The Empire County argus., 1854-03-25
A SPECIFIC FOR THE "BLUES.n

good story,-a better old Knick in palmest racicst
days, never had-let them, during some leisure
moment peruse the following The interest is fair
y sustained to the end. These are dull days, not
withstandng the frequent accounts of terrible bat
ties" good story is never failing alleviator Of
the horrors known as blues Its length is readily
accounted for by the fact that the scene is laid in
kentucky, and the chief character is a tall Ken
tuckian."
In the neighborhood of a small town situated in
- county, Kentucky, and right at the junction
of crossroad which boasted of grocery, a black
smith shop and very small store, there lives
character whom we recently met, and whose great
est boast was, that he was of the five hundred
men who killed Packenam at Orleans"
His person was decidedly unique entertaining
as he expressed it, an honest passion for fighting
In the of his knock-downs all the fingers Of
his left hand were either bit, cut "chawedn off
with the exception of the fore one which was a
long, lank member with big nail on the end of it.
| Although deprived of the of one fist, this
Ginger serves him very useful purpose.
1t may be proper to state that in this section of
the country, fighting is regarded as mere matter
of amusement especially when red eye is about,
| and neighbo knock down and 'gouge" each other
in friendly way. The subject of story had a
peculiar fashion Of fighting; being rather short and
not very heavy, lie has to take, he said all the
little advantages to keep even. His grand point
was to walk up to his man, and by sudden thrust
which long practice had rendered him perfect ill.,
poke his long bony finger with unerring precision
in his opponents eye, and hit him at the same time
under the belt" 1t was at one of these domestic
watering places where families congregate to pass
q few weeks during the summer season. that we first
met him.
He was dressed in the most approved hunting
fashion, having on buck skin pantaloons and coon
skin cap with foxs tail in it, His face was par
ticularly striking, from the fact probably, Of its
win ta1l
with scars
To complete his description he had only eye,
and that lonely orb when we saw him, gave evil
dence Of recent muss
A crowd of some four of five visitors had assem-
bed at the spring which gushed out OF the side of
hill, and were setting some wide benches, list
ening to bis marvellous adventures by flood field
and the mnumerable men he had tout' and
''lickedn
One of the party present. at the risk Of being
considered impertinent, ventured to ask him "how
he had lost his eye
The old fellow Immediately frightened and sit
ting down on empty keg, drew a huge twist of
the native leaf from his buckskn and said
'Gentleman, you won't hardly believe this story
some folks dont--but it's fact and no mistake.
Some forty years ago things want as they are
now-railroads and turnpikes warnt lnyonted to
skeer game and let foreigners in
"Well, about that time | hooppoled my cabin on
going to agrcultur. Thar a powerful lot of
game then, and fellar could pick choose.
"One day | started out on still hunt to drop
bucks and admire natur. | went about three miles
without seeing IA deer fat enough to waste powder
on; when came to precpice on the Bushy Fork
of Licking | stopped, and commenced thinking
about Pilgrim Progress and Robinson Cruso
when presently seed big buck laying at the foot
of the precpice which war about four ram rods
deep. / tell you religion and literature fitted i'm
medaely, and iist concluded to harness that spe
cimen in natral history and take him alive.
II laid down Sweet Betsy--thats what call my
rifle and shed my flannel for regular tussel, He
war laying in the sun at the bottom, and never
knewed the danger he war in. | made one jump
and lit right across his back and grabbed the horns
they war horns and no mistake, and looked like
young black jacks sprouting out of the side Of his
head. The deer was a little surprised and run like
hi straight up the holler, through the thickest
sort Of woods. hung on the horns, fur tell you
if had let loose the way he running. Id lit
on the other side of Licking, and no mistake.
'.kncwed wasn for the race, and war max
ing it heap under two forty. On we went like
the devil beating the tan bark, through the thick,
cts.
IL commenced to get tired by and by, and thought
| would ease myself off by grabbing some sapling.
| seed small blacluck tree and snatchcd it with
my left hand, holding on with the other to the horn
of the crtter.
Something Cracked 1t warnt the tree, but by
gum the horn Of the buck had 'slipped,' and |
thought was goner. His head must have aked
orful for he ran heap faster, and them big antlers
of his II, as he rushed through the bushes, ratified
acin his skull like shelled corn in gourd.
''All at wunst something keen hit me in the left
eye, but it got mighty dark of q sudden on that
side of my head
Il spose he ran about four miles, when he faint
ed and got off and after rested, tied all four OF
his legs together before the influence left him
The blood was running down the left side of his
face, and shut my other eye, and d-n me, didn't
see nothin--I went back to the trail we had run,
when seed bush move. stopped stock still and
went the other eye on it."
Here he paused and took another quid.
''Gentlenen,1 he resumed, ''its fact and no
mistake if it warnt my left eye hanging on bush
and winking at me"
Everybody was silent--surprise was too deep for
utterance when one of the party, drawing flask
from his pocket handed it to the old man with the
request that he would wash that story down.
He smelt it to be that ii was whiskey and
looking round at the party said:
Gentlemen, here's to Abotionists and Tempe
rance lectures may they have everlasting ITCH
IN without the privilege of sCRATcHIN.' And
calling his dog, bade us good bye and left
The Chicago Press gives in its columns, a list of
one hundred and fifty newspapers published in the
State of Illinois, and says that marked improve
ment is observable in the independent style of
thinking and writing in those papers. The Press
Furthermore Justly observes