The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1874-01-22
THE OLDEST INHABITANT.
Interesting "reminiscences.
From the Pulaski Citizcn.l

from INC fulasRl CltlZcn.I
1t is fashionable in ne~wspaperdom
TO interview the oldest i~nhabitant and
give to the world the miraculous yarns
they tell--mlraculous because it is
difficult to conceive how q mind bowed
down with decrepitude and age can
study up tales so marvelously life-like.
We give below the result Of an inter
view with the Oldest lady in Giles
county:
"Come in. and don't stand thar and
star like a fool, like you'd never seed
abody afere. Take a cheer. Calline,
fetch the man a gourd Of water, and
fetch the pan; / know he'd like to
wash his hands, they're awful dirty,
my sakes"
"Thank you. madam, for the chair
and the delicious draught from your
rustic dipper, but the pan is unneccs-
sary, since | laved my cxtremities in
the limpid stream that gurgles from
the hill. side down the way. Pardon
any seeming impertinence on my part,
but l will. rest under lasting obligations
to you, if you will divuIge the most
important events of your lite. a life
which I am led to believe. by report,
has stretched out owe the waste OF
time to an extent not usually allotted
to man, and which has comprehended
events, which, but for the vital spark
that still animates your physical frame,
woulI belong only to the dead past.
Your Creator has endowed"
"Calline, fetch the Bible and the
hymn book. Drat a preacher what
don't take a text afore he commences.
When l was a gal preachin was preach
in, but these times people have got
mighty queer notions. But you might
as we'll 60 IN with your sermon since
you've commenced"
"You misapprehend me entirely,
madam. I simply came to ask your
age and name, and get you to tell me
what you have seen q long time ago,
what you heard and what happened"
"Lor sakes, why'nt you say so. My
name is Lucinda Smith, and I'll be
three hundred and fourteen years old
next grass. I've seed a heap of things
in my day, and l can't tell you all, but
1 remember some things mabe you
never hearn of. I've been married
thirty. nine times the last time l count
ed it up, and the schsol.marm has been
addin up my children for me three
weeks. She was a little o ger seventeen
hundred last week, and no tellin whar
she is now. My first husband "a
julius Caesars carriage driver, and l
nussed Julius hisself. l was present
when Pompey the great and Napoleon
.Bonaparte fit on the Rocky Mountains.
And l seed Lord Weliin'ton take
George Washln'ton pris'ner. Lorzy
my, how George did cuss and swarc,
and he went right straight to Gen.
Grant and took the oath, and they sent
him onto a island what they called the
Isle of elbow. and he came back and
the battle of Watterey and Monta.
lew, the same day. | had thirteen sons
got drowned that day in the Potomac,
and Lord Corvallis wouldn't give me
their back pay. A heap of men got
killed in that s~krimage. Thar was
Massadonia, and Mark Anterny, and
ohllow, and Sherman, and Buna Wis
.er, and Boregard and heaps Of EN-,
md | recon they'd a bin fghtin till yet,
)ut Martin Luther come up with his
'egiment and killed Licurgus and Bun
,er Hill, and took Fort Sumpter and
lad all the niggers marched out and
Five 'em guns and told 'em to burn
Moscow if it took all summer. Gen.
shakespeare eat dinner at my house
hat day, and Jay Cook, and Victor
hugo, and Robinson Cruso, and-say.
lr. what's your hurry, l amt got
trough the first hundred years yet.
Iome again and I'll tell you all about
Lorzy my, how l remember every
hing same as if it was yesterday"