DARRNR AND DARNEL'S FATHER.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 645, 21 February 1914, Page 6

DARRNR AND DARNEL'S FATHER.

A PRETTY PAIR. "Darnel got spoilt by his popularity after the Spanish war. He tgought he could do what he pleased. One day he was drunk and rode his horse into a saloon, roped the bar-tender, and dragged him out of the house. The bar-tender was a good fellow, and let him go. Then he started to shoot the town up. I was in my room, and my landlord rushed up and told me. I ran up to the top of the house and saw Darnel coming down the sidewalk. People had heard the shooting, and there was no one in the streets, except a nigger, on the other side of the road to Darnel, leaning against a tree and eating a piece of pie. Just as he was putting his big white teeth into it Darnel shot it away from between his fingers and his mouth. The nigger fainted and fell down,; I never saw anything so funny in my life. Then he went into the Chinese restaurant to shoot it up, but Charley, the owner, rushed out of the kitchen with a knife as long as his own pigtail, and chased Darnel, sixshooter arrd all, round and round the town." "I knew Darnel's father ; he vas a cranky old man ; used to disappear for months and years without warning." Joe added — "He was the oddest old man I ever see. One day he went down to the creek to get some water without his hat. He came back two years afterwards, and raised a row because his hat could not be found. Another time there was some Indians camping on the hill behind his house. The old man said hj« would run 'em off it. He did, too —but he was in the lead." The second cow-puncher asked Hay—"What became of Darnel ? Wasn't he shot ?" "He was killed in cold blood in a saloon at Las Cruces," Hay informed him. "He was shot right between the eyes." Reinhold asked—"What had he done ?" "Nothing," Hay answered. " The man jerked his gun ; Darnel was standing at the bar, and turned his head round, and the man shot him right between the eyes." "But why did he do it?" "I dunno," was the answer. " I guess he wanted to see somebody dro;\ He was just mean."—From "A Three-Foot Stool," by Peter Wright.