Mule Camp Revisited

I made a stop at Mule Camp this week, since enough time had passed since my last visit to warrant a renewed need by its residents for Wizard Water^©.




My clientele in this part of the country are mostly composed of hard-working cowboys ready for some form of entertainment. This describes my medicine show perfectly. They were amazed by the silver linking rings, amused by the jumping silks and awed by the properties of super-saturated Wizard Water^©.



These boys don’t get to town much, though, and I should have taken that into account when presenting one particular illusion. When I produced a colorful paper streamer from my mouth, some of the less sophisticated members of the crowd mistook it for a deadly, writhing air-snake.

Many ran, paying no particular heed to the store windows that obstructed their retreat. Those who did not run began shooting at the streamer. I had to end to the show abruptly and make a hasty exit towards the hills. Since the streamer was attached to me, however, many earnest cowboys followed, guns blazing, in an effort to detach the beast from my person.

I later learned from Jim Dunham that this was less due to concern over my welfare than a desire to be the first cowboy to possess an air-snakeskin belt.

Luckily, I was able to safely divest myself of the streamer, and when the ruckus died down I returned to the wagon. Since I hadn’t reached the sale portion of the show and was badly in need of funds, I prepared to perform again. Several shopkeepers whose windows and merchandise had suffered from the fracas however, kindly took up a collection in my name. They presented me with a handsome sum and urged me to take the show to Tascosa, where they said they know of certain other merchants in desperate need of a medicine show.

I should reach that town sometime tomorrow.

* * *