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Your Uncle Lew, a Natural-Born American, a Novel

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Your Uncle Lew, a Natural-Born American, a Novel -^ r YOUR UNCLE LEW "BUT WHEN SHE CAME, ALL ELSK IN THE WORLD TOOK SECOND PLACE." Page 27. TOUR UNCLE LRH " *"*"""" - """*" "I" "I" "I* "I" "I" *l" "I" "I" "r"" "r *f" "r H""** "I" "*" "I" r (**!" "H"*!" "T "r*r *f""*i* *r "I* T i"*H* A Natural-born American .;. .;..;. +++.\. .[,.[. ,| .;. .|..;. i .[. ,[ .]. .; .|. .; ] i ! I I"l I i ! ! 1- !! ! ! -Mill A NOVEL 1--1-1- I ! ! ! -1--I- -I -I- ;! 1-1- ! ! !! !> ! ! ! ! ! ! ! I- ! I- * I- !! !! 1 ! 1 BY Charles Reginald S With a Frontispiece by B. finest Clinedinst 1--M II II II I ! M I M 1 1111 i I I -I- ! ! -I l-M-1 I ! 1 I II 1 ISeto gcrft 7 I rederick A. Stokes Company Publishers COPYRIGHT, 1901. FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. To MALCOLM COMAN MITCHELL, My Friend. CONTENTS. AUTHOR S NOTE .... 9 I. AT THE EATING-HOUSE . .13 II. THE APPLE OF His EYE . .31 III. THE GILDED CROSS . .44 IV. MEMORIES 56 V. A STRANGER IN TOWN . .71 VI. THE BOWER OF ROSES . .87 VII. A NIGHT AT THE HOTEL CLUB . 101 VIII. THE CARDIFF GIANT . .115 IX. FAST FRIENDS 130 X. THE BRIGHT SIDE . .141 XI. HORSE TALK 158 XII. FOLLOWING A CLUE . .172 XIII. THE DETECTIVES . .185 " " XIV. A BIBLE BACK . .196 XV. A TRADE FOR A CUTTER . .213 XVI. PARTED FRIENDS .... 227 XVII. THE LITTLE BOB-TAIL . .245 XVIII. "TiiE RIGHT MAN". .255 XIX. IN LOVING ARMS . .265 XX. CRAZY JANE 275 XXI. THE RACE 285 XXII. IN AFTER YEARS .... 300 AUTHOR S NOTE. WITH an eye to the remote chance that some reader of the present story knows of a little book printed in paper covers in 1885 under the title of " The Autobiography of an Old Sport," the author seizes upon the liberty of a foreword to declare the fact that the anonymousness of that simple effort covers his handiwork. The preparation of that character sketch was his contribution to a friendly undertaking having for its object the deliverance of the old man who was the hero of the narrative from the veritable pangs of want. Inasmuch as the " publication, sold from the overcoat pocket of the lift old sport," served to the last months of his life out of the shadows into the sun, and finally to lay what was mortal of him under a modest stone, its original and worthiest design was happily fulfilled. Its drolleries, its oddities, its anecdotal tidbits transcripts from the everyday speech of a Yorick in the flesh were bound to be marked for possible employment in a work of fiction, and for that use io AUTHOR S NOTE. at an opportune future were they reserved. Now, after fifteen years seasoning, such part of the nar rative as seemed available for more presumptuous exploitation has been put between these covers, ex cised, modified, and elaborated to the present pur poses. If of the two or three hundred copies originally circulated there be now a stray example, its owner will be able better to note where truth ends and fiction in this for aside from begins story ; " of an resort to The Autobiography Old Sport," there is a grain of truth herein as for example, the essential facts regarding the origin and discovery of the Cardiff Giant. The author believes, in fact, that in no other form is to be found the true his tory of that most audacious of humbugs. Keen delight has been taken in here unmasking it. The giant, it must not be forgotten, was an American. Its ill-fame is a blot on our national honour. There may be those among our critics who still contend that it is a symbol of our national spirit. To con found such as these it has been attempted in the following pages to set forth a man of flesh and blood, as rough hewn as the Cardiff Giant, but a " man, worthy to be called " natural born that happy, though little used, description of the native American to be found only in the fifth section of AUTHOR S NOTE. n Article II of the federal Constitution wherein are defined the qualifications of those citizens who are eligible to hold the office of President of the United States. The author is aware that to have written a story of Central New York is to have awakened the " ghost of David Harum "a kindly apparition in this instance, however, for the author has but to listen with his memory to hear from the tomb of Edward Noyes Westcott the gentle words that per- haps earlier than any others encouraged a task, many times laid aside, and now completed. By the quaint veracities of " The Autobiography of an Old " Sport Mr. Westcott was quickly struck, and to him they appealed as useful elements in the imaginative tale the author thereupon set himself the task to write. Its eventual execution is, therefore, due more to the generous influence of the man living than to the achieved success of the novelist dead. C. R. S. "Your Uncle Lew/ CHAPTER I. AT THE EATING-HOUSE. THIS much could be said of Lewis Dunbar, what ever arraignment running counter thereto was brought by those who missed the best that was in the man : Lewis Dunbar was no fool. What is here told goes to prove it, or the purpose of the tale signally fails. Toward the very end of his life Dunbar had something to say aptly illustrating his profound objection to the lack of common sense, which deficiency in a man s mental equipment, to his constituted be according crude philosophy , ing a natural-born fool. Fool was not his word, of course. " There s a sucker born every minute," he senten- " tiously remarked, and sta-tistics prove they die at the rate of one a year." 14 YOUR UNCLE LEW. Dunbar had been driving a sharp bargain that day, and was glorying in the net result. He was not a man to mince matters. When he got the best of a trade he never went off into a corner to gloat. He liked to let every one at hand share his elation, It was the fashion in his day (as it is now) to mark a triumph of wit or of skill, or a domestic epoch for that resort to bibulous exhilaration matter, by ; but while Lewis Dunbar observed these usages of the life he led, it was not in this he excelled. Peo ple who recalled how the wine flowed when his daughter was born, thought of it only as an incident of a period of personal luminosity, in which a proud parent made it appear he had achieved something that stood to be recorded for all time as a marvel among marvels. Scores of strong men, who were fathers themselves, were so beguiled by the illusion that they affirmed as true, undeniably true, Dunbar s greatness in paternity, and drained the flowing bowl in recognition of it. It may be, as some said, that Dunbar was boast ful but then he was frankness itself. When he ; wanted to buy a horse and if he set his eye on a beast, it was as good as- his from the start he said so. He went where it was to see it and admire it. " " Man a-live," he said in such a case, I want the AT THE EATING-HOUSE. 15 horse or I don t want it. If it s a pelter count me out. But if it suits me you ve got me on the run. If the horse suits you what s the good of sayin it s not big enough, or its tail s too short, or its colour too light, or its action too slow, or tellin a lie about it anyway ? What s the use ? The horse / I like, I like. hurry to tell the man so : There s the very horse I ve been lookin for. Hear me ! Just right as to size how many hands high is the mare ? Never saw a finer coat of hair on four feet. She steps off like the Queen of Sheba. Dollars to doughnuts she s got speed con-cealed about her per son. And such a kind eye ! She s all right. How much ? That s the way I go at it. Then says the owner, so much money. Too much, I say, and I m broken-hearted about it. I d give so much, but your figure s too steep. I ve touched bot tom, says the man. Sorry, says I, for I have taken a fancy to that mare. You re not askin a cent too much for her I d ask as much if she was mine but she s too high-priced for your Uncle Lew. And off I starts. Ten to one he hollers at me afore I m out of the smell of the sweet clover in his loft to come and take her at my price." It was, indeed, a rule of Dunbar s life to buy things at his price. A good rule, too, you will say.
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