Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-10-25

man In Missouri: with a harvesting
crew in the Dakota wheat fields; In the
coal mines of Kansas one winter, the
lead mines of Joplin the next summer,
the following fall with a cotton gin In
Oklahoma. The last five years he had
been in Arizona, out on the range. There
he was known as Silent Sim. All his
jobs had been primarily from the neces-
sity of wages, and after that a restless
fumbling for an avenue OF expression.
He saw things on the desert that
moved him tremendously; the Joshua
trees starkly against the sky. the wide
sweep of mesa with the blue a OF the
skyline, the Enthusiastically gorgeous colors
on the buttes at sunset, the glittering
stars at night; but he did not try to ex-
press these feelings to anybody. No use.
He did try to paint them, though, rather
to smudge them with charcoal pencils
on pieces of cardboard from boxes. He
had dozens OF these sketches; some of
them he thought pretty good. Once an
fastener and his daughter were visiting
the ranch. After a night of self torture,
Tam got up courage enough to show his
things to them. They had glanced at
two or three perfunctorily, landed them
back. n asked for their horses.
For many months during the third
1tdl u olodE1lk Liz h60 l0QEL AitC ld1kC
with a bunch of starving and thirsty
cattle. Alone at night by a small camp
fire he had gone over and over 1t, trying
to solve the riddle, trying to glimpse the
answer.
Then had come the great discovery
the big thing that all men would listen
to. He had something now hat would
talk for itself. He had got to Bay City
with the greatest possible speed.
And now they would not listen even
to thisI
But oddly enough he had got the
answer tonight=the answer he had
missed In all his mental searching-and
got 1t from q bobbeu haired young girl
who had come to the door to stop him
from swearing.
Nobody viii listen to a shabby suit -
A mans power Is measured by the
strength of his word. Show me the ulti-
mate stir he can create by a ten word
message. n / will know how much he
has achieved. One man may sit on o
park bench and pour out his most urg-
emf convictions with no other result than
to move the man beside him to another
bench-or out OF hearing. while Andrew
Mellon, or Henry Ford. or Thomas Edi-
son may with q dozen words affect the
1lfCo " IAlCC llhllulEd iAliiO RCOplt.
We queer, strutting. egotistical, heart
hungry human beings crave that power
Of word. We want to be able to compel
attention. We var to be able to say
things that will be significant to people
Seas have been sailed. big game hunted
battles fought, long trails Of adventure
followed purely to achieve something
worth telling.
Ross Tam was a self-made thinker
which means that his mind took It's own
way to reach conclusions. But 1t had
great tenacity In seeking those conclu
sions, and the matter 1t used for its
thinking was for the most part very real
bits Of personal experience.
Tam was on a little used, crooked roac
that ran through thick brush In a swae
five miles from Bay City. He had walked
out there with no other object than tt
get out OF town. No one came this way
and he could think. Since that writel
girl had jumped on him last night foi
disturbing the peace with his profanity
his mind had aiken q drastic turn. mo.
body will listen to q shabby suit" Thai
was the most significant thing he hac
ever heard. and he had been going bach
over his whole life, testing 1t out to set
II 1t would stand up.
1t would. Some OF the shabby clothes
had been In his mind. but 1t was true