Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-19
SAVED FROM A WATERY GRAVE.
History Of n Dog, a Chicken. n Man
and n Little Boy.

Between five and six o'clock last even
ing, an exciting scene was witnessed inthe
back water south of Broad, between Cherry
and College streets. In order to make Our
readers familiar with the whole story, we
will commence at the beginning. a colored
man whose name we don't know and never
expect to know, because we had never
seen him before, and never expect to
see him again, after mature de-
liberation no doubt, determined 10 have
chicken for supper, and proceeded to his
coon. where he selected one of the latest
with the intention of wringing its neck.
He was accompanied to that coop by his
little son, and to better enable the old MAJ
to fasten the door of the coop, in order to
save the remainder of his chickens for a
Sunday dinner, he gave the fowl to the lit
tie boy to hold, but that chicken
which was a rooster, did not
hold worth a cent, but suddenly escaped
from the firm grasp of the youngSter and
flew into the back-water. This is a con-
venient place to drop that chicken, and we
will close the first chapter with the infer
ence that the aforesaid chicken had gone
for good.
Not so, however, for as soon as that
chicken had touched water a little black
dog made a bound from the street above, and
a momen later was struggling with the
mad waves and making for that chicken.
The dog pushed forward, reached in due
course of time that chicken and seized it by
the neck. The chicken weighed nearly as
much as the dog, and in struggling to be
released from the grasp of the dog, the lat
ter was frequently pulled under the water,
- 81, 80 l=.awr~ fn hnlanNA That
dog and chicken would go down to a wa
terry grave. So ends chapter two.
4 large crowd had by this time collected
on the streets, and intense interest man.
ifested as to the fate of the dog that so per-
sistently refusedt to relinquish the prize held
between his teeth. In the crowd was a
little boy who wept bitterly for his dog.
His tries pierced the heart Of a
cOlored man named John Allen,
whose sympathies by this time were
aroused in behalf of the boy and the dog.
Without saying a word, he DOTTED stockings
and shoes, coat and pants, and phungedintO
the water, and was loon swimming in the
direction of the dog. Up to this good mo-
ment, the dog had been the hero of the oc-
casion, but now all eyes were turned on
John as he neared a couple of planks
laShed together, n tleu 10 a
fence about midway between
the two streets. He mounted his raft, and
with a pole, pushed out and was soon along
side Of the dog and the chicken. He
reached out his hand, rescued the chicken
from the mouth of the dog, helped the lat
ter on his planks, and amid the cheers Of
the vast concourse of people, the man, the
dog and the chicken were moving towards
the shore.
We cannot close this narrative without
informing our readers of the fact that the
aforesaid dog is of the feminine gender,
and bears the very beautiful name of Fan
ny. She belongs to Tom Coughlin, and is
said to be one of the best ratters in the
city. The owner obtained her from a
Texas ranger during the war, and not long
since refused to sell her for 500 in gold.