The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1876-05-24

From the New York Sun asa

~ SOne beautiful sunny morning An til
month of June, in the year 1852 said MI
Magufhn, "John Junkless, an amiable youn
man, who lived in a2leville, Ark, sat on
stone in the suburbs of the town tamping
charge of blasting powder into hole in tn
rock beneath his feet. He had worked fou
years as a lineman for a telegraph company
saved $40, married and settled down, an,
now he was blasting for the cellar of a h0us
which he proposed to build. As lie pounded
away with the tanping iron he cheeril,
sang that most beautiful of native ballads
"The Suwanee River" somewhat obscurins
many of the words and syllables but still
keeping rhythmic time with the blows:
Jam down up.jans the .jam-wee .ia1a-ver
Jam, far G.jaHa.
Jam where my jam is ianl-ing .jqH,-er.
Jam where the id!
1.-TWO weeks later Col Horace Feather
i stock, the veteran editor of the Eagleville
! Tri-weekly Tomahawk and Mirror, sat in
his sanctum calmly smoking a regala cab
| bago-disinfectoro maduro, and in the inter
| walls when the cloud ofsmoke lifted he scan
ned the columns of his exchanges. He was
surprised, more than that, panied to note
the startling story of murder that disfgured
every paper. Their columns seemed to reek
with gore, and when he closed his eyes he
found it easy to Imagine that they We're
u.
colonel had commended the promptness of
his-felow citizens in resenting aifront, and
he had contributed no mean share to the
mortuary statistics of the state but brutal
murder for base plumber any other igno-
BILE purpose shocked him. In every in
stance the victim seemed to have been cut TO
pieces and in all of his wide experience the
colonel had never known any of his friends,
howeverskilied in the use of the bowie. to
SO completely carve up an opponent. In
fact, many of the murders would never have
been discovered but for the apparent care
lessness of the murderers, who had left here
and there in the woods, the roads, ana the
swamps, a hand, or a foot, piece of IA leg, or
AN arm, which they seemed TO have been too
reckless to seerete with the rest of the body.
another two weeks later the citizens of
all the counties for many miles around
were in an uproar over their coroners' bills.
All over the country the coroners wcr, sud
denly growing rich, and the vigilance COM
mittees that were hunting the mysterious
;ssassinA were, as the charges for the inq uest
rolled up, almost moved to turn their wrath
from the murderers to the corcners. AT last
the cutlery grew too strong to be quoted,
and investigation WAS resolved upon. BY
common consent Eagleville was the place
appointed and one cay in the month of July
a great throng of the inhabitants and all the
coroners assembled there. Each coroner
brought with him, as proof Of the legitimacy
of his action, the remains upon which his
inquests had been held and there were some
remarkable exhibits One enterprising
man had held an inquest on foot, and an
other, whose crimson clarion proclaimed his
bibplOus propensities, had put ina big bill
for sitting on an ear.
"Not many of the e0roners had contrib
uted to the collection when the surgeon in
charge noticed that some of the pieces
seemed to be cOunterparts of others; and as
more corOners laid down their fragments,
further smilarities served to deepen what
in his mind promised to obe an even more
startling ana wonderful mystery than the
murders themselves When the last piece
had come in, and all hands had repaired to
the taverns to refresh preparatory to the in
vestigation, the surgeon, with an defined
motive, set to work to match the odds and
ends, and as he progressed it was Impressed
upon him that the murdered men must
have borne striking resemblance to each
other, for their parts seemed interchange
able. As he kept on matching and match
ing, the body grew, and the pile of frag-
ments diminished, until at last, when only
a great toe was lacking to complete the re-
constructed body, There was left Of the ooro-
ners's offerings one great toe and nothing
more and having stuck this on, the surgeon
with some feeling of pride in his skill, but
little knowing that unconscioa7ly he had
cleared up the mystery, placidly awaited
the return of the investigators and they
soon came with Col Featherstock marching
gravely at their head. Stalking soemnly
in through the open door, the colonel took
one square look at the body, and then, with
that profanity which in periods of excite
ment sometimes marred his otherwise elias
sieal utterance, he burst out: John Junkless,
by--I'
at was indeed he. Sitting happily on Il
stone in the suburbs of Eaglevillea month be
fore, tamping blasting powder into IL hole
in a rock beneath his feet, he had pounded
too hard. tho Ghafge had exploded, and he
had been blown all over the country in the
small fragments upon which the reporters
had based their tales of murder, and the cor
Oners had held their many inquests. Prob
ably no other man was ever so widely dis
tributed. You have heard of the man that
was blown into the middle of next week
this was the man that was blown into the
middle of several adjoining counties.
9f sssts ,5t ne 4afgE s sansq3 S
any suspicion of corruption, but it also led
to the passage of a wholesome law which
has since been substantially adopted in
many states, namely, that no coroner should
charge for an inquest unless he could pro-
duce a certain quantity ofcorpse."