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Show I A Case of Bill Posting"" By Hamlin Garland I W HEN I took the job of building the Las Animas dam tho country boast-m boast-m ed of its freedom from negroes. Mexicans there were (in moderation) and plenty of Texas cowmen and ex-cowmen, together with exiles from Arkansas and Mississippi but as all these bow-legs jmd hair-hung gunmen were not much good irhen" it came to lifting a mountain stream ; out of its deep bed in order to put a dam inder it I had to induce another kind of jnmigrant. Jones (his name wasn't Jones, but we'll ; call him that), a small, blond, boyish-man from Chicago, was my engineer, a "con-' "con-' suming engineer" his cook once said In description de-scription of hira. He looked like a college sophomore, but he had been everywhere I J and had solved all sorts of "problems." He had built cyanide mills In Colorado, &m experimental coke plants in Illinois, elec-flf elec-flf trlcal railways in Ohio. He had investi-' I j gated Innumerable mines, and had passed j through three labor wars. I He knew men all kinds of men and I I 1 let him choose his own foremen. No lazy,-I lazy,-I half-hearted service would do for Jones, I ; and when he went Into camp above Animas I ' ho took Jet Whitlow as his superintendent I of Hip cradlnc crew. I ' Jet had helped us through with two or I ' three "rough propositions," and was to be I ! trusted. He was a tall, flat-chested cuss I with extraordinarily long arms and a lank, I expressionless face, but he was strong as I a mule. The camp had been in place sev-I sev-I oral days when Jones and I arrived on I Sunday morning and the first thing I saw ,B as I entered the tent was Jet cleaning a jH jjalr of patent leather shoes. H "What's the meaning of that?" I asked. BH "You aren't going to wear those shoos, are H you?" H "Oh, yes. this town has put Jones and D mo up for a brnce of Eastern tenderfeet, flfl and I thought we might as well look the H part," replied Jet. and passed quietly to - SI the job of renovating a rusty, "hard" hat, , SFa which had seen much service on the plains area of utah. aPf This appealed to my sense of humor, for 3J Jones told me Jet had never been in a city (ga In his life As cowboy, miner, rancher, JriS Mage-driver, sawmill operator and several 3p other things (Including the position of Eher,ff anrt cIty mar3nal) he'd been to ;Ja busy to "go Eaat." "So I'm a tenderfoot, am I?" 3 Jet went on, "Yes, they've got you sized M as a brand new college graduate, nephew of tho Company," here ho grinned W tt me, "and I must say you fill the eyo that '. Jones was delighted. "All right, I'll try j to look my part," said he. A As ve went about town the citizens ked and nudged one another. "Well, look at that! Did ye ever see such a bunk -4 time as them two is playing on that East-. East-. 4 tm capitalist? It is astonishing what fools tf:i millionaires can be 3end a little Sunday . -i tchool scholar into a job like this." Vl certainly made a comical team. Jet towered over Jones full two broad hands, and with his antique derby hat, pointed glistening shoes and coat too short in the sleeves, made an excellent representation repre-sentation of a Kansas farmer in for to se9 the show, while Jones, with his baggy corduroy suit nnd rough, brown shirt, certainly cer-tainly did look tho schoolboy trying to look tough. Furthermore, tho outer appearance of the guileless pair was substantiated when tho saloonkeeper discovered that neither of them would touch anything stronger than sarsaparilla. "Why sars-parilly?" he asked one o them. "Oh, the word sounds so good," he re plied, and soon the whole town was chuckling chuck-ling ovpr this explanation. But this fooling turned out to be costly, for when my negroes came In arid Jet set them to work some of the citizens of Animas Ani-mas sent a letter to the foreman stating that he'd better pay the blacks off and got 'em out of town. "Wo ain't never had no niggers and we don't want none," they said. Jet paid no attention to this, but some of the negroes came to him for their pay, paying pay-ing that they had been abused by the town-folk. town-folk. "You go ahead," he said. "I'll see that you're not harmed," and under the Influence of his voice they went back to their trenches, but they rolled affrighted pyes and spoke in half-whispers as they worked. Jones and I were in Colorado, where we had another big project, and that left Jet facing the situation alone. It was observed that he was more the man of action and less the tenderfoot on week days. His worn slouch hat, laced boots and rough shirt dignified him, and thoso who saw him in action allowed he was pretty much of a man after all. However, the resentment of certain citizens was swift to find expi'esslon and on the morning of the fourth day. as Jet came down to the gulch, he found his men all btanding in excited groups around a death's-head warning which read like this:-Any this:-Any nigger found In this county after to-morrow night will wish he was a dog. Get out, every one of you! Jet saw that tho time had come for decisive de-cisive action. He called tho blacks around him. "Go on with your work," said he. "This placard Is a bluff. It's the work of a few sots and hoodlums. The law will protect you. Jf it don't, I will! Get to work." Tho negroes had no faith in the officers of tho law. They were thoroughly alarmed and" several of them declared their intention inten-tion to quit. To them Jet said: "Well, now, you're under contract to "I was!" said a man wearin' a Mexican hat. "You tech that playcard and I'll kill you!" r.i moft Tnfrmnflonal Feature Service. Inc. Great Britain IUshU ncserrcd. stay, and if you leave camp before I get Into touch with the company you won't get a cent. I'll wire the company the whole situation, and if they say for you to go I'll pay you all off with my blessing." The boldest of them went back to work, and Jet wired the condition of affairs to me and asked for orders. "The citizens aro dead agin the blacks," he said, "and things are owly kore," he added, "but I reckon I can hold the fort if you say so." Qf course I had no way of knowing how tense the situation was, but Jones did, and ho trusted Jet. He replied: "Exhaust all peaceable means but hold the forL We will back you in anything you do. Will touch up Animas authorities to protect you." This authorization did not reach Jet till late in the afternoon, and by this time the news of the banishment had spread and the saloons were filled with loafers In full enjoyment en-joyment of the action of tho "citizens' committee." com-mittee." It's wonderful to see how tho promise of violence will stir up a town. Of course the authorities disclaimed all sympathy sym-pathy with the spirit of this placard, and professed themselves unable to discover the authors of it, but thoy were half-hearted. "All right," said Jet, "but you can spread tho news that I'm here to protect my men." The blacks besought him to bo very careful. care-ful. "They goin kill you sho'!" It was about sunset when he went down to the corral to rope his horse. He was saddling it when a couple of cattlemen rodo up. One of them entered the corral, but tho other, a long-whiskered citizen, watched In a casual klud of way, whlro Jet cinched bis restless horse, swung into his saddle and rode away. The beast (as is the nature of these bronchos) began to buck, just to mako sure his rider could stay on, nnd kept at it with vicious fury for forty rods or so, then quieted down and loped .away resignedly. "Who was that buster?" asked whiskers who was a stranger in the town. The other man, who had been busy with his own horse and had seen nothing of Jet's Wild West Show, replied contemptuously: contemptu-ously: "Oh, that was the tenderfoot foreman fore-man of this water company. Pie's the 'farmer that brought these niggers In." "Former?" said the other man. "Well, if you think that man is a farmer you want to reviso your notion of him. If ho wasn't raised on tho range, and raised wild, I'll eat my hat. I've seen him before. I can't jest place him. but don't make no mistake, he's an experienced citizen and any job he's obligated in will go through." Meanwhile, with his riflo in its holster (just where it could be most conveniently handled) and with liia revolver at the proper point on his side, Jet rode calmly along, tearing down the warnings, putting up in their places a poster of his own, offering of-fering fivo hundred dollars reward for information in-formation leading to the discovery of the men who had assaulted his black foreman. Well, naturally, that started things. In less than an hour half the men and boys in Animas were on tfthe street watching him as he rode from point to point. There was something admittedly impressive in the man's fool bravery, ne fellow owned vM up to me afterward, for It would have been easy to have shot him from a corner. Stark courage like that is rather awe-in- spiring. The picture of that solitary, IH intent, unhurried horseman, doing his duty appealed to the better class of citizens with growing power, though they were too IH much afraid of the "committee" to say so. The saloons were full of men discussing it. "Nobody but a fool tenderfoot would do such a thing. He ought to be killed!" The whiskered cattleman scratched his chin. "I've seen that citizen before he's a bad man tojool with, I'm dead sure of Meanwhile Jet had wiped out all of the warnings around the camp, except one that was tacked to a pole in front of the biggest saloon in town. This he purposely left to tho last, for in and around this resort the dangerous characters of the town had gathered and the word had gone round that , if he tried to tear that down he'd end right there. Tho sidewalk was crowded as he rode calmly up and slipping from his horse 11 started for the placard. "Let that play-card alone!" called a harsh voice. "You touch that pole and you'll get hurt." Jet turned and those who stood near him gave way under the cold gleam of his eyes he had a signifying eye as I can testify. IH "Was anybody speaking to me?" he H asked, quiet and polite. "I was!" said a man wearing a Mexican IH hat, "You tech that placard and I'll kill ! For answer Jet reached out with his right hand, snatched the poster from the polo. "Now make good!" said he. H There was an Instant's hush a silence H in which some of the men held their breath IH while Jet's gray eyes punched straight Into H the face of the chap who had made the loud H noise- Finally Jet said: "I'm not in the a habit of taking orders from rustlers liko H you. Give mo your gun." Tho big fellow H gave It to him like a babe giving up a rattle. "These blacks are under my protection," H he says, "and the 'man who interferes with H them will need a coroner." H "Why. hello, Jet," called out a hearty voice, and the visiting cattleman stepped H out of the crowd. "1 couldn't just place ye before." H Jet's face lightened. "I got you now," he said. "You're the feller that helped me bring in UtalrPete." H 'The same," laughod tho other man, H "but you had a beard then." He turned to H tho crowd. "Tho joke is on you boys, this 'tenderfoot' is the kind that nil Hades can't scare. I'd advise you to treat him quite respectful." H The opposition died right there. |