Ellsworth American., 1924-12-17
Labels Stick to
a Man
By M. and r. M. TERRELL
do. Doubledav. Page & Co.

| lellOW cltlZenS as much as by face
tious fate. Hard luck had consistent
| ly dogged his trail ever since he had
left his cradle. He was only thirty,
| but he had lived sixty years of ups
and downs, mostly downs Now he
was Stony Points best utility. When
in doubt, blame it on "that good-for-
nothing" Bingo Dickerson, had become
a town maxim. Such is the drift of
| human nature. Label some innocent
| dufIer and underdog, and soon he
| wouldn't be known by any other name,
Then one day he disappeared The
earth had opened, up and apparently
| swallowed him. He became i nine-day
| mystery in Stony Point until Seth Gar
rison, who owned the Elite restaurant,
received marked copy of the Sierre
Blanca LOnghorn News, from a cousin
in far-aWay Texas. The newspaper
carried the information that a Mr. i.
lingo Dickerson, resident of Stony
Point, had arrived in Sierra Blanca
TO take over the 5,000-acre ranch of his
late uncle, old Buck Dickerson, up in
the Guadalupe mountain country near
the Salt lakes
Five thousand acres, The news
spread all over stony Point in an hour
OF all people-Bingo Dickerson, who
now called himself t. lingo. one of
the greatest ranches in Texas. Wow
Three months passed. Then one day
Eingo Dickerson got OFF the train at
Stony Point He was The same old
Bingo; if anything Il little more the
same. He wasn't dressed like a mil
lonaire, and he certainly didn't act
Ike one. lie just resumed his old
place in the towns daily life-or rath.
er tried TO- His fellow citizens hadn't
been born the day before; YOU couldn't
hoodwmll them that easily Bingo
had a mint behind him and those Boil
shevikian days 1t paid rich men to keep
that fact camouGaged. B. !ngo couldn't
Jool them No Stree, When he
would confess that he had left half of
lhe money in Texas they would be his
boon companions.
Whefeupon B. ln2o Dickerson auto,
matically resigned his position as town
underdog That action, too, was
wished upon him, for old Bingo went
about his business in his same old mat
ter-of-fact way He never had been
a bad sort, and now that fact becam"
apparent even to Ike Timmons, the
one-eyed barber Back on Hell's Half
Acre he farmed away contentedly and
without disclosing any of his future
plans. TO all inquiries, adroit or 9th
erwise, about his 5,000-acre ranch, he
remained as mute as he was good
naturedly patient.
Label a man as a good citizen, and
he soon becomes one, or apparently ap-
pears to have become one. Frequently
the change is only in the labelling L.
lingo Dickerson thrived under his new
role His fellow citizens made it their
pleasure to 90 out of their way to 90
favors for him. Not that he asked
them. Principally, they spoke well of
him and acted, when they met him, rs
though he was fellow human being
Old Bingo smiled and plugged away at
his farm work The place, once
reputed to be the worst patch in The
county, began to take on d look of pros
perity. Bart KeStler, the banker in
sisted upon extending the mortgage
and good old B. lingo did nothing to
Gissuade him. In six months he ha3
legun to pay some Of it off,.
In year b. lingo DiCEerSon was part
and parcel of the towns pride. In one
short year he had revolutionized that
miserable little halfacre farm that
once caught your cynical eyes as y3u
drove into town. Now it was place
to be proud of; the little house had
been rebuilt and with the new fence
painted. Neighbors who would be in
right on the finish of this crazy-quilt
Comedy had helped much in this trans
fguration,
The farm wasn't all that had
changed. h. lingo was different
man. True, his easy-gojng, happy-go-
lucky manner hadn't changed, but mis-
appearance had Not so much his
clothes, which don't count as much as
they're popularity supposed to in the
making Of Il man, but his face! He
looked ten years younger and twenty
Some of his friends began to look like
him. An epidemic OF slmniness ana
cordiaij, swept the town. People
went out of their way to see that no
crouch remained in Stony Point Cionds
with silver Innings were The only ones
permissible.
Two years passed. B. lingo prosper
inc. still remained rG;2.e about his enor-
nous Texas Interests. His fellow cit
! liens had almost forgotten their r@So-
| utions to be in on the unveiling of the
/ Dickerson fortune when Seth Garrison
| who not only ran the Elite restaurant
! but had the worst curiosity in stony
| Point, having written his far-aWay
4, cousin out in Sierra Blanca. received
! the following delayed answer: