Life — September 18, 1884 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- LIFE: MR. HARGRAVE'S EFFORT. ILLIAM P. HARGRAVE was an exponent of the higher culture and he had but just completed the post-graduate course at Harvard before he arrived in Steel Plate, Arizona. His Alma Mater had endowed him with a fine appreciation of his intellectual superiority and a good taste in the selection of neckscarfs; and the remainder of his | outfit when he reached Steel Plate consisted of a high moral purpose and a return ticket to Boston good for one month, It had been Mr. Hargrave’s belief that the West presented a finer field for the development of the intellect and the ad- vancement of the species than an effete East. Therefore, when he learned that the proprietor of the Bowse Knife, the only newspaper in Steel Plate, was offering that property for sale, he at once closed a bargain with him and started for Arizona. Mr. Hargrave's outfit at the beginning of his journey was somewhat more elaborate than it was upon his arrival at his | destination. He left Boston with two trunks and a few hundred dollars ;. but, when he stopped over a few days in Chicago he left the money with an acquaintance he had made | on the cars, so that he should not be robbed on the highway, for Mr. Hargrave had read about Chicago, and when he was ready to proceed on his journey his new acquaintance | was unable to find him to return the money. Therefore, Mr. Hargrave left his trunks with the proprietor of the Palmer House as a guarantee of good faith, and went on to Arizona without them. At first the sensation of wearing the same linen continuously was irksome, but he became accustomed to it by degrees and found it a great saving of time and labor. Mr. Hargrave had informed his Aunt, when she begged | him not to court certain death by publishing a newspaper in Arizona, that the men of the free untrammelled West were simple children of nature who despised shams and loved the truth, and that when they learned that he was laboring honestly for their advancement they would love of preventing a riot was to clean out the faro bank, and they purified it accordingly, much to the gratification of the local undertaker and the aggrandizement of his finances. Mr. Hargrave was not slow to recognize his opportunity, and he turned himself loose on an editorial which, as he wrote to his aunt that night, was calculated to have an in- stantaneous and remarkable effect. His prediction was veri- fied. The morning the Bowse Knife was issued Mr. Hargrave came down to his office early, that he might be ready to receive the congratulations of the prominent citizens and municipal officers whom he had sent marked copies of the paper. He was reading his editorial for the twenty-fourth time, and had marked one or two sentences that he decided to revise in case the public insisted upon his publishing the article in pamphlet form, when the door opened and the Mayor of Steel Plate strode in. He wore a blue flannel shirt and a frown so terrible that Mr. Hargrave almost shrivelled up under it. “ Whar,” enquired the Mayor with forced calmness, point- ing to Mr. Hargrave’s editorial with the end of a rawhide, “is the dashed blank what wrote that ?” Mr. Hargrave afterwards confessed to his aunt that at this moment all his ideas concerning the superiority of mind over matter underwent a complete revulsion, and he realized that nothing but presence of mind, combined, if possible, with ab- sence of body, would save him for further efforts in the ad- vancement of his race. and respect him, while his intellect and erudition would | command their reverence and admiration. Mind, he told her, was always powerful and would ever triumph over mere force. nephew meant, but she was deeply impressed with the truth of his argument, and insisted upon his purchasing a return ticket before he left Boston. Destiny arranged that the Bowse Knife should be given Mr. Hargrave's aunt did not know what her | a sensation the first week of the new editor's arrival in Steel | Plate. A gentleman who formed one of a party that was escorting a drove of cattle to another section of the Terri- tory dropped into a local faro bank and suffered a financial crash. He chose to be offended when the cashier refused to permit him to play on credit, and revenged himself by shooting a prominent citizen who carried on a branch of the Occasional Abstinence Society in another street. The police were called upon, and the stranger galloped out to his friends, who left their cattle and came into Steel Plate to Preserve order. They quickly decided that the only method Clerk; WHAY DO YOU WISH, LITTLE GIRL? L. G.: 1 WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR BEST | PILLS ARE. YOUR dest PILLS. comicbooks.com