Show FAIR PLAY no n like licaus hot but ne ate a lot a ot f then all th same mark twain if lived ved boie soie soma orty forty years ago in the limits of a very wild halt half crazy frontier mining camp this was d divided I 1 aided vided into two parties the so called boston crowd which contained the I 1 better elements though few boston men find and the missouri crowd which was a pretty hard lot though not composed exclusively of natives of 0 missouri fights to the death were ot of dally daily and nightly occurrence gambling outfits were in constant demand quarreling bullying drunkards were omnipresent and few used water except to wash now and then in the little mountain stream flowing through the diggings despite it all there was a strict camp etiquette which was recognized reco and considered law by all and it was ot of this etiquette that mark twain told me an example says a writer in the new york burnal A boston man was wag eating citing breakfast early one morning at a table near the open door find and the halt bar halt half restaurant ot of the place he was w a a just finishing his plate ot of pork and beans when two missouri men passed pa ased along and saw the boston man and lit hi breakfast they stopped within a toot foot or two look at that said the bigger ot of the missouri MIsso url men contemptuously do you see what that blank blank boston thing Is eating why down in missouri where I 1 come from we teed feed them things to our horses only the brutes eat that grub down there presently the bully stepped inside and sat down opposite the boston man at the same table when the plate ot of beans beana had been eaten the boston man called out to the bartender pete give me another plateful pile it up I 1 like em when the heaped up plate came back the boston man quick as a alas flash h had pulled out hla his revolver had the missouri man covered with it and then pushing the full plateful ot of beans across the table told the missouri man to eat it and like it or hed shoot him like the dog that he was waa the bully had his choice between beans or death and he knew it when he had eaten every bean he be was made to say that he liked beans and then and not till then did the boston man put P ut up tip his pistol pay tor for both orders ot of beans and lea leave ve the saloon now said mark the reason the missouri man whip out his gun and shoot hoot as soon as the bean eaters back wall waa turned was because ot of camp etiquette each man had his tun fun with the other and they were even it if the boston man had been shot the missouri Misso url man as quick as news could fly would have had his body filled with lead from the revolver of every afian man in camp regardless ot of party ayou see we were quite sticklers klers tor for fair play in those days 1 |