Show STUDENT LIFE i5S 4 It wasn’t Flat’s leading hostelry a pleasant sight he gazed out upon The hot August sun had withered every bit of vegetation if there had ever been any and Dutch Flat’s predominating feature its alkali dust covered Market Street fully a foot deep Facing this stream of sand the business district of tbe Flat was built On either side was a line of low wooden structures badly warped and all possessing “lean-to- ” Under front porches these porches lounged the population of the town on hot dusty afternoons There had been consternation in the ranks of the loafers in front of the Gold Xugget Bar when a young man was seen to alight from the afternoon stage in front of the hotel One of the loungers J Leamington Lumlcy by name and exdevil of the defunct ‘‘Dutch Flat Bugle” by trade appointed himself a committee of one to inquire into the business of the new arrival He happened to accost Bliss as man was gazing at his the environments from the hotel porch and at the same time indulging in a of the girl sentimental down east wearing a Greek way Xow J Leamington letter pin il did not possess a Lumley particularly polite manner of address and he greeted Bliss with “What in hell are you doing here?” The easterner paid little heed to the first advances but as the salutations became more familiar and at the same 'time less respectful Bliss’s ex-Ya- le day-drea- m ex-dev- "grouch” developed into a “blood-on-the-moo- full-fledg- ed va- n” riety of fight Without a word of warning the “tenderfoot’’ wheeled about and executed a double shuffle on J Leamington Lumley s face and as a side issue landed on the anatomy with his boot in a manner which resulted in a few moments later in J Leamington’s picking himself ft of Dutch Flat’s alkaline pavement shaking the dust from his denims and doing the western waltz towards the Gold Xugget crowd which was now indulging in boisterous laughter needed Ralph Bliss Yale ex-0- 3 no further introduction to Dutch Flat’s upper ten By the time Bliss had been a resident of the Sierra Nevada mountain town for a week he had risen rapidly in the society and estimation of his fellow men Since the J Leamington Lumley episode there was a wholesome respect for the "new comer” and in fact J Leamington himself now courted the friendship college man aiid tried to make all differences right It was a common occurrence for J Leamington to ask Bliss to drink with him as many as a dozen times a day and it was over the “high balls” once that the imparted the valuable information to the ‘new “Flatter” that the town was in need of an editor and Bliss was the man for the position His ciualifications were not questioned for he was “a bad ’un with his ex-printe- of-th- r's e ex-de- vil |