Judge, 1914-05-09 · page 13 of 25
Judge — May 9, 1914 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains an illustrated tall tale about Trapper Seth, a frontier character who runs a toll road and relies on his alert pinto horse to catch would-be cheaters. When a railroad arrives and his horse loses a leg to a train, Seth demands compensation from the railroad president, who refuses. Seth's revenge arrives unexpectedly: his horse's wooden replacement leg falls into snow near the railroad tracks. When the president's special train passes, the rotary snow plow strikes the wooden leg, causing catastrophic damage to the plow's blades. The satire targets **railroad monopolies and their arrogant executives** who ignore legitimate grievances from ordinary citizens. The joke's appeal lay in frontier humor—the idea that a humble trapper's discarded wooden leg could cripple the railroad's expensive equipment, delivering poetic justice against corporate indifference. The narrative celebrates cleverness and persistence over corporate power, resonating with Gilded Age anxieties about railroads' unchecked influence.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
man, and the Injuns was sure glad to meet with Trapper Seth’s side Incidentally Trapper Seth caught beaver till the States began in’ game laws, and then he built a toll road over the Divide and made a comfortable livin’ chargin’ passengers fer goin’ either way. There’s a line of graves on either side of the place where Seth’s toll gate uster be, showin’ where he'd shot fellers that tried to slip under and make their escape without payin’ toll. This old pinto horse of Seth’s 'd be grazin’ around the house, but Seth wouldn't be anywhere in sight. Mister Traveler ’d think this was a fine chanct fer makin’ a git- away without payin’ tribute to Trapper Seth, and ’d slip under the gate and sneak down the road on tiptoe as fast as he could scurry. Mayte it was an Injun in moccasions, not makin’ any more noise than a chipmunk skippin’ along the top rail of a fence; but this here old pinto horse ’d raise his head and let out a whinny that could be heard three times around Jim Peak. Old Seth 'd jest sa’nter to the door and shoot up or down the road, and then a little while later he’d go out and bury the rapscallion that 'd tried to cheat him. He figgered that his old horse had saved him hundreds of dollars in toll fares, to say nothin’ of takin’ a lot of worry off his mind. “But Trapper Seth had to give up the toll road when a railroad line come within a mile of his house. The railroad went over the Divide through adeep cut. It seemed to fascinate Trapper Seth’s pinto horse, which had nothin’ to do when the toll gate was took down and which jest wandered about the country kind of lonesome-like. The horse got so plum interested in railroadin’ that it was allus wanderin’ out on the track, and one day an ingine hit it and cut off one leg. Trapper Seth fixed it up with a wooden leg, and then he began goin’ after the rai road fer damages. Four times a year, reg’lar, when he'd go to Denver, Trapper Seth ’d go into the offices of the president of the railroad and demand money to make up fer the loss he'd sustained in the crip- plin’ of his horse. Finally the president completely lost his temper and told Seth never to come in agin, as he'd not git a cent. “41 s'pose you're pertected by one of these here fool game laws that have put me out of busine says Seth; ‘but you'll pay a good many times the price of that horse’s wooden leg ’fore you git through.’ “That winter there was more snow pelted on top of the Rockies than the oldest Injun inhabitant could remember. The road kept a big rotary snow plow stationed near Seth’s place, sweepin’ out the cut over the Divide. One day there comes an order to clear the track for the president of the road, who was goin’ to Salt Lake to attend a meetin’ of magnates to consider one of the biggest deals in railroad buildin’ that had ever come up. The snow plow was hustled out, be- cause the president's special was tearin’ along not many miles behind, and it was up to the rotary crew to break all records clearin’ off the Divide. “That day Trapper Seth’s horse had wandered too clost to the big cut on top of the Divide and had fell into the soft snow that filled it to the brim. In wallerin’ around in the drifts, the horse lost the wooden leg that Seth had fashioned with sech care. The horse got out all right, but the leg stuck in the snow, and when the rotary come roarin’ along, belchin’ snow out to one side like a white rainbow, there was a tremendous smashin’ of blades in the big wheel. That wooden leg jest ripped every blade out of the plow, and bimeby the president’s special comes along and is stalled for seventeen hours on top of the Divide. The meeting at Salt Lake bu’sted up, without the proposed deal goin’ through, and the perjected changes in the railroad map wasn’t made, and the railroad president estimated that his outfit had lost at least a million, all through the wooden leg of Seth Terwili- ger’s pinto horse. Some folks said Trapper Seth had throwed that leg 5 Prom a printing by Charles Sorte into the railroad cut himself, but when he heard of this report he JEJ)DANCES jest said that gittin’ away from Injuns and flies and woodticks in the West was a picnic to gittin’ away from slander.”’ comicbooks.com