Show r the prospector lector and his burro by will C higgins tomorrow night said th the prospector to his burro we will camp with old peter canby the hermit of the prong horn range and I 1 have no doubt but that lie he will be glad to see us for he can then get a square meal of beans bacon and flap jacks from our supplies and a smoke of genuine tobacco instead of his usual puff on oil dried willow leaves you say that you hope we will not stay long with the hermit as it gives you the creeps to remain any length of time near the abode of solitary beings and especially so if they are old ana infirm as hermits generally are as you are something of a mixer at times and like to see the boys and girls enjoying themselves which is a very creditable sentiment on your part but you must have a heart also for the me poor the lowly and the helpless and sympathy for those who stand so close to the brink of the great beyond that they are liable to fall over almost at any time As for me continued the prospector prospect orp 1 I fe feel el a great deal of pity for old peter and am going out of my way just to cheer him up a little although he always takes life without a murmur or without a complaint his history is rather a pathetic one as the real cause of his present hopeless condition can be attributed very largely to drink and were it not for the fact that he is thoroughly honest and genial no one would have anything to do for him in his younger days he discovered the great king albert mine in the prong horn and got a nice wad when he sold it to a philadelphia syndicate which has since worked it out having a good time soon dissipated his fortune and he returned to his camp dead broke ile he had some friends in the city lo however wever who grubstaked grub staked him and he located extensions of the king albert lode uis ills partners put up for prospect development mentford for a number of years and then gradually lost interest in the proposition as peter was never aole able to find the he was as looking for in course of time his associates failed almost entirely to furnish provisions and supplies as promised and of 01 late years the old man now over eighty has been obliged to depend entirely upon the charity of remote neighbors and valley farmers who in the kindness of their hearts have seen to it that he never goes real realy y hungry while his city partners smother their consciences by sending him occasionally a daily paper the hermit lives all alone in an ancient log cabin and is still firm in the belief that he will gel gei pay ore in his tunnel he is too infirm to hunt or to get in his winter supply of firewood wa od but lie he traps cottontails cotton tails and gathea sagebrush managing to keep soul and body together until some charitable person sends in a piece of mutton a chunk of beef a sack of flour and a load of real wood and a sack of tobacco is like a gift from the gods he believes he will still make good and hopes in time to be able to repay those who have been so good and kind to him but whose only reward for a certainty will surely be given in heaven 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector there are hundreds hun dreis of stranded men out in the hills who would absolutely perish but for the charity of people who have but little to give and who make sacrifices themselves in order to do so of course those who are responsible like those city chaps I 1 have spoken of should have the manhood to live up to their obligations but one cannot let a man starve or freeze to death while trying to inspire a block of granite with a spark 01 pity and there you are and then some |