The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-07-02

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trough lay twenty-five dead bar, young
and old. Gentlemen. value my reputa-
ton too high to weigh it agin bar meat.
Gentlemen, counted them bodies as they
Law, and YOU NAV think | was mighty
proud as | viewed the ground. Well, 4
mought have been. but there was one
corpse too many there for my peace OF
mind. Over by the honey trough, 1lst
where my life was saved, as thought, by
the miraculous mistake of a drunken old
bar, there lay two bodies, clutched in a
death grip, jist as they had fell tightin'
They were badly tore, and the leaves all
around soaked and stained; but as | stoOp-
ed over to look closer, | felt cold shiver
that froze clean to my bones. There was
the white paw, stiff and bloody. Gentle
men, there lay Rough, my old playmate. ="
The rugged hunter drew his sleeve
across his eyes, reached over for the pitch
er, and turned it bottom upward oyer his
"Well, is that all % asked Dick, draw
ing long breath.
"Hit's all the liquor," quoth RowZey,
with dry wink. ''Of the story there's
yit another pint or two at your service.
Well, went to work savin' my meat
with heavy heart, and next day got some
fellers up from the settlements with hor-
ses and sleds to help me down with it.
There was sich pile that all the neigh
bors gathered in to look and git share,
and there was a mighty guessin' and bet
tin on the weight. Now we had no steel
yards nor scales of any kind; but there
was old Bill S Hanson, who had got weigh
ed onst when he was down to the Kama
wha SaIt-works, and accordin' TO his recol-
lection, which was good when he staid
sober (which he never did Willingly, he
drawed jist two hundred and eighty down
weight, on the salt-wOrkS scales. Well,
we jist laid stout rail acrOst stump,
seesaw fashion, and sot old Bill on one
eend and piled bar meat on the other, till
we got his heft-which we did; | now dis
remember whether hit was seven or seven
teen times. Howsomdever, none of us
bein' scholars enough to substract that to-
gether, we scored the times on Saplin',
till the school-master came along to cipher
it up for us. But every body lowed they
never see sich a pile of meat in all their
born days"
"And did you never try that trap again,
Rowzey?'
"Oh yes for you see, after old Rough
was dead ! had no mercy on bar any
more, and Sot that trap over and over.
But fooled away my liquor and honey
for though my bait was took regularly,
never see bar nor a bars track in that
neighborhood afterward. But Onst | see
old Bill Swanson luTkin' around thar, and
havin' my own suspicious, | left off set
in'.v
"And did you eat old Rough with the
rest"' inquired Dick.
Mister" said the mountaineer, with a
gesture of indignant scOrn, "sich a ques-
| ton is discredit to the feller that asks it.
! Do look like lawyer or heathen can
nibal? No, sir; buried him decent and
respectable. with all his har on him, jist as
would Christian friend, and tarred his
name on a smooth clapboard, and stuck il
up at his hepd. And thar he mOught have
rested in peace to this day; but some OF
/ them high-scienced fellerS from the East
come a-nosin' and a-scratchin' through that
country, and mistdkin' the grave for an
Injin mound, they eXcawated poor ROugh's
| bones and sent 'em to Barnum's Institute
at Washington City, where I've hearn say
| they stands in glass case. as the skeleton
of a celebrated Injin chief, between pal
of General Washington's old breeches and
/ General Jackson's night-cap, which he
wore at the battle of New Orleans"
The narrator heaved a deep sigh, anC
/ bowed to the company.