The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1872-09-07
That was the day they buried old Mrs

some time for the bone disease. He
said her back bone was decayin' /; he
didn't make much Of it and they got an
other doctor. He ridiculed the idea of
a bone disease, and went to work doc
term her for the liver complaint. He
said it had stopped wOrkin and he was
gOin to get it started again. | reckon
he would have accomplished s0methin
if she had lived long enough but she
died in the mean time, and they held u
pOst-mortcm, and they found out what
the matter was with the old woman.
It seems some time in her life she had
swallowed q fish bone, and it never
went any further than hcrstomach, and
eventually killed her.
"Thar," ses Doc LoOty "What did l
tell you You see my diagnosis of the
disease was right arter all, only I made
so they went on quackin thar and disa-
grcein over her until old Redpath got
mad and put em both out Of the house.
Wal, as [ was sayin', that was the fu-
neral and while it was prOceedin from
the church to the bllryin ground with
Parson COolridge at the head with his
long tail white gown on, we hove i'll
sight comm tearin down tO'ards the
parsonage. The Parson was a Teller
that dotted on flowers. He had a gar
den chock full of all kinds, the fu-chu,
from China, and the snap dragon from
Ireland, and every kind you could think
of. He had noticed the garden gate
was open when the funeral passed, and
it worried him considerable, so
when he sec the pig and l pointin in
that direction he couldn't go ahead no
how. -,Turnin round to the pail bearers
he scs:
Ease your hands a mint boys, and
let the old woman rest till I run back
and see if that vampire Of Dudly is Il
gwine to drive that hog into my garden,
confound him. he confined, hes
wuss to have around the neighborhood
| than the seven years itch," and with
that he started back on the run, his
long white gown fyin out behind the
the most commical loOkin thing you
| ever did see. He tried to make the
gate fust, and put in his best strides,
| but when he saw he couldn't he hOl-
Tered, "keep that internal black hog
out of my gardin, Dudly, or I'll take
the law of ye."
"Don't git wrothy ParsOn COolbridge," !"
Tsh0uted " | cant prevent the cuss from
gwine in, I have hold of the rudder but
I'll be golderned if I have control of
the ship" and with that through the
gate we went, pig fust and arter and
| the hull crowd a clatterin behind us,
| the Judge amongst EN- but getting left
in the hind of it where the women were
comm q trOtin'. The Parsons flowers
we're soon tramped more than sixinches
underground for the hog kept a circlin
around and around over the soft beds
and the hOOrayin crowd followed arter
payin no more attention to the poor
ParsOn than if he had been young un
a runnin around in his night shirt.
When they saw the crowd the pail
bearers and most Of the people that
were fOllerin the remains through SYM
pathy, turned back on the run and left
| the mOurners standin thar by the coffin.
Oh, it was the most exciting time the
| village had ever experienced. The
ground was too soft in the gardin fOl
the pig to git around well, and pOOty
soon he gin out.
a dead weight on him for the last ter
minutes. When the boys see the knot
on his tail they set on claiming a foul
but the Judge paid over the money. H
said that had held on to the tail, anC
runnin had performed feat never be
But that Parson Coolbridge ! He wa!
| the most worked up of any of en-. HI
had legal advice on the matter, but tht
lawyer told him to gin it up, for tht
Judge was on my side besides h
shouldn't have left the gate open i
he din't want the pig to go i'll thar, 81
arter while he gin up the notion o
suin me, but while he stopped in tn
village he never got over it, for tht
boys had picturs chalked on the fence
and shop doors, so that wherever y0l
look you'd see sketches of the ParsOl
runnin back from the coffin and me
} holdin to the pigs tail. He paid on
more than ten dollars in small sums t
one boy that belonged to the Sunday
school hirin him to go around and ru
out the pictures wherever he'd happe
to see EN-. But every time the ParsO
| would start out thar on some fence O
! door would be the same derned pictur
of him streakin it to head off the pig
so he would start the boy arter tina
} one. Butone evenin he happened to cate
the same little cuss hard at work chalk
u in out sketch on the coOper's sho
} door, and he was so deFned mad b
chased him all over the village.
The young speculatOr had been carry
, in on a lively business, but arter tina
thar was sudden fallin away in his in
come from that quarter. Oh, it mad
a plaguy stir thar for a while, and
recon If Judge Perkins had't been O
/ my side I'd have been obliged to e
} out of the place as lively as the old cloe
fixer did when he heard the small pO
r was ragin in the village. --....<
: The author of the e MarseiIlaise
D seems to have died wanderer, an
/ buried without any special marks {
t honor. A German soldier, while Q
| outpost duty at Choisy -le-R -Roi, near tt
!. little burrying place Of that villag
8 was attracted by a lonely looking gray
Q among the elabOrately sc1lptured MOI
s uments. Tt was simply covered by
|, fiat, gray stone, bearing an inscriptio
. in French, of which the following is
[ translation:
/ Here reposes Claude Joseph Roug,
2 de isle. Born at Ions-le- -Sauinier
n 1850. Died at Choisy- -Roi in 1873
1 When in 1882 the French Revolutions
Y arrayed themselves against q Royalt
s he put into their hands, as a weapo
: wherewith to break it's power, the Ma
Y | -