David Lannarck, Midget

+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | | been preserved. | | | | Dialect and unusual spelling have been retained in this | | document. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this | | text. For a complete list, please see the end of this | | document. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+

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+----------------------------------------------+ | David Lannarck, Midget | | An Adventure Story | | by GEORGE S. HARNEY | | | | | | David was small, but Oh my! | | | | Circus life was exciting enough, but | | young David Lannarck was tired of being | | stared at and bullied because of his | | small size. So when a tall Westerner | | saved his life in Cheyenne, and David | | and he became friends, why, the circus | | midget decided to make his home in the | | wide open space. | | | | With big, rangy Sam Welborn, David | | started out to become a rancher and live | | out his days in peace and quiet. But | | excitement seemed to follow the circus | | midget wherever he went. The big man and | | the little one ran into gunman, thieves | | and rustlers, and where big Sam's | | strength was not enough, David's wit had | | to get them out alive. | | | | Circus life and Western adventure are a | | highly unusual as well as a delightful | | combination, but the author George S. | | Harney has a first-hand authentic | | knowledge of both. As a young man in | | Indiana, he was a personal friend of Lew | | Graham, the circus announcer for the Big | | Show, Barnam & Bailey's Circus. Lew | | Graham, handsomely dressed, told the big | | audience what came next on the program. | | During the long winter lay-ups, they | | would swap yarns in the unique circus | | lingo, which Harney has recorded in | | David Lannarck, Midget. | | | | Later, Mr. Harney served in the | | Spanish-American War. After the war, | | "Cap" Harney became active in the | | development of southern Idaho, and | | although he sold his holdings there | | 1945, he confesses that he is still | | "haunted by the wild isolation of that | | district west of Cheyenne." | | | | Mr. Harney is a native Hoosier, a | | resident of Crawfordsville, Indiana. | +----------------------------------------------+

David Lannarck, Midget

AN ADVENTURE STORY

by GEORGE S. HARNEY

EXPOSITION PRESS . NEW YORK

Copyright, 1951, by George S. Harney

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form

Published by the Exposition Press Inc. 386 Fourth Avenue, New York 16, N.Y. Manufactured in the United States of America Consolidated Book Producers, Inc. Designed by Morry M. Gropper

It is very true, that the small things in life are sometimes the most important. --CHURCHILL

PART ONE

1

In all her days of presenting the spectacular, Cheyenne had never witnessed a more even contest than was now being staged this day in the early autumn of 1932, at the circus grounds in the city's suburbs. It was a race between a midget and a lout.

The little man ducked under the garish banners portraying the wonders of the Kid Show, raced the interval to the "big top" of the Great International, then back again, closely followed by a lanky oaf whose longer strides evened the contest.