Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

- ARGOSY. ALLSTORY. WEEKLY. SS Ss idiesd There youd be the game upon him the highest a in: hei = of outwitting the guards: smuggling in stuff power when they chewed fine cut openly to while away the time: the usual gossip in his presence, knowing he wouldn’t tattle. of the underworld. ‘Here in Wedlock was He gained the esteem of the proprietor only sunshine and rain, food, sleep, news- of the store by ordering through him a papers a day old, a tedious and mechanical complete new baseball equipment; catcher’s grubbing i in sand and water for a bare liv- mitt, four bats, real horsehide baseballs, a : = ~~ real mask. These he presented to the boys. There was no real poverty, even as there Thereafter he owned them body and soul. was no wealth. Even the more shiftless They would have fired the village at his citizen never suffered for food, or from cold. command. When he caught them fighting “The poorest men in town were Doc Pettee, among themselves, he didn’t try to stop ~ a eked out his practice by his allotment them, but showed them how to hold their ister, who added to his meaver salary es It was boys that he imderstood; he paid solicitin - subscriptions for family maga- no attention to the little girls other than ek or for insurance policies. : to buy - them such candies as the notion — It-is notable that in all his depression. ‘store afforded when they happened to meet = epee did not once consider running thereabouts. Some statistician has made e possessed fund of ae = = + time as_ “knowledge; but ie is not wisdom. = vord- should be sent that he could return Nor did he make any attempt to impart it _ and take his place among real men. Mean- to the Wedlock boys. == be was sett from absolute —— Dy The village parents were no fools; they hildren. - 3 took is note of the foet ‘that the —— = had indicated Wedlock as his abiding elaeny= erage. — aie “posse -until-s fe Polack’ kids. Fully as noisy as mis- therefrom. And beeatise. no subtler eS soap we ae healthier, pee the un- a can be paid aman er woman than ‘beings, Sand he could understand them. He the same time despised as a youth without niind: himself pausing to watch them play any visible means of support. His story of sandlot baseball, or shoot marbles, and not a hospital-operation was generally believed, infrequently smoke a cigarette behind a but it was felt that he was plenty strong yoathouse. They fought, and boasted, and enough to do some sort of light labor. Wed- played hockey. They comported ther- Jock was not too industrious, but its every ) all Says 3 as reasonable human be- citizen had a vocation that supported him . and his after a fashion. ‘There were no- loafers. — 7 eerit ally at. them, the Slapper came Of course there was Major Hendrie. to ealing a hand in their ball games; and Every town, however humble, has its —— since he could throw a- feebly curved ball, leading citizen. The Hendrie house, big, and above all because he had actually. be- Square and ugly, standing in acres of =e held thi te Bambino swat a home Saeee and grown yard, with a big. iron basin: which