The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-01-13
From the Detroit Free Press !
He Was the Man.

One evening last week, when the win
ter blasts moaned sadly around the street
corners and the captains Of the ferry
boats wore anxious looks, seven or eight
vessel owners and laid up" lake cap
tains sat around a cheerful base burner
in saloon near the river. After the
usual amount of growing about the
weather, one of them told a story. There
might have been an ounce of truth about
it, but the crowd felt certain that the
one ounce was offset by twenty four
pounds Of the "awfulest kind" OF lying.
Therefore a second man told n story to
beat it, and then a third man told
story to beat it, and then q third man
beat the second. When the fourth man
started out he said:
Gentlemen. | have also seen tough
times. When | was sailing the schooner
Fortune, forty years ago, two of US were
swept overheard in a storm on Lake
Erie, one black night. A hatch cover
went with us, and it so happened that
we both clutched it. 1t was not large
enough to support two. | was captain,
he sailor. had a family. he had none.
/ shouted to him to quit his hold, and
when he would not, / reached over,
clutched his throat, and held on till his
fingers loosened and he went to the bot
LOL OF the ldke III WAS bNcuby LullcS
off Point Betsey, and, with shrill, wild
shrek, which yet fingers in my ears, the
poor wretch went to his death May the
Lord forgive me-"
With his chair tilted against the wall,
q lanky sunfowerish chap had been nod
ding his head right and left, as if sleep
ing. As the captains narrative was con-
cluded the stranger rose up and solemnly
said:
81 am that man.
The crowd looked at him in astonish-
ment and he continued:
IL landed on Point Betsey next morn
ing in time for breakfast, and i swore a
solemn oath that I'd lick you for chok-
me if / irad to live a hundred years to do
itr
"You can't be the man." replied the
Captain, looking suspiciously at the fel-
lows big fists; "it wss forty years ago.
II know it was, and for forty years
I've been aching to lick you out Of your
bootsp
The Captain had lied, but he didn't
want to own il, and he said:
THAT sailors name was Dick Rice"
"Kerectp bowed the stranger; that's
my nameP
"But he was taller than YOU"
being in the water so long that night
shrunk just q foot~ was the cool re-
joinder.
"well. 1 know you can't be the man,
said the Captain.
~ am the man. and now I'm going to
maui you to pulpl No man can choke
me and then brag about it y
He sailed in and upset the Captain,
but was then set. upon by the whole
crowd He got into the eye of the wind
and hung there for time, but presently
he paid off little, got the wind on his
quarter, and went at it to lick ten times
his weight in old liars. He was a very
ambitious man, and those who could get
out doors got out and those who couldn't
offered him gallon of whisky to come
10 anchor He furled his sails on this
understanding. and as he set his glass
down for the third drink he wiped his
bleeding ear and remarked:
when q man tries to sacrifice me in
order to save himself he don't know who
he's fooling with y
He was the biggest liar of them all,
but he made the most out Of it.