The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-12-12


ordinary courage, returned a true bill
against johnson for the murder of Will
liam Lee, an inoffensive youth, whom
he had shot down in drunken frolic,
under circumstances of peculiar aggra-
walton. Thomas was retained by friend
of the deceased to aid in the prosecution
and Notwithstanding the earnest advice
of his well wishers to the contrary, APP
peared on the trial Of the cause-one of
the most exciting ever argued at the bar
of Vick.burgh. On the last evening of
the session, after adjournment, Thomas
rushed into the presence of his wife,
with looks of such evident agitation as
to fill her with overpowering alarm.
"My love, tell me, in the name of
Heaven, what has happened?" she cried,
pale as corpse, and shaking like a leaf
in the wind
"Nothing," answered the husband,
thinking to conceal the most fearful part
of the intelligence. Nothing, only the
murderer, Mike Johnson, after his ac-
quittal, grossly insulted me in the court
yard, and | knocked him down."
''And he challenged you to fight him
with pistols!" almost shrieked the wife,
anticipating the rest, with the quickness
of woman keen comm on sense.
at is even so, replied the lawyer,
mournfully.
ooh say that you will not meet him.
Oh! swear that you will not turn duellist
in this Sodom of the South" implored
the wife, throwing her arms around his
neck, and sobbing like child Oh his
bosom.
"There, do not weep now, | viii no,
turn duellist, dear Emma, although
much fear that the consequence viii be
my ruin.
'GoG ;";-ill protect you from the bold
bad man."
The next morning it was known in
Vicksburgh, that "the Yankee orator"
had been challenged and refused to fight.
Accordingly, he was generally denounc-
ed as coward-a word which at that
day, and even now, might be considered
as expressing far deeper scorn than eth
er robber or assassin. AS he passed
through the streets, he was astonished
to witness the GOODNESS manifested by his
old acquaintance, and even protested
friends, while the great mass of the peo-
pie seemed to regard him with ineffable
contempt yankee white-liver, "boas-
ter, "poltroon, were the sounds most
frequently rung in his ears, especially
when near the groceries, and there was
one then on every terrace of the broken
hills.
The matter grew still worse. About
week afterwards, johnson met his VIC
tim in the public square, presented a
cooked pistol at his heart with one hand,
and belabored him numerically with a
cowhide which he grasped in the other
Resistance at the moment was altogether
out of the question, for the slightest mo-
ton would have been the signal for i'm
mediate death. He thought of Emma
and her sweet babe, and bore the casti-
CATION in silence.
After this, clients deserted his office,
and gentlemen refused to recognize him
or return his salute in the thoroug hfares
of business, or during his morning strolls
over the hills. Had his touch been con-
tagion, or his breath pestilence, he could
not have been more carefully stunned.
Another week passed, and the dcgra-
ded lawyer was in a state of mind Dor
derng on insanity; and yet all the while
he concealed the mental torture from his
affectionate wife. One evening, in a
more than common bitter and gloomy
mood, as he walked through the public
square, he was again accosted by Mike
Johnson, with his cooked pistol in one
hand and uplifted cowhide in the other.
The assault was the more aggravating
as the place was thronged with specta-
tors.
Coward and william" exclaimed
Johnson, ''did not tell you that ! would
cowhide you every week, until | whip
ped the courage of man and gentle
man into your Yankee hide'"
81 am not coward, retorted Thomas,
in a hollow tone, so mccarthy fierce an6
wild that it caused every nearer to start.
At the instant, his lips were livid, and
clenched between his teeth till the blood
ran. His eyes were red as a mad dog s,
and the muscles Of his face quivered;
but his body and limbs seemed to have
the rigidity of marble.
"He will fight now, rung in an eager
whisper through the excited crowd, as
they saw the terrible tokens of the fiend
aroused--the fend which turks, at diff
ferent depths, in all human nature.
''If you are not coward, why will
you not fghti" asked the duellist, some
what struck, in spite of his thorough des-
peration, hardened in the hot gore of a
dozen murders.
81 will fight, if you wish it, was the
loud ringing answer.
''Then you accept my challenger"
81 do. Will any one present be so
good as to act as my second9" inquired
the lawyer, addressing the spectators.
| For a minute or two no one spoke, so
great was the dread Of the arch-duellist
Mike johnson.
s'Will no one in such mass of gen
erous men be my second:" repeated the
lawyer, In louder Tone