The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-09-17
Posting an Old Couple on Historic
Spots.

On the train the other day were a very
eontiding old man and very innocent old
lady. They had passed away iive-sixths of
their lives hidden away behind the hills of
Vermont, and were going to Western
Michigan on visit TO their son. After
little skirmishing round the old gentleman
pitched into me about the crops, /" ''sile,"
and when found how innocent he was. |
gave him all the information | could. All
at once, as he rode along, the wife caught
his arm and exclaimed:
Look out, Samuel, or you'll be forget
ting that place where they ftp
The old man explained. He said that
young man who came down from Canada
with them told him to look out for the bat
tle-field of Braddoek's defeat is soon as he
left Detroit.
was going to reply that the young man
was an internal liar, but the old lady SEEM
ed to have set her heart on seeing the
spot, and the old man was so anxious
that | couldn't bear to disappOint them.
When we got down into the woods point
ed out the Battlefield" and they put their
heads out of the windows and took in the
scene.
-" Think of it, Hammer" exclaimed the
old man, as he drew in his head; 'think
of them lnjunS creeping through them
woods and shooting MIR. BraddOck down
dead ~
"My soulI' replied the old lady SEEM
ingly overcome at the idea, and she kept
her eyes on the woods until thought she
would twist her neck off.
We got along all right for about five
miles more, and then the old man wanted
to know if we weren't down pretty near
the spot where Tecumseh fell.
"Where ~ yelled, and he said that the
same young man had informed him that
the railroad ran close to the identical spot
where the great Indian warrior fell and
slept.
It'll be a powerful favor to me an
Samuel if yell point out the spot!' urged
the old lady, placing her hand on my arm.
How could go back on what that brazen
young man had said? The old folks had
made up their minds to see the spot, and
if didn't show it to them they might wOr-
ry for weeks, and they might think the
young man had lied, or that | wasn't post |
ed in the historic spots of my own Sale. |
LOr' forgive me, but a mile further on | |
pointed out hill and said:
"BehOld 4" the last resting place of the |
great Tecumseh!"
"Think of it, Hanner-just think of it ~ |
where they got him''
Mercy! but it don't seem possible :" |
she calculated, and she had to get out her |
snuff-bOx before she could recover from |
the shock.
The old gentleman said he had a partIc- |
llar interest in seeing the spot, because he
knew the man who killed Tecumseh-I
used to live right by him.
:" He must have been an awful Iniuni" |
broke in the old lady, ''for the young man |
said he didn't die till they had cut off his |
head, and feet, and hands, and blowed the |
body up with barrel of pOwder"
l wanted TO get away after that, fearing
hat something worse was coming, but
'he insisted upon my taking pinch of
snuff, and so | kept my seat. We we've
ust beyond Brighton, when the old man
,ame at me like a steamboat, WITH
Now, then. how fur is it to the spot
where they found the Babes in the
NOOds?'
L wanted to get out of it, but how could
[? That young man had deliberately lied
% those nice old folks, and | hadn't the
moral courage 10 tell 'em so, and thus had
20 make liar of myself. It's awful to de-
,eive any one, especially a good old man,
md fat and mOtherly old lady on their
way to the tomb.
"That's-yes-that's the spot!' said,
Is we came to dark piece of woods.
Z" Think o. that, Hammer ~ he said, his
lead out of the window, ''think of them
)abes being found theren'
" Yes, it was fearful ~ she replied
seems as if 1 could almost see them stub
Ding about in there nOwl"
There was another historic spot of which
he young man had told them, but they
lad forgotten it, and L was never more
thankful. They kept quiet until the
brakeman yelled our, Lansing" aud
hen the old man bobbed up and eXclaim-
d:
ansing-Lansing-why, here's where
hey hung Tom Collins, amt it?
He explained that Tom Collins, Chi
ago desperado, had murdered eleven old
women and drank their blood for his liver
and after being hunted for
niles and miles, had at length been cap
ured at Lansing, cut to pieces by the in
uriated pOpulace, and then left hanging
o a tree.
l had to point out the tree. 1t was a
rec near the depot, and the tail of kite
ad lodged in its branches.
"There's whar they hung him, Han
err" said the cid man, stretching his
eek.
"And there's some o. his shirt left yetl''
reclaimed the old lady, and as | backed
ut of the ear, the good old man was re- ..
larking that he was going 10 ask the
-ain boy if he didn't have the pamphlet
fe of Tom Collins, so that they could get !
Irther particulars.-Detroit Free Press. +,