The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1869-08-20
THE PROPHETIC PISTOL,

u
"AND that" said /, SIS pretty nearly
all that have to tell you"
The above words formed the peroration
of a synopsis of several years travelling,
communicated by me to a fellow -passen-
ger from Helsingfors to Stockholm, as we
leaned over the side of the good ship
Viberg, and watched the countless groups
of rocky islets, crested with green foliage,
which arose on every side from the smooth
transparent sea. Ny auditor was long,
lean, wiry American, with cold clear eye,
and a look of indomitable firmness in
every line of his pinched sallow face,
which gave him the aspect Ito quote from
a pugnacious friend of mine) "of man
you would like to be back to back with in
a row."
"wal, stranger" remarked he at the
close Of my narrative, "yu hev bin about
bit, reckon but yu hain't seen much,
and what's more, WI hain't done much
neither"
My dignity was somewhat ruffled by this
plain-spoken criticism; for privately re-
garded myself as second Sinbad, on the
strength of moderate acquaintance with
the majority, Of the countries which figure
on the tourists visiting list. Moreover,
my listener had himself provoked my COM
municativeness by series of searching
questions upon every point of my per
sonal history, from the color Of my grand
fathers hair to the amount of pocket
money allowed me at Rugby. Conse-
qnently, there was, perhaps, a shade of
acrimony in my tone as replied: "Tve
done what l could but, of course, every
body can't have as many adventures as
you"
"Wal, yu air about right thar" returned
he, taking my words literally; "Tve seen
q few things in my time, l reckon; but,
mark We, it's cause I've looked about me,
and fixed for doin' somethin' wharever
went, stead O trailin' about with my eyes
shet and my hands in the pockets O. my
panteys, like som folk. Now, I'll tell WI
how yu Britishers travel, VII Jest foller
the railway track right square from one
big town to another, and see the opera
houses, and the theaytres, and the prom
enades, and stitch like; and O. course WI
meet a heap o riffriff, and mayhap get
yure eye teeth drawn little too slick !;
and alter devotin' three weeks or month
to seein' country with some millions O.
people in it, yu come back and write a
tarnation big book to say, that air country
amt no great pile O. punkins alter all the
critters thar air all lazy and shiftless, and
good for nothin' but to cheat and tell lies
and no wonder, seein' they'r only cussed
furriners, and hain't got the inestiinable
blessin' of free British constitootion
Thar, now, stranger" he concluded, with
the paternal superiority of missionary
instfucting Hottentot, "that's the way
yu 60 to work; but, yu observe, faint the
right way, nohow yu kin fix it."
And how did you go to work, then ?"
asked l, wishing to divert the current of
this flood Of extempore criticism.
"Wal, / fixed to do somethin' and / done
it; leastways, man that's been a team
ster in the Rocky Mountains, a gold-dig-
ger In Australey, sailor in the Iniine
Ocean, a storekeeper at Shanghai, a news
paper editor at San Franciskey, and an
agent for one notion or another in every
country in Europe, mout say he'd done
somethin', guess, if he had mind to-"
"And have you really done all that's"
asked /, somewhat startled at the catalogue
Reckon hev; I've been kinder movin'
round ever sin was as big as molasses
jar, and l amt done yet. Guess I'm like
John Browns soul in the old song-I go
a-marchin. on pretty consid' d'able, and it'll
take while to tire me of it tew."
And do you always travel alone, then ?"
Reckon do, leastways, what yu'd call
alone. I've got a bosom friend here,
though" he added with strange chuckle,
putting his hand into his breast-pocket !;
land he's done me more'f than one good
turn in his time, SO l tell We. Yes, sir, he
has that and what's more, he speaks or
holds his tongue just as l please, which
faint every man as I'D dol"
And with this enigmatical preface, he pro-
duced small but very handsome revolver,
fitted with spring bayonet, and orna-
mented about the stock with eleven studs
of silver, arranged in the form of square,
which would be completed by the addi-
ton of twelfth.
"Ain't that a friend, now, stranger9"
said the Transatlantic exultantly; land
good friends we've been, him and me; /
never mistrusted him but once, and that
war down in Australey, when war gold
to my tent one night, cause they'd hearn
as I'd heap o gold thar, and they thought
o bein' so kind as to relieve me O. the
'sponsibility O gardin' it. l hearn 'em
| creepin' in, and-o course the fust thing
| to give 'em hint not to call alter visitin
hours. hearn screech, and then a pat.
| tin o. feet runnin' off; but it war too dark
to see anythin', and all the rest O that
night my feelin's amt to be 'scribed, no
howl"
"Ah, you were afraid you had killed one
of them, l suppose.?" said 1, pleased al
this solitary touch of humanity in my
grisly acquaintance.
| "Killedl why, darn it, stranger, dye
want to insult mel Ne, by JingOl Iwal
'frsid I'd missed one on 'em and to have
my own revolver miss a close range, a'tel
being true to me for so many years, were
moren l could bearp (The pathos with
which he said this was indescribable.l 81
felt pdrtic'ler cheap all that night, so / tel
ye; yu might hav bought me for a cent
any time fore morning. But as soon al
it war light, cum out, and thar seen on,
feller lyin' dead before the tent-door, anC
track o blood all whar t'other had rul
off, Jest like a strick o. molasses cross
buckwheat cake; and, says l, 'Thanl
Heaven, I've hit 'em both ? and the weigh
that war taken off my mind in that ali
moment-stranger, thar amt no 'scribin
it,"
The real fervor of his tone as he uttere.
the last sentence, with all the air of goot
man, whose conscience has just been re
lieved of some overwhelming burden, can
not be conveyed in words.
al daresay you'd hardly guess, now
stranger, that fust saw this revolver in
vision; but 1 did, though, stare as mucl
as you like; and the way it happened wa
Jest so; Father had bin dead bout month
when 1 cum in late one night from tixin
a rail-fence that one of our oxen ha,
smashed: and alter I'd sot by the kitchen
fire for a spell, and done a torable strok
O. supper, l began to feel a leetle drowsy
1 warn't to say asleep, but jest so as if yu,
spoke to me sudden, I'd hev thought
minute fore / answered-when, all +
once, seen father stannin' right fore mt
with his big straw hat o one side, and hi
high boots and striped shirt-sleeves, an
his hands in his pockets (that war the onl
ghost-like thing bout MIN, for while h
war alive they war mostly in some on
else's), and he says to me, says he: 'Cy
my boy,' [my names Cyrus Jehosapha
Flint, stranger, and amt ashamed on 1t
'Cy, my boy, I've cum back from th
spirit world to tell you suthin' yu'll pei
haps be none the wuss O. KNOWN. l didn
leave yu much" says he, "cause yu al
safe to 60 long single-handed, wherea
them two brothers and five sisters {
your'n will kinder need proppin' up some
,. fore they can stand by themselves. Now
yu jest listen to me- Tomorrow mornir
the very fust thing, yu up and job ope
| sLo l,o nly n, that ILL o,,ul~oa-I tho %,