Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-02-12

mencement of Uncle Billy's story, when was
in substance, as follows:
"When first came out from the Kan
tuck purchase, it was rather sparsely settled
about here, and the first Fall arter come
out, we run out of whiskey; not man in
the neishborhood had drop. What to do,
we did not know. But just afore Christmas
a fellow moved out from North Caltaner;
and, 'mongst his baggage, he managed to
scrape up about gallon of whiskey. Now'
if was to tell you what that whiskey was
wuth, thar and then, you'd swar twas lie;
but, dog my cat, if l don't believe 1t wa
wuth a gallon of dollars.
Dwell, the fust knowed of its being IN
the country, was one Of my neighbors come
over and told me thar was to be shootln
match up at old Step-aud-fetchet's grocery
the next Saturday, for that Newcomer 5 gal-
Ion Of whiskey. I told him he mought jest
count me thar, for I was going, and l was
bound to tote off that roastinear juice. Thar
was one fellow in the purchase, who could
hold a candle to me shootin with rifle,
and that was tremenjus, great big long leg
ged, rawboned, lanky-luly-fellow, what was
always called Arthur Levenribs. He and l
had shot together several times, and | always
managed to make him come out second best.
But he had sworn that he would beat Inc, II
he had to shoot agin ME till Gabriel toots his
horn.
"Well, Saturday came, and with my old
rifle in number one order, [ started for the
grocery. There was about thirty fellows
thar, all with thar rifles in apple'pie order,
and all hankering to git a shoot for that
gallon of wbiskey. 'Twant long afore the
shootin' commenced. l was about the fust
one to shoot, and, as usual, / druv centre.
Everybody had shot except Levenribs, and
nobody had fetched my shot yit, but when
Levenribs come to shoot, he put his ball in
the same hole mine had made. So him and
me had to shoot agin. We shot second
time, and both plummed the centre agln
and we kept shootin,' and twas the same
thing every time. The crowd began to get
awfully excited, for thar was fourteen on my
side and fourteen on his'n, and they was
hollerin' and takin' on at terrible rate, and
bettin' everything they could raise, One fel.
low on 'tother side, swore he'd risk one head
of horse on his man, and every one of my
men, that could raise critter, took him up
afore he had the words out of his mouth
By-and-by, 1 seed that Leven-ribs was be-
ginning to get little excited, and then l
knowed I'd git him, though twas as much
as could do to keep cool myself. Well,
we had shot more than forty shots apiece,
and, at last, Levenrbs missed centre just "a
bout the width of a har, and such holerin'
and caperin' as my boys done, you never seed
the like, for they knew / was going to set
tie the thing right off. l walked up to the
shootin' place, and jest as was raisin' my
gun to my face, she accidentally went off,
thing she never did before or since. 81 call
that shoot" said 1, as quick as l could and
before the ball was fairly out of my rifle
"No you shant," says Levenribs, and the
boys on both sides took it up. Ny side a
swearin' I should take it back, and 'toher
side swearin' l Shouldn't, and that the whis->
key belonged to Levenribs Every fellow on
both sides done his best at hollern' and
swarm, for they all had bet on it; but in a
a few minutes, one of my friends come and
told me, that my ball had struck rock, a
bout half way between me and the target,
and had glanced and knocked out the centre
"Hello." says I, 81 won't call that shoot;
let's 90 and see whar my bullet hit" And,
when 'tother side found that my bullet had
glanced and beat 'em, they jest billed, anG
swore that it shouldn't count, because call
ed it, and my side swore as they wouldn't let
me call it when | wanted to, that now 1t
should count, and I should not shoot it over.
And, after .jo'eering awhile, every fellow
pitched into his man, and thar was fifteen
pair Of men fighting at once. l, of course,
had locked horns with Levenribs, and when
all the rest was done, he and l was jest get
tin in good way. We commenced fight
in about ten o'clock in the morning, and fit
like all wrath till sun-down. I begun to get
awful tired, and was AFRAID that if Leven-
ribs didn't soon gin in, that must; and
while was a thinking what [ had best do,
my old woman, who had heard what was a
gon on, come tearin, and as soon as she
got within hollerin' distance, she begun
"Hooraw, my Bill" AS soon as l heard
her, 1 knew that if got whipped, she would
think she had just cause and provocation to
leave my bed and board, as the sayin' is
So, I made up my mind to whip that fellow,
or die, right thar So, I gathered all the
little strength had, and I socked my thumb
in his eye, and, with my fingers took twist
on his snot-bon, and with the other hand, |
grabbed him by the back of the head ; then
caught his ear in my mouth, gin his head
flirt, and out came his ear by the roots! I
then tapped his head over, and caught his
other ear in my mouth, and jerked that out
in the same way, and it made hole in his
head that I could have rammed my fist
through, and I was just goin' to do it,
when he hollered "Nuff !" "My old wo-
man then jumped up on stump, and holler-
ed out: eff any feller in this crowd says
that amt Bill Hardyarn's whiskey, jest let
him trot his wife out, and I'll use her darn
ed sight wuss than my old man has done
Arth Leven-ribs, and if he's got no wife, I'll
n,t him tbrouoh ~ Rut Mono of 'ou dared