American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-08-15
VOL. NNIV.

stand. 1t was much deeper than we had
expected, the current was swift and
strong; at the deepest part the buggy be
gan to float and the horses were com
PEELED to swim some distance. At length,
however, we landed at Il considerable dis
tancs below the point we had intended to
reach, and after great difficulty scaled
the bank and regained the highway.
Here we fell in with long, lank, Ian
tern iawed cadaverous- looking individ-
ual astride diminutive mule He had
watched our perilous passage of the
stream with the utmost nonchalance.
Had he been stupeficd with terror he
could not have manifested more supreme
Indifference. He sat upon his mule, ey-
ing us in dazed way as though we were
some unusual phenomenon-inha Inhabitants
from another planet His singular con
duct no less than his singular personal
ity could hardly fail to fix our attention.
He was arrayeu in pair of butternut
pantaloons several inches too short and
held up by a single suspender made of Il
strip of cotton cloth; his huge feet were
encased in pair of brogans that must
have required lasts large enough for Go
Hath of Gath: Il tow shirt and Il broad
brimmed slouched felt hat completed his
tOut ensemble.
Until we had passed him he sat like a
statue, as though he was glued to the
mule and the mule was transtixed in the
mud. Nothing indicated that either the
man or mule moved a muscle except the
gradual turning of the mans head as he
bent upon US his steady stare. We
passed on without a word being
spoken on either side, when he turned
about and followed our course, though
we soon left him out of sight.
About noon we reached Passport just
in time to accomplish my errand before
| 81, I.,,~ 8 tI,a fI,.,t
point whom it was highly necessary to
see. Jones went at once to the tele
graph office, where himself and the local
operator soon put the mechanism neceS-
sary there into working order. At East
part the line crossed the tennessee and
the wire was down on the north branch
of that stream. The local operator had
been over to make repairs, but found it
necessary to return to the office for more
tools and materials, and in the afternoon,
when he went over the second time,
Jones and myself accompanied him.
There were about twenty persons on the
ferry boat, and among them the individ-
ual seen at the creek in the morning. He
had evidently been hobnobbing with
John Barleycorn," for he INDUCED in
considerable loud and threatening talk
which was chiefly directed, by reason of
the discovery he had made, toward
them telegraph fellows"
In the minds of many of the more
| ignorant population, there and elsewhere,
| the ridiculous idea prevailed that the
| telegraph wires had some occult but
potent influence on the weather, and the
rains which then threatened to seriously
endanger the crops were mainly charged
| by these simple minded persons to the
existence of the telegraph lines.
| The thimbleful of brains under the
| slOuched hat and unkempt hair of the
above described individual was evident
ly penetrated with this stupid idea, and
now that he had placed himself outside
of pint or SO of "tanglefoot," and was
encouraged by the sympathetic jargon of
four or five specimens of the same genus,
quite as ignorant and nearly as much
| Intoxicated as himself, he was very
noisy.
Them starchy bucks thar is a fixin'
NV the telegraf l seed two NV 'em
nightly skeered in creek this
mornin' Dog on my skin, eff it wern't
good thing eff they'd a bin drownded :"
This sally elected loud laugh from
his companions, while Jones and myself
could not repress quiet smile. The
native" continued:
Dad dang the telegraf; it don't do
our country no good! Who's gwine to
git crap? The cotton seed is a-rotten
an corn'll be drownded out"
| The language, the demonstrations, and
the absurd idea of the speaker were SUI
premely ludIcrous. 1t was utterly use
less for them telegraf fellers" to at
| tempt controlling their risibilties. The
| explosion of laughter which followed was
hearty, loud and prolonged. It's effect
on the speaker, however, was very aggra-
waiting; his blood went up to lightning
heat at once. Walking over to where
our party stood, and posing defiantly, he
. a fl,a Lat in
"Lookee h'ur, you ornery size fire sar
pints; / kin lick you'uns outen them
| shiny boots we've got on in two minutes
| by the clock, and whole passed. more
| jist like We. I'm the gobbler Hooray,"
Jones suggested that bot lie of Mrs.
Winslow's soothing syrup might do the
fellow good, and remarks equally tanta-
LIKING by the Eastport operator made
him furious. His companions gathered
around him, and at one time collision
was imminent. The interference, how
ever, of some of the bystanders, who eX-
| postufated with the parties about endan-
gering the lives of others on the boat by
| the use of firearms Several pistols had
| been drawn), finally restored quiet, and
anon the boat reached the landing.
Preparations were begun at once to re-
| pair the telegraph line. The cOuntryman
and couple of his friends approached,
evidently bent on mischief. He gave out
that the wire should not be put up. A
splice was necessary, and before the addi-
| tional piece of wire could be put in the
indications were that there would be
trouble. Jones' quick perceptions, how
| ever, suggested way out of the diff
Guilty, by the aid of electricity.
Attaching piece of copper wire to the
wire of the line, and inserting the end of
another copper wire ito which was at
tached Il relay in the ground, he soon
| found that he had g circuit" and was
| in communication with Tuscumbia. With
the two copper wires he could break and
| close the circuit and thus communicate
with the office, and by means of the
" relay he could by sound, understand
| what was said to him. He made known
to Tuscumbia "the situation and
| arranged with that office to second his
| plan
| Meanwhile the countryman and his
companions had posted themselves at the
point where the main wire was broken,
and to them the preparations going on
were as unintelligible as an example in
algebra. The leading spirit, however,
was the long individual whose ire had
boiled over on the ferry-boat. He had
seized the iron wire as it lay on the
bushes and expressed himself as anxious
that some one should attempt to take it
| from him. At Jones direction the East
port operator took another coil of copper
| wire, threw it down near the countryman,
and stepping IA little further off pushed
| loose end into the soft ground, taking
care to leave considerable loose wire.
Then eying the coil and the fellow al