Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-05-09

NHE CYNICAL MR.. TYNE reported
to me that night. because Pack
= man. our city editor. was out at din
ner.
i've got a good sob story coming,
boss he said. AN old ham down at
the Star theater dies in harness. He
vas playing a lion. Ought to be good.
I'm on my way now
Make the most of it, l told him.
We're light tonight
When l came back to the shop about
nine o'clock Packmar crooked a fin
ger at me and l went owe to his desk.
He showed some copy at me.
This is hot" he said.
Fred Tyne was over at his typewriter,
knocking out copy.
I had hired him. pretty much by ac-
cident. early that spring. We were in
a jam at the moment. Tyne appeared
al my desk like a gift from the angels.
He al a good looking young fellow:
tall. dark and with an intense way of
meeting your eyes.
He said he wanted a job as a re-
porter. | hired him without even ask
ing his name. twenty-five dollars a
week. and shot him out on a story.
praying that he would come back with
it. He turned in a fairly respectable
piece of copy and 1 noticed his name
at the top. When l called him to the
desk for another assignment l asked
him if he were a relative of James K.
Tyne, who owned the Planet Refriger-
ator company.
Yes. sir: I'm his SON."
What are you doing in the news
paper busineSs?" I asked.
Trying to earn a living he came
back at me, a little bitterly.
God help YOU, | answered and gave
him his assignment. 1t wasn't any
business of mine if he wanted to quit
packing along a few million dollars
and go into something lucrative like
being a reporter. l heard later that
he had had a fight with his father. who
was a pretty hard boiled old party, and
that he walked out of the house.
Tyne 0 his laurels as a cynic the
Sunday after I hired him. when he
pointed an accusing finger at the So
ciety page and demanded to know
who the hell wrote that tripe?" The
society columns were edited by a Miss
Souther, a pleasantly silly lady of re-
duced circumstances who had been on
the paper for years. So far as society
went we usually let her have her own
way. Tyne picked up the paper and
read aloud, disgustedly:
Friends of Frederick l.. Tyne will
be surprised to learn that he has en-
braced journalism as a career and is
now a member Of the Record staff
1t appeared that Fred believed a
woman's place vas on the other side
of a high barricade. with no ladder,
and that he didn't like being written
about as having embraced Journalism.
Tyne tossed the paper aside. "Schop-
enhauer was right" he announced feel
ingly. "Squat-legged. s~ap-headed-'
he left the office trailing double bar
relied abjectives. Packman and ]
grinned at each other, and when ]
asked who was doing such-and-such a
story he said, THE Cynical Mr.. Tyne
The am stuck.
1 don't think he ever looked at a
woman except in a strict line of duty
Dorothy, my wife, used to drop in the
office now and then and chin with the
boys. She's about as amiable, friendly
a person as you could hope to find
but Fred Tyne would have non of her
The sob story that he was pounding
out hadn't broken until after five
o'clock. which put it out Of the clutches
OF the Transcript, and SO his lie was
complete Tor the day. l pi~ked up the
COpy llldl dChllldil ollOFCO OFCl w lle
and began to read it.
This, briefly, was the yarn. Alfred
Kramer and Homer Lane had once
owned a little one ring circus. Lane
had been married to a beautiful tight
rope walker. / know she was beautiful
because I later saw pictures of her. But
beautiful or not, she wasn't above
leaving him flat with a one year ole
baby girl on his hands.
The one ring circus got caught In
Kansas twister and Lane was killed
when a tent pole fell on him. Aftel
the twister had passed the circus be.
longed to the sheriff and Kramer start.
ed out into the world without a sou t.
his name and with the baby daughter
Of his pal. He raised her. Sometimes
he parked her with people while hi
went out On the road, cloWning, playing
cheap vaudeville or carnivals. He mus
have been a pretty bum actor. Any.
how, he had CUTS. He supported TIT
kid and did it despite the fact tina
he had developed t. b.
Engagements became harder to find
so, finally, he strengthened the act b,
taking the girl, Betty, who was sixteer
at the time. out with him. They billeC
themselves as Betty and Alfred; sh,
wore a little girls costume and he CAM
out as a lion, romping around on al
fours, woofing, growing, purring, sit
ting up, rolling over. All that Whe1
he scarcely had vitality enough to dral
himself from some little dump of
hotel to the grind houses where the,
did six or eight performances a day.
I'll never hear some stabilized ass tax
ing a nasty crack at actors withou
thinking of Alfred, sweating and choket
in his dirty old lions suit, fighting j
out to the end. He went off-stage OF
all fours after their fourth perfor
nance that day, flopped over and diet
with the pitifully little applause from
the front of the house sounding in hi
! ears.
you bet it's hot Stuff" 1 said t
! Packman. Il didn't think that Tyn
had that much sentiment in him. HOY
J about pictures?'
$ They're downstairs now. We'll hav
some proofs in a couple Of minutes
Tyne picked EN- out of the frame il
S front Of the theater."
q Good boy! Let's give him a 'by-lint
and q ten dollar raise. He rates it.
) saw his father at the club yesterda
and he asked me how soon l was go
ing to fire his damn fool son. This
4 be a sock in the eye for the old man.
t When Fred finished his story he &c
up, yaWned and took a good stretch fo
: himself. told him it was a good piec
of work and that he was going to &c
: an extra ten. l didn't tell him abou
the by line" because I wanted tina
to be a surprise. / knew it would mea