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

character and judicieus of my integrity,
and respectfully connected down in the
old State. | shouldn't risk to have my
word misdoubted, specially among gen
/ tIemen sich as these appears to be-"
The major here assured the speaker that
we were ready to pledge ourselves in adj
vance to believe every word he said. and as
the weather was sultry, lie requested Mr..
Best to serve large pitcher of mint
julep.
'.rhem remarks" said Rowzey. ''shows
that y0u understand business, and are jist
the gentlemen took you for"
After a preliminary drink and some
wordy compliments 70 the liquor, the his
tOrian seated himself and began his story
"a bar is looked upon by the onexperi-
enced as a mighty turrible beast: and so
he is, specially if he happens to be an old
/ she. The bar is also maZin cute cretur,
and can tell by man $ scOuntenance wheth-
er he's good to eat or not. Now as for
YOU, sir, Touching his hat to the major
Ia sensible bar would most likely walk
around you and trot off; but this here
feler''-laying his hand on Cockney's
shoulder-'he'd make comfortable meal
Of at first sight"
The audience laughed, and Rowzey took
another drink.
"a bar" he continued, "is an animal to
be respected and initiated. He seldom
goes out of his way to injure any body but
! he don't stand much foolin' if any body
undertakes to meddle with him. He re-
members a good turn longer than most
men do, and if he has weakness for hon
/ ey, I've never knOwed him, of his own
accord, to mix it with any thing deleteri-
ous So much for the principal character
IN, or I fnl RR-ith n
| short sketch of myself before | come to the
main pint. Not far from where | was
borned there lived an old woman that was
/ believed TO be witch. Now whenever a
1 baby was borned she could tell at first
/ sight what he or she was likely to be good
| for in the world. When she see my old
| est brother lOOkin' so cute out of his eyes,
and hOldin' his little fis,s so tight, she con-
demned him to be a lawyer. And so it
was. He turned out to be one of the big
gest rascals in Southwestern Virginia.
| The second boy my mother fetched was
prophesied for famous politician, and he
| growed up still worse than the lawyer, if
so be sich a thing is possible. Now when
! the old woman was called on to look at
me, she sOt for long time in kind of a
! brOwn-study. At last she spOkr up. This
! boy,' saws she, has got the gifts that might
/ Stl nun VI tlliltl VI lliS DuI
it would be a shame to bring up sich a
stout and open-handed baby to any of
/ them weakly, sneakin' businesses.
"Daddy took the thing to heart, and be-
in flattered with her representations con-
cernin' of me, concluded to do full justice
to my faculties and bring me up as bar
! hunter: and so he christened me ROwZey,
after old Leather Bill Atkins big bar dog.
/ This dog aforesaid was so turrible on wild
varmints that Brother Ballard, the lawyer
/ (who was high larnt), told Leather Bill if
| he wasn't stopped there would be no game
left in the mountains-no more than there
was in the island of Chios after Orion's
raid. Not bein' much addicted to Scrip
ture, don't know what that meant. No
more did old Leather; but the expression
skeered him, and he sent the dog away.
Well. no sooner was | fairly weaned
than daddy begins my eddieation by gittin'
me siX-mOnihs-old bar cub for a play
mate. That cub was named Rough, ac-
cOrdin' TO his mater, and he was a very
comfortable friend as long as we were
rOmpin' or sleepin' together; but when
our bowl of mush-and-mill< was sot down
! there was a suspension of sociabilitieS until
one of us got a sound wallopin', and the
winner finished the mush-and-milk.
Rough and me generally fit fair, but
he would sometimes take mean advan-
tage when he found had the upper hand
in a fight; he upset the pan, well aware
that when it came to tapping milk off the
floor he was boss and | nowhere. In spite
of these little onpleasantnesses we both
managed to keep fat and hearty, and no
outside beast or human ever undertook to
poke his snOut between us without feelin'
the strength Of our friendship. When we
had grOwed to be three or four years old,
Rough, accOrdin' to bar mater, had got so
far ahead of me. and so careless about my
clothes, that NANNY begin to feed us in sep
arate paEs This new plan was so mighty
quiet that nanny, fearing we might pine
for our usual exercise and excitement,
would sometimes slop a bowl Of milk into
the mush pot. and allow us to go for the
scrapin's. Gentlemen, are you acquainted
with scrapin'S 70
We were constrained to acknowledge
our ignorance of the term. With a smile
of benignant pity for our simplicity, the
narrator proceeded:
"In our settlement it was the pride OF
good housekeepin' to keep the mush-pOt al
ways hot and never empty, and what with
film and retillin' you might reckon it
would git pretty well gummed up. Itwas
cooled off and scraped mostly of Satur-
day evening. Now, gentlemen, them
scrapin's, all so crisp and crusty, had a
flavor that was mighty enticin' to boys and
bars, and | can't help feelin' sorry for a
feller whose boyhood hain't been enriched
with the recollections thereof But to fol-
Ter the text. Although it mought be sup
posed human wit would have given me
some advantage over brute beast, yet, to
tell the truth, Rough's muscle was gittin'
a little too much for my strength and sci
ence together, as appeared one day when a
whole coach-lOad of our lawyer and poll
tician relatives came to make a sociable
visit to daddy and nanny. | believe the
whole notion of il was to befoOl him and
her into signin' some paper, that they
mought cheat him outen his land. But tthe
bar and me knowed nOthin' OF that, bein'
sent together into the kitchen when the
company landed, mamHy bein' ashamed
to show us with the pretty children all
dressed in store clothes and ribbons. But
this put Rough and me both in a bad hu-
NOR so we fell a-Quarrelin' between our
selves. and presently we had a row, and
he slapped me into the slop-tub head-fCre-
most, where | mought have drowned if, at
the same time, he hadn't upset the tub in
his awkwardness. Now our visitors had
list laid off their cloaks and bonnetS, and
was a-Slickin' up their children's eurls, and
straddled. drippin' out of the slops, and
/ bawlin' like bull-calf. Now nanny was
one of those hard-headed women that SET
no value on calico and store knickknacks
for herself. but to see her brag child cut
) tin sieh figure in company was little
: too much, and she fiared up like an armful
OF brush. ~ - - F-. - A-
, Husband said she, either that boy OF
, that bar has got to leave this house. The
brute has outgrowed the child, it has, and
; they can't git along agreeable no more
and on account of its onmannerliness its
impossible to keep Rowzey dressed de.
! cent, it is
"'Well, what's to be done about the
| boys edtication 2 says dad. .F -
e !. Nanny suggested that | was gittin
! big enough 20 go TO school. Dad had
4 hearn say it was more aristocratic and safel
!, for the children's morals TO have private
S tutor, so he swore we. should hold on tC
Z the bar. tse
: Things went on as usual for while
e when the family dispute was settled by 1
q Unforeseen circumstance. One day i wa: