{"id":2924,"date":"2023-08-22T05:56:25","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T05:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/?p=2924"},"modified":"2023-08-22T05:56:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T05:56:25","slug":"shortys-grubstake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/shortys-grubstake\/","title":{"rendered":"Shorty\u2019s Grubstake"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Shorty<\/a>
Shorty Harris in Ballarat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once I asked Shorty Harris how he obtained his grubstakes. \u201cGrubstakes,\u201d he answered, \u201clike gold, are where you find them. Once I was broke in Pioche, Nev., and couldn\u2019t find a grubstake anywhere. Somebody told me that a woman on a ranch a few miles out wanted a man for a few days\u2019 work. I hoofed it out under a broiling sun, but when I got there, the lady said she had no job. I reckon she saw my disappointment and when her cat came up and began to mew, she told me the cat had an even dozen kittens and she would give me a dollar if I would take \u2019em down the road and kill \u2019em.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018It\u2019s a deal,\u2019 I said. She got \u2019em in a sack and I started back to town. I intended to lug \u2019em a few miles away and turn \u2019em loose because I haven\u2019t got the heart to kill anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA dozen kittens makes quite a load and I had to sit down pretty often to rest. A fellow in a two-horse wagon came along and offered me a ride. I picked up the sack and climbed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Cats, eh?\u2019 the fellow said. \u2018They ought to bring a good price. I was in Colorado once. Rats and mice were taking the town. I had a cat.  She would have a litter every three months. I had no trouble selling them cats for ten dollars apiece. Beat a gold mine.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Prospector with grubstake essentials<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThere were plenty rats in Pioche and that sack of kittens went like hotcakes. One fellow didn\u2019t have any money and offered me a goat. I knew a fellow who wanted a goat. He lived on the same lot as I did. His name was Pete Swain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPete was all lit up when I offered him the goat for fifty dollars. He peeled the money off his roll and took the goat into his shack. A few days later Pete came to his door and called me over and shoved a fifty-dollar note into my hands. \u2018I just wanted you to see what that goat\u2019s doing,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI looked inside. The goat was pulling the cork out of a bottle of liquor with his teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018That goat\u2019s drunk as a boiled owl,\u2019 Pete said. \u2018If I ever needed any proof that there\u2019s something in this idea of the transmigration of souls, that goat gives it. He\u2019s Jimmy, my old sidekick, who, I figgered, was dead and buried.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Now listen,\u2019 I said. \u2018Do you mean to tell me you actually believe that goat is your old pal, whom you drank with and played with and saw buried with your own eyes, right up there on the hill?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Exactly,\u2019 Pete shouted, and he peeled off another fifty and gave it to me. So, you see, a grubstake, like gold, is where you find it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


from:<\/em>
Loafing Along Death Valley Trails<\/em>
A Personal Narrative of People and Places<\/em>
Author: William Caruthers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Shorty Harris<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once I asked Shorty Harris how he obtained his grubstakes. \u201cGrubstakes,\u201d he answered, \u201clike gold, are where you find them. Once I was broke in Pioche, Nev., and couldn\u2019t find a grubstake anywhere. Somebody told me that a woman on a ranch a few miles out wanted a man for a few days\u2019 work. I … Continue reading “Shorty\u2019s Grubstake”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,2,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-valley","category-miscellaneous","category-tall-tales-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2925,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions\/2925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}