Adventure Magazine Cover — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

50 An occasional black sheep appeared in the family fold; and to the perpetual and evi- dent distress of the elders it was said, not without a basis of fact, that one Richmond in every generation was born to be hanged. None of them had been hanged; but some had been shot, which was almost as bad in the eyes of the family fathers. The pioneering Richmonds had not come across the plains in 49. Notatall. Noth- ing so plebeian as that. The.family came in ’51, very comfortably, with all its house- hold gods and goods in a clipper chartered by Jackson McDonald Richmond. This Richmond, though he increased the family fortune immensely, had been a most disgraceful black sheep. He was gallant and dangerous; a man who never broke his word, a lover of fast’ horses and women. Big, handsome, imperious, he hated a coward and a liar. He lived to a good old age, then was killed. Five masked assassins rode down upon him as he was making the rounds of his ranch. Only two rode off; and one of these soon died from the wounds he carried away with him. S A grandson, then scarcely in his teens, a favorite of old McDonald Richmond’s, searched out the unwounded assassin and killed him—gun to gun—in a crowded barroom. This grandson became the black beast of the family, but without any of thé redeeming features of the picturesque grandfather; he simply became notorious as a gambler and gunman—became in fact myself, McDonald Richmond, alias Don Everhard. I WAS held up as a great example to young Richmonds of the path they should not follow, and was a cause of aes r anxiety and tribulation to the family since, in spite of my quiet and retiring disposition, I was often unlucky enough to have the police inquiring for me. Though it must be said to their credit that they gave me very little real annoyance; but newspapers often made much of nothing, as they have a way of doing—whereupon an apoplectic tremor would run through the California Richmonds. A Richmond a professional gambler! It was unbearable. A Richmond a denizen of the underworld! For many years my name was not spoken unless in whispers among the elders. Adventure This censorial secrecy was designed to protect baby Richmonds. Then one day it happened at a family affair that old Senator Richmond, ceremonious and pompous, but so honest he bent backward, lined the chil- dren before him. A swarming brood they were too. He began to inquire, with all the aplomb of a senatorial investigation, into their ambitions and careers. My nephew Jackson brought about the sensation of an earthquake by calling out shrilly before his turn that he was going to bea gambler like Uncle Don. He scattered playing-cards on the floor in an eager effort to pull the pack from his pocket by way of showing the start he had already made. Severe, astonished silence followed. It had not been supposed that the chil- dren even knew of Don Everhard; or at most that they knew he wasa Richmond. But a cousin of about Jackson’s age shrilled: ‘“‘Aw, you'd be scairt to shoot fellars like he does.” Thereupon a miniature daughter of the House of Richmond piped up— ‘Marie says he never shooted anybody he oughtn’t to.” Babble followed. All the children knew about “Uncle Don,” and foolishly had pride in him and his notoriety. It is children, not gangsters and highwaymen, that have canonized Rebin Hood. Jesse James is more admired in the prep-school dormitories than at Sing Sing. And the children thought I was the one important member of their family. When the senator had recovered his powers of speech and gropingly restored the beribboned tortoise-shell nose-glasses astride his nose, a solemn counsel was held among the elders. Like the lawmakers of all time they were without humor. Marie lost her job as governess. All the servants of all the households were sternly admonished never to mention that name. The children were instructed to forget all they had heard, and to learn that the fellow known as Everhard was a disgraced and shameful character. The unlucky accident of birth had made him a Richmond, but in no other way was he connected with the family. But from that day on, by the way he was talked to, eyed and whispered about, Jack- son was made to feel that he was a predes- tined sheep of color. He was naturally cCOmiclboolks CO