Wolfville Days

Wolfvill

m'ry can only canter back to one uprisin'

of one who might, did he see fit, consider the grave questions of capital and labor with an ability equal to their solut

camp, an' yet none of 'em ever goes on the warpath for shorter hours or longer pay, so far as I has notice. Barkeeps that a-way is a light-hearted band an' cheerful onder their burdens. Once when Old Monte brings the stage in late because of some boggin' down he does over at a quicksand ford in the foothills, a shorthorn who arrives with hi

ays the shorthorn. His tones is

t ropes only at the intention. You may even go so far as to shoot the wrong gent in a darkened way, an' as long as you pulls off the play in a sperit of honesty, an' the party plugged don't ha

bluff arises from cur'osity rather than any notion of wha

etorts the barkeep as he slams his nose-

forty drops, "only it sort o' looks to my onaccus

swabs the counter; 'which it is some late for night before

the toilin' masses of the town, save in the one instance when that bunch of locoed printers capers out a

n't as acootely aware of the fact as I be, but you can gamble a bloo stack that not knowin' Colonel Sterett borders on a deeprivation. He is shore wise, the Colonel is, an' when it comes to bein' fully informed on every p'int, from the val

rs takes to ghost-dancin' that time, the Colonel has been in our midst crowdin' hard on the hocks of a year, an' is held in high regyard by Old Alan Enright, Doc Peets, Jack Moore, Boggs, Tutt, Cherokee Hall, Fa

e Colonel. The trouble which bears its final froote in this labor uprisin' is like this. Huggins, as noted, holds down the Bird Cage Op'ry House as manager, an' when lie's drunk-which, seein' that Huggins is a bigger sot than Old Monte, is right along he allows

I cuts the trail of one in the States once,

d. They displays the onlimited ability for ignorance of the hooman mind. Boggs, I don't want to be deemed insul

ood a jedge as Jack Moore, insists that the remainder of the conversation would have come off in the smoke

like it was a charlotte roose, Huggins would. So, as I says, I ain't fond of Huggins, an' takes no more pleasure of his company than if he's a wet dog. Still, thar's sech a thing as dooty; so, when Huggins comes wanderin' wild-eyed into the Red Light about first drink time one evenin

that has j'ined dogs with it in its attempts ag'in Huggins. Later, when Peets sends his charges, this yere ingrate Huggins-lovin' money as I states-wants to sq

hem services of mine in subdooin' your delirium treemors a contreebution. It should shorely be remooneration enough to know that I've preserved you to

ld be encroachin' onto the ediotic. Even if he emerges alive from sech controversies-an' it's four to one he wouldn't; for Peets, who's allers framed up with a brace of derringers, is about as vivid an enterprise as Wolf

l can see yourse'f that if physicians is that ingenuous, it would prodooce all sorts of troubles in the most onlooked-for places an' most onexpected forms. No; Peets wouldn't give way to conduct so onbecomin' a medicine man an' a sport. But rooles has thei

encies, but keepin' secrets ain't among 'em; none whatever. The Colonel is deevoid of talents for secrets

s reckons, that the Colonel ain't no thunderbolt of war himse'f, so when he reads as to him an' Peets an' them tree

Mexican comes trackin' along into the Colonel's room in the second story-what

IGHT

COL

ys he's going to plug you for that piece. I can keep him here an hour. Meanwhile, h

sinc

CK

them shot- guns. Buckshot, that a-way, is a cinch; an' if

ents of the Wells-Fargo Express, an' twenty shells holdin' twenty-one bu

it, Colonel,' says Peets; 'I'm plumb c

, 'if you was to go down to the Red Light an' say to this inebriated

come out how I gives away the secrets of my patients; it would hurt my p's

o me, an' I shrinks from it. Another thing-I don't thirst to do no five or ten years at Leavenworth fo

goin' to carp at that a little bit. Besides, he's that ornery, the game law is out on Huggins an' has been for some time. As for any resk to yourse'f, personal, from Huggins; why! Colonel, you snaps your fingers tharat. You hears Huggins on the stairs; an' you gives him both barrels the second he shows in the door

'I ain't goin' to do no fancy shootin'. If Huggins shows up yere, you can put down a yellow stack on

Boggs is grateful over some compliments the Colonel pays him in the Coyote the week previous. It's

his mind, 'you-all is followin' off the wrong wagon track. The Colonel ain't your proper prey at

n' never utters a word; B

f yours, Huggins, has gone too far. I'm obleeged to say, tharfore, that onless you aims to furnish the painful spectacle of me bendin' a gun over your head, yo

for the Colonel right thar. Lambs is bellig'rent compared with Huggins. The barkeep, in the interests of peace,

e agency. Huggins ain't feeble enough mental to believe for a moment Boggs writes that piece. The fact that Boggs can't even write his own name-bein' onfortunately wantin' utterly in eddication-is of itse'f enough to breed doubts. Still, I don't ondervalue Huggins none in layin

s reminds him at closin' that, havin' asserted his personal respons'bility for that piece, he'll take it as affronts if Huggins persists in goin' projectin' 'round for Colonel Sterett-thar's no doubt in my

rouble, an' the Colonel is jest finished measurin' up the 'strings,' as he calls 'em, an' disbursin' the din

charter, an' organizes ourse'fs into a union. You're yereby notified we claims union w

te as yet is not self-supportin', but that shall not affect this play. I have so far made up deeficiencies by draw-poker, which I finds to be fairly soft an' certain in this camp, an' your su'gest

chester. It's hooman nature to brand as many calves as you can, an' so no one's surprised when, two weeks later, them voracious printers comes fr

cided that you've got to make back payments at union rates for the last six months, which is when we sends back to the States for that charter. The whole throw is twelve hundred dollars, or two

protect himse'f at printin' same as he can at pok

aims. As I states before, I obtains the money to conduct this yere journal by playin' poker. Now I can't play no ex post facto poker, n

e, 'don't put on no spurs to converse with us; an' don't think to stampede us none with them Latin

cisive, 'strike, says you! Which if you-all will

Light, takes a drink on the Colonel, an' disperses themse'fs on the strike. Of course W

yooth. This collision between Colonel Sterett an' them free an' independent printers he has in his herd is shorely

mp'thies is with Colonel Sterett in this involvement, as yet the sityooation

e our guns an' go cuttin' up the dust about the moccasins of them malcontent printers-merely in our private capacity, I means-it would he'p

the midst of this industr'al excitement, an' take to romancin' 'round as you su'gests, you'd chase every one of these yere printers plumb off the range. Which they'd hit a few high places in the landscape an' be gone for good. Then the Colonel never could get out that C

n consoomin' his licker at intervals not too long apart, is seated in the Red Light in a reelaxed mood. He's sayin' to Boggs, who has be

or that a-way, Dan, an' partic'lar daily paper literatoor of the elevated character I've been sawin' off on this camp in the Coyote, is fa-tiguin' to the limit. When them misguided parties surrenders their absurd dema

incidin' with the Colonel, though

ll be a new man when I takes hold ag'in, an' will make the Coyote, ever the lea

e five who's on the wa

er, lookin' apol'geti

e Colonel wh

gger they're onjust in them demands for back pay-sort o' overplays their hands, They've decided, Colonel, that you're dead r

d of regrets onto it; 'take four fingers of this red-eye an' ch

el-that's what makes them see their errors-an' the plain trooth is they ain't had nothin' to drink for twenty-four hours. That's why I don't take nothin'. It would shore seem

ain't had a drink since yesterday? It's a stain on the camp! Whoopee, barkeep! see wh

r's somethin' doo to a principle, Jim. I'd rather looked for a continyooation of this estrangement

I've explained to you the financial condition of this movement. Thar stands the boys, pourin' in the first fire-water that has passe

the Red Light say for fifteen drinks all 'round each day, don't you reckon you

trailin' in, takes up the head-printer's

e days Wolfville has been in darkness as to worldly events, an' is right now knockin' 'round in the problem of existence like a blind dog in a meat shop. Your attitoode of delay, Colonel, is impossible; the pub

thar's no more to be said. The strike is now over an' the last kyard dealt. Jim, you an' me an' them printers will re