New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-22
MURDER As A COARSE ART


While the worthier portion of the Southern
people are diligently engaged in restoring
their wasted prosperity, considerable num-
Der Of their fellow citizens are employed III
shooting one another. The same mails which
bring us reports of Commercial Conventions
and important industrial procedures, bring us
also legends of sanguine encounter, cory trays,
wherein not cOmbatants alone but curious by
ISLANDERS are made to bite the dust. The re-
sentiments of these tropical regions must be OF
signally intense character. When a North
ern man feels himself insulted, his thirst
of vengeance ia allayed by more or
less violent confusion OF the ylsage OF
his antagonist. The lrshman settles
his little difficulties 10y few comparatively
harmless whacks with the shllaah. The
Frenchman stands aloof and calls names. The
Hebrew buys up the bond of his foe, and fore
closes the same. But the rage of the Southern
man is not thus lightly appeascd. He wants
blood-not in scant sprinklings aud misery
drblets, but in copous and generous libation.
Here comes to us the record of a Homerie
collision, which took place the other day at
Berryvile, Alabama. The principals were one
Pleasant Farmer and his son Jim vs. Elisha
Bobo, backed up by furious satellite named
CLAYTON. We are not informed of the origin
of the affray. The contestants commenced
shooting at each other. apparently by way OF
alternating the monotOny OF the afternoon
Clayton snapped his arquebuse at Jim Farmer,
and Jim Farmer rctortcd by shooting Clayton
through the frontal sinus. So perforated
the latter had still presence OF mind aud
ammunition sufficient to send half a score
of buckshot into the left shoulder of the
elder Farmer the Pleasant one (vho ap-
pears by the way to be the most un-
pleasant farmer we ever heard of, after which
he fell prone, and was comfortably finished
| off by his antagonist who sent second and
supererogatory bullet through his head. Mean
| time, some volunteer marksman, not concerned
| in the fight, in a sudden burst OF fatigue en-
| livened his dropping spirits by shooting Bobo
| i'm the back. Finding this q Strengthening
| exercise, he let off succeeding volleys, to the
| general exacerbati0n of the bystaDders. One,
who is rather unexpectedly alluded to as
"Od Man Bargu," lost a finger; another, not
named, went home with a cartridge under his
shoulder blade and charge of birdshot in
his inferior regions. At the conclusion of these
exploits, everybody fled except the dead men,
and they were taken home aud buried with
| Masonic hOnOrs.
In the neghboring State of Tennessee, a
| drama-not quite so luIid, and little more in
| telligible in its origin-was being cotempora-
ne0usly enacted. A woman was at the bottom
! Of the latter fray-a woman, we are panied TO
record, of not unchanged morals her Name
was Pye. She dwelt in the dim religious pre-
| cinct of "Scrouge church, from which
| secluded abode she was alured by two prowl-
| ing Troubadours of the "Pea Ridge section =" in
| a neighboring township. She seems to have
cast her lot with the Pea Ridge community
without much maiden hesitancY or timorousness,
| for it is recorded that she was "trotted about
" considerably and was evidently regarded as
| an advantageous acquisition to society. III her
captors had been content with their conquest
| and worn their laurels quietly at home, we
| should not have had this history to record.
| But, impelled by the same strange desire which
urged Eugene Aram to go again to the wood
and look upon the man whom he had slain,
they were moved to revisit the scene of their
| valorous exploit. They gloomed again upon
| the horizon of Scrouge church." and contem-
plated with exultaton the arena of their fOray.
| But news of their presence was blown about
| upon the winds, and the young men" OF the
place assembled and gave them hot reception
Scouts far flying through brake, and brer, and
tangled morass, caught the ravishng intruders,
and laid rods of chastisement upon them.
| They were whipped and kicked out. The
provincial annalist from whom we derive our
information says that this procedure led to
Z" the cultivation of bad blood" We should
think so. The fagellated knights went home,
and Pye nursed them. She plastered their cuts,
and poultccd their Commissions, and poured
moral mucilage upon their bruised spirits till
they got well and again cavorted upon
the war-path. They went forth and
bombarded the habitation of one Bled-
soc, who had taken part in their chas-
tsement. But as the besiegcd citadel returned
their fire pretty sharply, they thought it wise
to go somewhere and shoot at something else.
On their way they caught one of the retainers
Of tue inimieal Bledsoe. They obtruded their