Show r the pro prospector ojector and his burro Q by will C higgins just watch me toss this flapjack flap jack said the prospector to his burro and take a look at these slices of sowbelly sow belly in the pan and see how fine and juicy they look and believe me I 1 will enjoy my home cooked meal with a cup of black coff coffee ee on the side more than I 1 ever could any grand repast or banquet at the palace or the hotel utah and then too the comfort I 1 will get out of my od 0 d cob pipe when I 1 am through and have washed up the dishes and when tile the spirit moves me I 1 can put my long legs up on the table and talk over mining matters with you using the fireplace as a cuspidor now and then oh this is the life for me and I 1 feel much more at my ease here than I 1 ever could in the rotunda of a big hotel and there is no cop out here to look upon me as a suspicious character and to tell me to move on you say that thai you prefer desert life also after our short stay in the city for here you have every freedom while in the metropolis they haul off the garbage cans before you can even get a smell of them all of which shows that the mountains and the canyons are the only places where a prospector and a burro can breathe freely and really enjoy life not long ago continued the prospector some would be friends of mine kept bantering me about my money seeing that I 1 have prospered and said that a man of my means and ability would make a great hit in a real city and that by rights I 1 should shou id lay off for several months and cut more or less lee ice with the swells on broadway and make myself popular with the dames of fifth avenue and so very foolishly 1 decided to get a taste of high life and to wear a boiled shirt for the first time in my adult career you ask if I 1 was a su success c and if any calico succumbed to my charms but I 1 want to tell you that I 1 would have made a better h hit it in an indian camp and that I 1 would have had a more enjoyable time with the squaws squads than I 1 did wi with ih the skirts I 1 came up with on main street and in the hotel lobbies when I 1 reached the metropolis and had stowed you away at a fashionable feed stable I 1 called at my banker and drew out a little matter of 5 and then hiked out for the swe swell llesi esL hotel in the city the clerk eyed me up and down much the same as a sheriff would lamp a horse thief and very curtly told me that the house was full I 1 told him that thai matter to me as I 1 but when I 1 pulled a roll as big as a hundred pound stamp he became quite genial and after making some marks opposite my signature on a big ledger called front in a loud voice I 1 said that a back room would do ii if he care for then I 1 could expectorate out of the window without fear of drowning someone out on the sidewalk then a boy all in uniform like the cadets cabets of frisco grabbed the flour sack in which I 1 had my extra wardrobe and hurried me off to a cage that went up a shaft shaf t very much like the one in the billy hicks mine only that another boy also in uniform was running it and I 1 didn dian t get a look at the hoisting works my boy unlocked the door and took me into a swell room then he asked me if I 1 wanted anything of course I 1 but when lie he came back and asked me the third time I 1 took a tumble and gave him a five dollar william when he left I 1 know what to do the chairs looked too nice to sit down on the spread on the bed was so white and smooth that I 1 knew right then that I 1 would never dare to get into it and muss it up and the towel was so flossy that I 1 was afraid to use it and so dried my hands on the seat of my pants feeling hungry I 1 went down to the dining room and will you believe me the head waiter would hardly give me a seat I 1 dont remember what I 1 ordered but I 1 hardly eat it for a colored gentleman also in uniform stood by and watched every mouthful I 1 took I 1 left another fiver on my plate and went out and got a bolt or two of hot dog and felt better it was dark by this time and the street was full of people I 1 walked along until I 1 came to a bulletin board and was reading about the millions being killed in europe when a cop grabbed me and was going to run me in for obstructing the sidewalks but he vanished into thin air when I 1 slipped a ten spot into his hand I 1 was feeling pretty lonesome by this time and needed cheering up I 1 was thinking of you when a type of the real thing came floating down the street I 1 notice that a man was with her and when I 1 waltzed up to her and ta told d her that she looked like a he knocked me geranium in a snowbank shot goes off in a down quicker than a pop side drift A big crowd gathered around instanter and you can net your sweet life that I 1 didn dian t pose as any liero hero while the man said I 1 had insulted his wife I 1 made all sorts of apologies ap and said my kind of stuff always made a big hit in the hills with the folks and when I 1 off offered ered to give the geranium enough plunks to buy a sealskin seal skin the man softened and said lie he guessed I 1 was all right but somewhat off my regular beat then I 1 took my blackeye with me and went to the lobby of my hotel hoel quite a crowd was around when I 1 sat down but I 1 noticed in a few minutes that almost everyone had vamo used and was quite ready to go myse f without being invited to take a walk by the clerk that night I 1 slept on the floor of my room and the plush rug made almost as nice a bed as my own cot out in my cabin here the next day I 1 pitched coins with a couple of affable strangers bet on some horse races on which a pleasant spoken men had some sure tips and tried to open a box fo for som e very agreeable fellows and by this time my wad had dwindled to less than out of this I 1 paid my hotel bill dour our feed bill and long before midnight we were both a long way out in the foothills having had all the city experience I 1 shall want for many years to come 1 I want to tell you old long ears con eluded the prospector it certainly ig 1 strange how anyone can prefer the city to life out in the hills I 1 know 1 I have money but I 1 could spend a million in the met metropolis ropo is of any state without having a moment of real enjoyment out here however I 1 can eat what I 1 like say what I 1 like speak to a woman without insulting her and meet with honest and sensible people and then too I 1 can commune with you and nature and fo bolow low lo W a pay streak without being or beerd off the trail and there you are and then some |