Show OT WP tar ann 1 the last battle BT 3 T MEREDITH SCROLL alsoc assoc bated nar fralc J T HAPPENED during the tha BO 50 IT called mexican war marthat ahat that period of time during which the united states government se cent nt a flock of troops over the border to protect honor we me property and to catch villa garfield Garft eld nichols nicholi who was then considered one of the foremost newspaper carresi correspondents in the east despite his lack of consideration for expense accounts his humorous viewpoint on things that newspaper editors regarded as vitally important including the mexican war and his frankly admitted weakness tor for intoxicating beverages of any description despite au all these things thing is garfield was dispatched posthaste for mexico as representative of the boston j express to serve in the ca capacity dfwar of war correspondent old man upton the express managing editor knew what he was about he knew that garfield because of his various weaknesses be depended upon to stay sober for more than four or five hours at a time but lie he knew also that garfield had the gift of setting words down on paper in such a way as to attract and hold the attention of new En glands news thirsty public personally upton so sold on the war himself but he knew that garfield nichols nichola would send back dispatches that would fairly seethe and boll boil with war news of a convincing nature and so garfield departed for the mexican border with a pocket full of expense money passports letters of identity and a head fun full of old man detailed instructions L 4 1 1 he lived la in the saloon alternating his bis time between dodging bullets and writing two weeks later the express managing editor received an urgent request from its war correspondent for additional funds amounting to accompanying the wire was another several paragraphs in length in which garfield had set down the latest developments in the war upton check edthe story with the leased wire dispatches found that they tallied in minor details only and was a trifle puzzled garfielda Gar fields story was glamorous and this was what the public wanted ranted hence the story was published under gar fields byline by line and the 00 expense money forwarded from that point forward stories from garfield concerning the war began to arrive at the rate of one every two days they were exceptionally tio nally fine yarns and would have substantiated old min man rashness ness in engaging the famous garfield in every respect had it not been for one thing each story in the order of its receipt was found to be a little further removed from other stories that were flashed over the country by the various parlous news services which hid had also dispatched correspondents to mexico but to offset this garfielda Garfi Gar olds fields yarns were tn in point of literature new and interesting reading far ahead of any other dispatches that came in daily on the express leased wire service fortunately the american public is gullible they were eager and willing to believe lieve th that atthe the developments in mexico ai as published by the express were correct They liked the soun sound dof of garfielda Gar fields stun hence circulation cu lation figures soared during the first few weeks of Gar garfielda fields sojourn it until almost a month had elapsed that old man upton I 1 really began to get worried during the past four weeks garfield had asked for and received three hundred extra dollars for expenses and during the pasi seven days day s his stories storie s had not tallied in a single instance with leased wire dispatches in order to satisfy a growing grobli ng suspicion old man upton got together every wire that had come from garfield dug out a map of mexico brought bohand to hand certain established facts concerning the war and set to work at the end of an hour he had discovered that his war correspondent had been at one time within miles milea of the war zone and this was as near as he ever got putting two and six together tog e ther managing editor upton arrived at the conclusion that correspondent nichols had been on one big bust since the day he entered mexico employing his imagination augmented by fragmentary bits of information garfield had doubtlessly set down on paper a story concerning the war of a nature that he knew would appeal to upton and the american public but which had little it any regard for hi actual developments in the war five hours later garfield nichols nichola received a telegram of dismissal in his room at majorca mexico and promptly went out to drown hi his sorrows in the villages only saloon at dawn the next day garfield was seated beneath a table in the same saine saloon sing ingall four our verses of america his sorrows had been very completely drowned he ha was tn in an especially jovial mood at the exact moment that the last word of 0 the last stanza died on gar fields lips a cannon boomed on the outskirts of the town shattering very every e window in the saloon garfield crawled from his hideout and stood erect another cannon boomed and the building shook garfield looked around the place was deserted he looked into the street and found it empty too but as he watched he saw little puffs of s smoke moke emerge from the windows of buildings close by and heard the sharp reports of rifle fire partly sobered entirely disconcerted barfield garfield scurried into the saloons back room and found there a dozen fierce looking mexicans lined up at barricaded barricades barrica ded windows and doors after some difficulty the correspondent spon dent learned that a sudden turn of events had carried the fighting out of the hills and into the desert country the deciding battle of the fracas was being fought then and there in the little town of majorca garfield groaned and sat down for more than a month he had attempted and with no little success to escape the war and now it had come to him As far as he knew he was the only white man in the place to be sure the only newspaper correspondent the battle lasted three days and strangely enough garfield remained sober during that time he remained sober in the midst of hundreds of bottles of every kind of liquor he had ever tasted at hand for the taking he lived in the saloon alternating his time between dodging bullets and writing the story of the most famous battle of the war As fate would have it he survived without a scratch hardly ud had the last shot been fired when he was riding hell bent to the nearest town and an intact telegraph wire the manuscript that he carried was long and beautieu beautifully fu ily done every fact was accurate ac curati every word gospel truth it was thought garfield about the best war story ever written for a newsy newspaper i er simply bebau because se its author hayseen had been on hand during the fighting had written down detailed descriptions of every charge and sally and retreat as it actually happened moreover it was a scoop t back in boston old man upton tead read over the long and carefully worded wire that had come to him charges collect from his correspondent spon dent in majorca mexico and sadly shook his head hil hal he called I 1 id addressing dressing a copy boy hal on t the he wire service about the mexican scrap hal wrinkled his nose to indicate that news from mexico was nil bothin No thin boss same old stuff and if 11 you ask me that cint cant be much of a war what we aughter oughter do is run some more of nichols tuft stuff what folks like to read ead good live news I 1 but old man upton only shook his head and picked picka up a copy of the wire he had just sent garfield it read just received your last fiction story and I 1 mean last youre fired suggest you sell your imaginary news toa to a Tag magazine azine 11 |