Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-13

hammocks in florida, 1,200 acres, that
could be bought for two dollars per acre:
"What did be says" | inquired. a
SWELL" answered the land agent, che
said that he didn't come to Florida to buy
and that he came here for his health. I
then suggested that his friends might like
to buy some of tbe land. He said that
they came down here 70 their health too.n
II Such was the story of the land agent.
All over Jacksonville heard of the eccen-
tricities of the trio. They went into Mr..
Theodore BARRIERS restaurant and asked for
a bottle Of wine. While Barber was look
ing for bis corkscrev, they placed a bottle
of water labelled Heidsick on the counter
in place of the wine. OF course Barber
was very much astonished when be opened
the bottle, and was profuse in bis APOLOGIES.
He said that be bctght the wine in good
faith, but he thought there was something
wrong about it. He then threw the bottle
under the counter, and placed another bot
tie of Heidsick before his customers. Few
Ter called bis sttsntioH To Sole Iduor near
er tie door, while Wheeler concealed a sec
ond bottle of wine and placed q second
bottle in its stead. This game was kept ND
until MIR. Barber lost four bottles of Held
sick, and the three gentlemen who were in
search of their health left the restaurant in
disgust. Barber sua pected his boy of the
| robbery, and gave him thrashing. On
the following day, however, he received a
note from Fowler d Co., exposing them
selves, and telling Barber that the bottles of
water had been put up by Tom Alyord, of
Syracuse. The letter said that Alvord was
formerly rnethber OF the Assembly, and a
warm friend of Barber, and that he had
specially desired them to play this joke on
Barber when they arrived in Jacksonville.
| Your correspondent afterward asked
Barber If he knew Alvord. Barber replied
that be had never heard of such man as
Alvord, and that he had never seen a man
| who had heard of him. He couldn't i'm
agine why the old sucker should play such
trick on him.
But the operations of Fowler & Co. were
not confined to Jacksonville. arrived in
Palatka on March 5. had not been at
| the Putnam Hotel more than two hours,
when Bostonian named White, whom
had met once before, asked me If knew
anybody IN New York named Fowler or
Kingsley. l inquired why he asked me
the question. He told me they had been
in Palatka raising the devil. The whole
town had been in an uproar. They drank
1 Oh VIC WHO III luC pi1Cc, ouu 6uQS2VOr-
| ed to charter steamboat to run to Jack.
sonville and procure fresh supply. Be-
| fore this, however, they had hired three
mules and an old, two-Wheeled dirt cart.
| Afterward they appeared upon the streets
| driving the mules tandem. Each man wore
a swallow tail coat and white kid gloves, a
| white neck tie, fine kid boots and o silk hat,
They loaded the cart with bottles of wine,
and dealt 1t out fee to all the colored pop
ulation. Next day they began operations
by hiring negro to stand on bis head for
| three-quarters of an hour in the hall lead
ing to the dining room.
| Mr.. White continued:
"They offered another niger two dol
lars and half to eat box of parlor matches.
| The niger ate sixteen of them, when
somebody scared him off by telling him that
| the matches were poison, and woald kill
him sure if he didn't stop. TowarI night
they got up an alarm of fire, which threw
the whole population into the s,rests, and
set one half the darkeys crazy. They had
handbills posted around the streets an
nouncing that William Cullen Bryant
would lecture on temperance in the public
hsll on Monday evening. Admission 81;
children and niggers half price. OF course
there was no lecture. So notorious did
they become that their reputation sailed
out into the country, and the bull drivers
and crackers "a name given the natives)
focked into town to get look at them.
"Mr. White, are you sure these men
were from New York? ?" Inquired.
"They drank like New Workers." said
Mr.. White, evincing his Boston Spite
"Did you make their acquaintance ?"
asked.
"Yes, 1 did," was the reply, sand don't
want to make the acquaintance of any
othey New York gentleman il a similar
way"
"What was the matter ?" was my next
query.
Well" said Mr.. White, 81 was going to
my room one night, about II O'Clock, when
l heard the tinkling of blnio. l had just
reached the bottom of pair of stairs, when
big niger with a banjo came buzzing
down the stairs like cart wheel, yelling
bloody murder. His head took me just
above the stomach, knocking me about
thirty feet. The baujo went spinning
through the air and struck about a foot be-
yond my head. As soon as l recovered l
asked the niger what was the matter.
"Fore God, sah," said the nigger,"I DOESN'T
zactly understand dis yeh. Am de strings
on dat ah banjo all right?" "Who struck
you" asked. "Dah be-" said the dark
ey, pointing to the head of the stairs.
"What did he strike you for?" l asked.
swell, sab" answered the darkey, s.dis yere
man Fowler, ep gin me five dollarh eff l
dun play the banjo fob dat dere gemman,"
pointing TO the head of the stairs. "He say
dat ere gemman like de banjo music heap.
He say must follow de gemmln all day
nd nj ID hobt, h
Der he 60. So done play de banjo. Dat
yah gemman he told me free times to sink
dat ah banjo. Den tole he dat alb banjo
cost me dollah and a half an dat don't
sink him for no gemmen. He run up stairs
wild de banjo. He smack me IN de mouf
| shuah, an heah | is, an dar am de banjo,
| an de music am quit"
Here Mr. White lighted cigar and said:
"Those three fellows were great fellows.
Kingsley looked like an Egyptian mummy
| stuffed with needles; Fowler was a better
looking fellow, but the other man was the
worst l ever saw. WineI Why they drank
enough wine to float Boston clipper ship.
| heard that their wine bill here amounted
to over s., 100"
Remembering that White was Boston
ian, asked him if he had found out their
business to Florida.
"rhey told me-" he replied, 'that they
had come down for their health. It any
rate they were mighty healthy crowd"
So much for the career of the strange
gentlemen in Palatka. | heard of them
again the instant l arrived in Enterprise.
They slept at the Watson House and took
their meals at the Brook House. Their &c
centricities Immediately created a breeze.
they opened operations by attempting to
sell negro to cracker who lived several
hundred miles to the South, and who had
visited Enterprise for the first time. He
carried shot-gIn and rife combined, had
large knife hitched to the centre of his
back, and wore nothing but pair of pants
and shirt. When they offered to sell him
the negro, he said he chad heerd that the
niggers wuz free" but Fowler & Co. told
him it was mistake, and they came with
in an ace of inducing him to purchase the
black.
They next astonished everybody by in
viting an old negro preacher from Suwanee
county to drink bottle of wine with them.
The old colored minister refused, saying,
"Bredering, wine am de chile OBJ Satan.
Luff dat chile OBJ Satan be foreeber" The
old reverend was begging money fora des-