Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-02-06
The Facts about sam Snyder.
Max Adeler.l

Max Adolor.l
We were all sitting out on the piazza
in front of Blyler's store, and Abner
Byng was there, with his legs cooked
up against a post and the chair tilted.
back. DR.. Murray was running his
eye down a column Of the county pa
per, when he suddenly said
Halloa! This is queer Why, it
says that an English chemist has sue
ceeded in distilling whisky from saw
dust IT,
That's nothing, said Abnor Byng,
Tipping his thumb.
How do you mean nothing?"
asked the doctor,
"Oh, it's old, awful old. | knew
that years ago. Did you ever meet
Sam Snyder
No, never met him
Well, Sam was a hard drinkor-
must have rum by one means or an
other. He had no money and nobody
to trust him or treat him. So Sam
somehow ascertained that whisky
could DO made out of sawdust, and do
you know what he'd do?"
WHAT
He'd get so drunk of a fence rail
and a cross-cut saw hal he couldn't
tell a COW from a sugar cured ham.
Put him lear to a woodpile and a
sawbuck, and let him alone, and be-
fore II o'clock he'd turn out the
most delicious mint juleps you ever
tasted"
Easily done, was it?"
Easily? Why, one time his family
tried to keep him sober by putting
him out on the roof and keeping him
there and do yon know what Sam
did? Got a boy to tie a wash boiler
and four feet of lead pipe to a string,
and Sam ished EN- up, and in three
days he had turned every shingle into
cocktails, and he fell through into
the garnet in such a frightful condi-
ton of intoxication that they had to
give him electric shocks from a forty
two cell battery to bring him back to
consciousness"
You know this to be a fact, do
your"
Certainly; | was there. Why,
that man acquired a preference for
liquor made from wood, and three
times, to my certain knowledge, he
got mania-a-potu from consumption of
distilled pie-boards and potato mash
ers. He drank up four sets of chair
legs and one Fourth of July, when
his wife stopped his destruction of the
furniture, he celebrated the day by
calling in three or four friends to
drink a new kind of energetic brandy
that he'djust made out ola window. sill
aud clothes-prop, Drink Why, sir,
pledge you my word, Snyder, in a
single winter, drank up a smOke-house,
three wash tubs and a front door.
Nothing could stop him when he got
going
" did he prefer domestic uten-
sill o.
He didn't. There was a wood out
back of his house hat belonged to his
aunt. Sam d go out there with a meat
saw, or any Kind of a saw he could
get, and.in two years he had stimu-
lated his system with eight chestnut
trees, four persimmons, one oak aud
fifteen saplings of various kinds.
Trimmed thatgrove out so that hisaunt
couldn't rent it to picnic parties.
Nearly broke the old lady's heart,
too"
Did he kill himself drinking?'
We'll, not exactly. I'll tell you
how it was. Il seems that he was
haunted for a long time with the idea
that if he could distill the Presbyter-
lat church stoeple no could turn out
an article that d bear resemblance,
somehow, to old apple brandy. Queer,
wasn't it? But the man was not OK.
actly right; bis mind was diseased.
SO ono night he got on the roof Of The
church With o ladder to steal the
stoeple. When he got tbepa-I dunno
how 1t was, but the idea seemed to
strike him 10 taste the thing, maybe
70 see if he was right about the flavor,
and--he must have been wild when no
did 1.-THE actually swallowed tho
weathor-cock, and there he stuck,
whirling around all night as the wind
struck him, Dead2 lie was deador n
Martin Van Buren, when they come.
to toko him down.
Landau thinrns cnt nf thn hair az