The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1876-07-27
The Sad Result or Being Crossed In
~ ,t-zs. Love-

The Sad Result Of Being Crossed In
III Love.
His name was not Alcibiades Jones,
but for the sake Of avoiding scandal we
will call him that. He lives in GER
tain town in Montgomery County. Some
time ago he wooed and lest Miss Julia
Bangs. He was perfectly desperate over
his defeat, and his friends feared that
some evil consequences would ensue.
Their apprehensions were realized.
Jones called upon Peter Lamb and ask
ed him if he had q revolver, and Peter
said he had. Jones asked Lamb to lend
it to him, and Peter did so. Then Jones
informed Peter that he had made up his
mind to commit suicide. He said that
since Miss Bangs had dealt SO unkindly
with him he felt that life was an insap-
portable burden, and he could find re-
lief only in the tomb. He intended to
go down by the river shore, and there
blow out his brains and so end all this
suffering and grief, and bid farewell to
q world that had grown dark to him.
He said that he mentioned the fact to
Lamb in confidence, because he wanted
him to perform some little Offices for
him when he was gone. He intrusted
to Lamb q sonnet entitled "a Last Fare
well,n and addressed to Julia Bangs.
This, he asked, should be delivered to
Miss Bangs as soon as his corpse was
discovered. He said it might excite q
pang in her bosom, and induce her to
cherish his memory. Then he gave
Peter his watch as q keepsake, and
handed him forty dollars with which he
desired Lamb to purchase a tombstone.
He said he would prefer plain one with
his simple name cut upon it, and he
wanted the funeral to be as unostenta-
tiOus as possible.
Peter promised to fulfill these COM
missions, and he suggested that he
would lend Mr.. Jones q bowie knife
with which he could slash himself up if
the pistol failed.
But the suicide said that he would
make sure work with the revolver, al
though he was much obliged for the Of
fer all the same. He said he would like
Lamb to go around in the morning and
break the news as gently as possible to
his unhappy mother, and to tell her that
his last thought was of her. But he
particularly requested that she would
not put on mourning for her erring son.
Then he said that the awful act would
be performed on the beach, just below
the Gas Works, and he wished Peter to
come out with some kind of vehicle to
bring the remains home. IF Julia came
to the funeral she was to have seat in
the carriage next to the hearse, and if
she wanted his heart it was to be given
to her in alcohol. It best only for her.
Peter was to tell his employers at the
store that he parted with them with re-
greet, but doubtless they would find some
other person more worthy of their con-
fidence and esteem. He said he didn' t
care where he was buried, but let it be
in some lonely place, far from the tur-
MOL and trouble of the world, some
place where the grass grows green and
where the birds come to carol in the
early spring time.
Mr.. Lamb asked him if he preferred
deep or q shallow grave; but Mr..
Jones said it made very little difference
when the spirit was gone the mere
earthly clay was of little account. He
owed seventy cents for billiards down
at the saloon, and Lamb was to pay that
out Of the money in his hands, and to
request the clergyman not to preach q
sermon at the cemetery. Then he shook
hands with Peter and went away to his
awful doom.
The next morning Mr.. Lamb wrote to
Julia, stopped in to tell them at the
store, and nearly killed Mrs. Jones with
the intelligence. Then he borrowed
Cooley's wagon, and, taking with him
the Coroner, he drove out to the beach,
just below the Gas Works, to fetch home
the mutilated corpse. When they reach
ed the spot, the body was not there, and
Peter said he was very much afraid it
had been washed away by the flood tide.
So they drove up to Keyser's house,
about half mile from the shore, to ask
if any one Of the folks there had heard
the fatal pistol-shot or seen the body.
On going around to the wood pile they
saw Keyser holding terrier dog backed
close up against log. The dogs tail
was lying across the log, and another
man had the Ak uplifted. A second later
the ak descended and cut the tail off
close to the dog, and, while Keyser re-
strained the frantic animal, the other
man touched the bleeding stump with
caustic. As they let the dog go Lamb
was amazed to see that the chopper was
the wretched suicide. He was amazed,
but before he could ask any questions
Alcibiades stepped up to him and said !:
Hush-sh-sh! Don't say any thing
about that matter. thought better OF
it. The pistol looked so blamed dam
gerous when I cooked it that changed
my mind, and came over here to Key
ser's to stay all night. I'm going to
Iva inst To anita that Ran0s n;rl .