TO see your ia,
tory in operation"
"Pd be glad to show YOU" | sal,
II let my men have a holiday toda,
but guess can start up the engin
and give 'er few twists" told hin
"Come along"
Well, sir, he stood around with h
hands In his pockets and his mout
open like a telephone, and he couldn
hardly believe II when he saw all tn,
high-priced rubber untying itself fro
that low-browed cactus. But l |,
him take six or eight samples of
SOS he could have It tested. While
seemed to him to be fair enough.
guess l must have. filled II
troughs too full of rubber, or else II
weather was too hot, or somethln
though, because there was more rul
Der coming out than there was cactr
going In, and l rushed down to sh,
Off the engine before my visitor sa
the little faux pas.
But by the time had stopped II
engine, the rubber was shooting OF
OF the chute and wasting itself mi
that lake Of mud, the factory belr
| rioht on DE hank naar tho ahoai,