Bill Jones

“ To 'ear them talk everybody seemed to think that Bill Jones was in luck; everybody but Bill Jones 'imself, that is.
"I ain't fit to die," he ses, shivering. "You don't know 'ow bad I've been."
"Wot 'ave you done, Bill?" ses Peter Lamb, in a soft voice. "If it'll ease your feelings afore you go to make a clean breast of it, we're all friends here."
Bill groaned.
"And it's too late for you to be punished for anything," ses Peter, arter a moment.
Bill Jones groaned agin, and then, shaking 'is 'ead, began to w'isper 'is wrong-doings. ”

“ For reasons obvious and otherwise, Bill Jones did not carry out his intention of visiting John Marvin's cabin "to-morrow." In spite of himself, Bill naturally was drawn into the vortex of work and preparation necessary to turning his home into the Calivada Hotel. The period of change was a nightmare to Bill, the only leaven in his misery being the astonishing fact that he actually evolved quite a number of ideas—ideas which Mrs. Jones, Millie, and Lem Townsend not only O.K.'d, but put into instant execution—and found exceedingly workable. ”

“ He bowed low to the sitting magistrates, low to Lieberg and to Ernstein, and then nodded to the prisoner at the bar, exclaiming--"Ah, Bill! what's the matter? Surely you did not get drunk last night after you left us!"
His innocent mind being enlightened, in regard to the charge against his friend, he swore most positively, that Bill Jones had been with him and others, at a public-house named the "George," celebrating the mysteries of a club called the "Rum Fellows," at the very hour when Colonel Lieberg's snuff-box had been extracted from his pocket. ”

“ But their plans are foiled, and Bill with his genius for “fixing” things also brings about a happy ending to the love romance of two young people.
Booklist 16:280 My ’20 “The pathos and humor of the play seem dry and forced in the story. Still the charm of old ‘Lightnin’ Bill’ Jones stands to some extent.”
+ − Boston Transcript p4 Ap 21 ’20 220w “The author continually insists that Jones is a ‘lovable character,’ but to the reader he seems no more than a lazy, shiftless, old drunkard, who looks to his wife and daughter for sustenance. ”

“ Then Jasper Potts bent his 'ead down and began to read out loud wot was on the bottle. “P-o-i— POISON FOR BILL JONES,” he ses, in a voice as if 'e couldn't believe it.
You might 'ave heard a pin drop. Everybody turned and looked at Bill Jones, as he sat there trembling all over. Then those that could read took up the bottle and read it out loud all over agin.
“Pore Bill,” ses Peter Lamb. “I 'ad a feeling come over me that something was wrong.”
“You're a murderer,” ses Sam Martin, catching 'old of Joe Barlcomb. “You'll be 'ung for this. Look at pore Bill, cut off in 'is prime.” ”

“ Bill Jones was a gun-fighter and also a good man with his fists. On one occasion there was an election in town. There had been many threats that the party of disorder would import section hands from the neighboring railway stations to down our side. I did not reach Medora, the forlorn little cattle town which was our county seat, until the election was well under way. ”

“ As long as ships traverse the ocean will your name be known; and as long as life lasts will we esteem it the highest honor that we can claim, to say, ‘We fought with Paul Jones on the Bon Homme Richard!’”
Another round of cheers followed this, when Bill Green was put forth as the spokesman for the men.
“’Tis said, sir,” began Bill, hitching up his trousers before starting in on his oratorical effort, “that there’s two things no sailor-man can do—one is, to make a speech, and t’other is, to ride a horse. ”

“ Morrison has declared open war against ‘Pharisee Phil,’ as he calls Governor Arthur. Says he’ll pass the bill over his veto. In his heart he knows he can’t do it. Still, he’s a hard fighter.”
Average Jones tipped his chair back against the wall of the editorial sanctum. “What do you suppose,” he inquired with an air of philosophic speculation, “that the devil will do with Carroll Morrison’s soul when he gets it? ”

“ He, better than any other member, knew how much our company was doing for the development of the country, the furnishing of employment for laborers, and the increase of taxable inhabitants. He knew that not a man in the county had an objection to urge, or a remonstrance to present against our proposition. Why, then, did he not take my ready-drawn bill and present it without any further delay?
Jones was a member of the committee on corporations, and was said to have much influence in that important vestibule to the temple whence corporate privileges issue. ”

“ On the afternoon of August tenth, a lank, husky-voiced teamster called at the office of the Ad-Visor and was passed in ahead of the waiting line.
“I’m after that twenty,” he declared.
“Earn it,” said Average Jones with equal brevity.
“Hotel Denton. Guy on the third floor balcony—”
“Right so far.”
“Leanin’ on the rail as if he was sick. I give him a hello. ‘Takin’ a nip of night air, Bill?’ I says. He didn’t say nothin’.” ”

“ Jones went with him to the office, and calling the superintendent aside, said,—
“This boy is no thief. He is honest and right in what he has done.”
“We shall soon find out about it,” was the reply. “Here comes Rosencamp.”
Captain Bill rode up to the office door, dismounted, and tied his horse. To the group of men and boys who quickly surrounded him he told, with many threats and much rough language, the story of his night ride, and denounced the wickedness of Joe.
“Ef I once git my hands on ’im,” he muttered, “he’ll never want to see another hoss agin as long as he lives!” ”

“ Morrison, you are probably acquainted.”
“And who may they have been?” retorted Morrison contemptuously.
“I don’t know,” said Average Jones.
“Then, sir,” retorted the racing king, “your hypothesis is as impudent as your company is intolerable. Have you anything further to say to me?”
“Yes. It would greatly please Mr. Waldemar to publish in to-morrow’s paper an authorized statement from you to the effect that the Personal Liberty bill will be withdrawn permanently.”
“Mr. Waldemar may go to the devil. I have endured all the hectoring I propose to. ”

“ Again, this only made more hard work for Millie and Mrs. Jones.
It was of this Bill was thinking as he went along. He had been sent to get the mail and to meet the morning train from San Francisco for the purpose of enticing a few boarders to the Jones establishment if possible. He should have been home hours ago with the mail, and there were some odd jobs awaiting him, but he had dallied in the little local town. This was his usual habit, for, like a good many lonely souls, Bill was also a social one. People liked to buy Bill drinks and cigars in the tavern and listen to his yarns. ”

“ Average Jones told it, simply and modestly. At the conclusion, Governor Arthur looked from the wrecked camera-gun to the mathematical formula which had fallen to the floor.
“Mr. Jones,” he said, “you’ve done me the service of saving my life; you’ve done the public the service of killing a vicious bill. I wish I could thank you more publicly than this.”
“Thank you, Governor,” said Average’ Jones modestly. “But I owed the public something, you know, on account of, my uncle, the late Mayor Van Reypen.”
Governor Arthur nodded. “The debt is paid,” he said. “That knowledge must be your reward ”

“ He was thinking about Stringer and his11 own position, with less than ten pounds in his pocket, an hotel bill unreceipted, and three thousand miles of deep water between himself and Philadelphia.
Jones was twenty-four years of age. He looked thirty. A serious faced, cadaverous individual, whom, given three guesses you would have judged to be a Scotch free kirk minister in mufti; an actor in the melodramatic line; a food crank. These being the three most serious occupations in the world. ”

“ It seemed as if every man on the deck shouted “I, sir,” and “I!” and “I!” and “I!” and loud among the voices sounded the piping treble of little Danny Dixon. Paul Jones raised his hand to command silence.
“I shall have to choose thirty men, because I can not take you all. I shall take the strongest and most active men.”
At that he told off thirty men, including Bill Green, the quartermaster. But when the number was selected, and the men had gone forward, Paul Jones noticed that Danny, the cabin boy, lingered. ”

“ The legislature of Virginia passed a bill giving the society such quarters in the State capitol as the Governor and Superintendent of Public Buildings might assign them, and we have thus secured an excellent office where our archives are as safe as those of the State. ”

“ But perhaps the best proof of the humbleness of his origin is his veneration for the aristocracy. An average waiter is, from the nature of his occupation, liable to be brought into contact with the bluest of blood, and to have his undiminished [210] reverence for it tempered with a good-natured perception of mortal foibles. But Jones's attitude is one of awestruck unquestioning worship. He speaks of a lord with bated breath, and he dare not, even in conversation, ascend to a duke. ”

“ When, therefore, the chief cashier one day informed him that the man was to be in London again⁠—this time as General Manager of the head office⁠—and said that he was charged to find a private secretary for him from among the best clerks, and further intimated that the selection had fallen upon himself, Jones accepted the promotion quietly, fatalistically, yet with a degree of inward loathing hardly to be described. For he saw in this merely another move in the evolution of the inevitable Nemesis which he simply dared not seek to frustrate by any personal consideration ”

“ But to a private secretary like Jones, who did his duty regardless of whether his employer was beast or angel, and whose mainspring was principle and not emotion, this made little difference. Within the narrow limits in which anyone could satisfy such a man, he pleased the General Manager; and more than once his piercing intuitive faculty, amounting almost to clairvoyance, assisted the chief in a fashion that served to bring the two closer together than might otherwise have been the case, and caused the man to respect in his assistant a power of which he possessed not even the germ himself. ”

“ Jones turned out to be in some way connected with the street-car lines in Chicago, and to have had much to do with horses, which was supposed to be the link of sympathy between him and President Grant. However reluctant the Committee was to wound the President's feelings in so personal a matter, yet it did not think it consistent with its sense of duty and dignity positively to recommend to the Senate to confirm the nomination of Mr. Jones. It, therefore, if I remember rightly, reported it back to the Senate without any recommendation, whereupon the Senate indulgently ratified it. ”

“ Jones held on like a man accustomed to every sort of foreign scenes in the world; and out of curiosity to see where he would go, I followed him for a little toward the thick of the noise and crowd, through Tank Square, where the water-carriers were sprinkling the ground from the sheep-skins on their backs as they walked, serpent-charmers and jugglers exhibiting, and a dirty Fakir rolling at the corner in seeming agony, with a crowd of liberty-men in Sunday toggery all round him. ”

“ Jones loved France and France loved him, and with him and France we were able to gain our liberty from the British yoke. He loved America because he loved liberty, and he put all his grand titles aside when making his last will and testament to sign himself, "I, John Paul Jones, an American citizen." Such men as Washington, Franklin, Hamilton and LaFayette, were his staunch friends. Kings and Queens delighted to do him favor. Louis XVI knighted him and presented him with a sword of honor. ”

“ Jones’s position in the City was not affected, for men knew him too well, but society suspected that his fortune was not what it had been, and that his wife wanted more money to spend, or was providing against a rainy day. ”

“ Paul Jones will always be regarded as one of the most daring and gallant heroes who ever made the ocean the theater of their exploits. Such a name can never be forgotten by Americans, nor can the services which he rendered to the cause of American liberty, in its infant struggles, ever pass into oblivion. ”

“ To be Rochester was not only to be a lord, it was more than that. It was to be famous, a national character, whose picture was printed on the retina of the million. Never had Jones felt more inclined to stick to his position than now, with the hounds on his traces, a tramp for his companion, and darkness ahead. He felt that if he could once get to London, once lay his hands on that eight thousand pounds lying in the National Provincial Bank, he could fight. Fight for freedom, get lawyers to help him, and retain his phantom coronet. ”

“ His fellow-officers lift him to his feet, bleeding, stunned beyond words.
“You shall hear from us!” is the fierce cry from his comrades, as they hurry the stricken Parker from the ballroom.
“I shall be pleased to hear from any or all of you,” replies Planter Paul Jones; “or from what other dogs in king’s coats shall question the honor of American women.” Then, turning to Mr. Hurst: “You, sir, shall act for me! Accept every challenge they send! Make it pistols, ten paces, with Craney Island for the place; and fix the time to suit their English convenience.” ”

“ Commodore Paul Jones and his Aimee, while ever together, formally conceal the tie that binds them. He has business with the king about prize money; she has petitions before the king about the blood that is common to her veins and his; and both the good Marsan and Doctor Franklin say it is better that the king should not know. And so the king goes feeding his squirrels and forgetting his people, in ignorance of what took place on that midnight before the candle-lighted altar of Our Lady of Loretto. But the wise old world is not so thick, and winks and smiles and wags its wise old head ”