The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-05-06
CANTON, MISSISSIPPI, MAY 6, 1876.
THE FIGHTING EDITOR.
An arkansas Specimen Brick Of the Good
Old Days.

THE FIGHTING EDITOR.
| An Arkdnsns Specimen Brick Of the Goo
| Old Days.
Col. Horace Featherstock was scarcely
the Eagleville Tri-Weekly Tomahawk
ard Mirror, and he had been there
secretly three weeks when the summary
and scientific manner in which he elected
a powerful backwoodsman, who had ven.
tured to demonstrate against a savage
personal reference to himself, determined
the chief to appoint Featherstock to the
arduous and responsible position of fight
ing editor: post which he held for
seven years with honor to himself and
credit to his paper. He was good shot,
and similar in his suidenness to light
ming. 1t is said that during his stay in
the Tomahawk office he killed nineteen
men. In fact, the number of those who
blundered in their dealings with him was
SO great that it became a current hui
morous saying in the region that Feath-
erstsck kept graveyard of his own.
There lived in a neighboring county a
gigantic and bloodthirsty ruffian, who
had often heard of the renowned fighting
editor of the Tomahawk, and, having
held his own, and sometimes more, with
everybody he had ever met, he resolved
to go to Eagleville and clean out the
colonel. When he appeared in the Tom
ahawk Office he might, but for his great
size and ferocious aspect, have been mis-
taken for the drummer of firearms es-
Enlistment. All his pockets were full
of assorted weapons, and his belt looked
like a fence with pistol pickets. He
stalked in with an air of brutal insoience,
and said to the colonel:
Are you the Tomahawk's fighting
editor 2"
The colonel modestly allowed that he
was.
81 understand you keep select bury
ing-ground of your own"
eyes," said the colonel, al must adj
nit that do find it necessary to keep
private cemetery.
The ruffian reached down in his right
hand outside coat pocket, and lifted out
an immense old-fashioned revolver that
bore striking resemblance to young
Calling gun. He swggered UP to the
colonel, and banged the muzzle of the
pistol down SO savagly that it made
deep dent in the desk, and the words
that accompanied the action were: Fl
"WeIl, Pve come to be buried in that
For the first land last) time in his life
the colonel weakened. 1t seemed to
him that life had never seemed so sweet
as just at that momeat-a sentiment fos-
tered, doubtless, by the knowledge that he
was standing face to face with man
who was fully determined to kill him.
But if for an instant his courage
wavered, his suavity never forsook him,
and he looked up with smile:
az am right sorry, my friend, that 1
can't accommodate you, but my graveyard
is full. There really isn't room for an
other one."
az was afraid you couldn't find room
in it for me-" said the stranger, and ne
wrapped his words in sneer that made
the colonel think that life wasn't worth
a cent. If the stranger had answered
the colonel with pleasant words, he might
have retired on a great victory, but that
sneer changed the whole programme.
The colonel reached under his desk to
the pistol-shelf, and brought out a weap-
on that looked like the elder brother of
the strangers shooting iron. The ex-
preston of his face was changed, but he
went on talking in the same cheerful,
measured way, just as though without
interruption he was adding to his previ-
GUS remark:
But though that one is closed, full,
I have just opened a new cemetery,
and my sexton has dug sample grave
that should think (here he ran his eye
deliberately along the stranger from his
feet to his eyes, and fixed them thefe)
would fit you"
The strangers grip on himself was
gone. The change had been too sudden
for him. OF all the crowd that the
had drawn into the room, the
colonel was the first to realize the
change, and most accurate in his esti-
mate of its extent. He proceeded pleas
antly and deliberately:
"Now, may have conveyed to you
when you first came in that this is not
one of my regular slaughtering days, but
at the same time if you insist"
The colonel tugged at the hammer of
his pistol, but the lock was rusty.
Probably that rust saved the strangers
life; he didn't insist, but turned and
started off; and before the colonel could
get his pistol to full cock the stranger
was on the other side of the door, walk
ing away, sad and thoughtful.
Legal TENDER SILVER DOLLAR.
The bill reported and recommended for
passage by the finance committee of the
senate, in its full text, is as follows:
There shall be coined at the minis of
the United States a silver dollar, of
weight four hundred and twelve and
eight-tenths troy, of standard silver, the