Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1855-07-11

lam O'Shanter cheered the Warlocks,
Johns companions all disappeared. He
cast wild and hurried glance around
him, then threw forward his head and
made sudden and desperate jerk back
ward to divest himself of the drum, but
it was too tightly fastened to bulge an
inch, and the retrograde movement only
had the effect of placing him in the still
more frightful predicament of having the
back of his coat drawn as tightly over his
head as the parchment upon his drum,
and exposing to the fire of the enemy
that portion of his body where his heart
was suppose to lay. He righted himself
in moment, squared the drum before
him, cast a wild and hurried glance in
the direction of the supposed ambush,
and struck out at the top of his speed in
the direction of town. AS he made
bee line across the field, and bin! BIN !
6lm resOunded from the the drum as his
knees came in contact with it, which pom
derOus instrument was ever and anon
knocked up by the concussion till he could
see under it, his voice was heard high
above the surrounding din, exclaiming-
" FOR Heavens sake aOat ffor--thiS IN
JernaI dram !" On he went, drum and
all, as if all the furies were at his heels,
till he came to an intervening fence
Mounting this, the drum still swinging
before him, he made out to reach the
topmost rail, where losing his balance, in
his effort to put the drum over first, he
fell backward, and the drum being upon
the opposite side, he was suspended for
moment by the collar Of his coat, somewhat
after the fashion of pair Of old breeches
stuffed and suspended for a scare CROW
He soon, however, found a foothold on
the rails reached the top sprang over,
when he and the drum had it to the foot
of the hill, sometimes one on top, some
times the other, the most ludicrous
scene of grand and lofty tumbling ever
Witnessed by mortal man.
These rough -and-tumble revolutions of
John and the drum continued to the foot
Of the hill near the church where boun-
cling log. they separated John leaving
the drum " alone in its glory" whilst he
relieved from the weight that bcsct him, >"
struck out with more than "Gray Eagle"
speed, making radius of more than 40
feet as he attempted to turn corner,
and dashed towards home like a tornado.
Reaching the house, he had no time TO
enter hy the common way, but sprang
through a panelcss window, and alighting
in the middle Of the room with sash
hanging about his neck after the manner
of Il pig yoke Of the UIdcn time, he paus-
ed a moment to breathe, and bolted head
long into the sleeping apartment of his
t. Boss" who. being alarmed by the
racket, sprans from his bed and deman-
ded to know the cause of such an uncerc-
monious instrusion " Res res resurrection
among tile niggcrS :" gasped John, as he
sank exhausted to the floor.
The " Boss" somewhat apprehcnsivc
Of such an event himself, having heard it
so much talked Of, hurried on his unmen-
tionabIes with as lit;le delay as possible,
took down his gun, pressed John into SER
vice. and started out to assist the citizens
in putting down the supposed "rise among
tie niggcrS," and the reSurrectiCn," as
John had termed it. The immediate
neighbors all being in the secret, they all
armed themselves and accompanied him
and John TO the supposed scene of action.
In the meantime the men in the ravine
had left their hiding place and divided in
to two squads-onc concealing themselves
behind bushes and brambles, and the
other under the old church, which stood
upon pillars some 3 or feet high. Between
these two companies the crowd had now
wandered, where all appeared to be peers
ing into the surrounding darkness to dis
cover the supposed armed band Of ne
hot Ete 81
gleam Of light flashed in Johns face, and
6ung resoundcd a gun with few PAGES
of him. This was enough. Away he
went on his second heat, and being minus
the drum, his speed was greatly increased.
His face being in the opposite direction
from home, and having no time to turn
he took a straight shoot westward tur-
ming corner of garden on his left he
took an alley TO the Main ST., taking this,
which had just been McAdamized, he
went over it towards home with a
speed and a racket never before or since
approached by any animal with two legs.
1t was said that the ghn~hints upon his
toes struck fire from the limestone, and
that pieces of rock as big as mans fist
were thrown up as high as the caves Of
the surrounding houses. This time his
race being longer, and he somewhat ex-
haustcd by his first heat, he barely reach
ed home with breath in his body, the
sweat streaming from ever pore, he en-
tered through the same window, sprang
into bed, hat clothes and all, covered him
self, neck and heels, and when discovered
was undergoing more than Thomsonian
sweat, and incoherently exclaimiug-
" Murder Resurrection! Wait !"
From that day to this, however much
Of melancholy may at times come over me
however much of gloom may shut out the
sunshine of life, a hearty laugh will force
itself upon me, whenever my mind reverts
to The Negro Insurrection, or the
Rana with the Bio Drnm -