Produced by David Edwards, David Garcia and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) COL. CROCKETT'S CO-OPERATIVE CHRISTMAS RUPERT HUGHES [Illustration] Colonel Crockett's Co-operative Christmas [Illustration: LAST NIGHT I ATE A HORRIBLE MOCKERY OF A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN A DESERTED RESTAURANT] [Illustration] Colonel Crockett's Co-operative Christmas By Rupert Hughes Philadelphia and London George W Jacobs and Company COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY _Published September, 1906_ _All rights reserved_ _Printed in U. S. A._ Illustrations Last night I ate a horrible mockery of a Christmas dinner in a deserted restaurant _Frontispiece_ As blue as all the swear words ever swore _Facing page_ 14 He said if I ever come near again he'd sic the dogs on me 18 "Only one thousand plunks," says he 40 James J. James, Publicity Expert 48 Old Miss Samanthy Clay got a box of cigars meant for Judge Randolph 60 [Illustration] Foreword Of all the strange gatherings that have distinguished Madison Square Garden, the strangest was probably on the occasion, last Christmas, when the now well-known Colonel D. A. Crockett, of Waco, rented the vast auditorium for one thousand dollars, and threw it open to the public. As he is going to do it again this coming Christmas, an account of the con-, in-, and re-ception of his scheme may interest some of the thousands who find themselves every Christmas in the Colonel's plight. My plan to describe it was frustrated by the receipt, from his wife, of three letters he wrote her. It seems only fair, then, that the author of an achievement which is likely to become an institution should be allowed to be the author of its history. I shall, therefore, content myself with publishing verbatim two of the Colonel's own letters. RUPERT HUGHES LETTER ONE _New York, N. Y., Dec. 26, 1904._ FRIEND WIFE: The miserablest night I ever spent in all my born days--the solitariest, with no seconds--was sure this identical Christmas night in New York City. And I've been some lonesome, too, in my time.