The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-09-12

county in Tennessee rather noted, with
others adjoining, for its lawlessness in
avenging of individual wrongs or in
suits. The case was one of aggravated,
cold-blooded murder, the man who did
the deed being noted desperate. Her
chilean in size and ferocious in aspect,
he had fancied deadly insult in some
triHing remark made by an unthinking
young fellow who had been drinking,
and so the rufiian, taking the law into
his own hands, procured o double
barreled shotgun, charged it heavily
with buck-shot, and, hearing of the ar
rival of his victim in the village some
weeks afterward, coolly hunted him
down, and, in the most dastardly way,
emptied one barrel, with fatal effect. in
to his body. A comrade of the MUIR
dered man offering to help his friend.
into an adjoining house, he, too, was
threatened with the other barrel by the
burly ruffian, and, as he told me after
ward, seeing the devil in the villains
eye, he never talked 80 pretty in his
life," fortunately with some effect, for
the gun was lowered and he was suf-
fered to help his poor friend and to go
unhurt himself.
Well, the courtroom where this trial
took place was q curiosity. Not more
than eighty or one hundred people were
present, so little was the event start
ling one in that quarter; the greater
part of the spectators were inside the
bar chatting and laughing with the
lawyers and overlooking their shoulders
and their documents; the Sheriff was
walking up and down the courtroom
smoking pipe, and the Judge, a no.
torious sloven, although reputed an able
jurist, with long, unkempt hair, shirt
collar open and cravatless, and with the
wild, dissipated look Of one who had
been drinking all night, was walking up
and down nervously on the little plat
form which was his outlook on the pro-
ceedings. AS for the prisoner he
seemed in no wise concerned, nor, as
it afterward resulted, need he have been,
for he was never brought to even
nominal punishment.
AS for the other mode of settling
personal difficulties-the hill country
method nothing could be more plain
and summary, "Walk with me, sir; !"
and the ground reached, possibly be-
hind the Court House or some vacant
lot close by, all the preparation besides
that was needed was the stripping off of
butternut-colored or blue Insey
hunting shirt, when mixing up of
limbs, humping and pulling of hair,
and anything else done that could make
chap knock under was entered upon
with fierce vigor, but in promiscuous
manner that utterly defed all rules.
No boxing, no science" here. But if,
after getting out of wind, in fierce at
| tempt to throw each other, one could
get the other down, and the thumb or
ear betwixt his teeth, until the pressure
would make him sing out enough the
victor let him up, or he was pulled of,
and dose of "tangle-foot did the
rest; the feud would end there.
1t was such cases as those first-above
noted, however, or those close akin to
them, that gave many portions of the
South reputation for lawless disre-
gard of life, such as in the long run
has proved of the most serious detri-
ment to its substantial advancement;
and have only given those two cases
out of many with which 1 became &C
quainted, in order to indicate the
marked difference there was in the
modes of settling personal difficulties
between individuals of the same Sec
ton, but of different manners and hab-
its, growing out of difference of locality
and diverse ways of living.
AS for fighting, per Sc, and from
something like an admiration and love
for it, there is no denying the soft i'm
parchment, abundantly enough exem-
phfied, however, by the demonstrated
alacrity with which they entered upon
the late war. And funny illustration
of the readiness for ''scrimmage," no
matter with what or whom, ut almost
any time, had indicated to me one
day in Tennessee, when a rough-looking
fellow, sturdy, bushy-headed and true
ulent looking, fell in my way, who I
was assured had in fair fight and on as
small wager as quart of whisky,
whipped full-grown bear! 1t seemed
that Bruin belonged to a menagerie
passing through that section, and some
one, in the presence of the bully, having
Glanced to vaunt the bears "boxing
Abilities" all "stuff and humbug," he
said, he "could himself whip the bear
in a fair stand-up fight" The wager
was made, and although, sure enough,
the bear was a good fighter, yet the
human brute managed to get in so
many savage ticks on Bruins nose his
weak spot-that he was fain to turn tail
at about the seventh or eighth round
and fairly quit the field.
AS for other occurrences bearing upon
social standing and appreciation, or
that stamped one or another community
as peculiar, there was freedom of action
and sentiment tolerated sometimes up
on occasions that would have seemed
to an outsider quite remarkable. For
instance, in certain polished commu-
nifty down there, the best hotel in the
place was for many years kept by an
excellent colored man, who, adding to
the fact that he could keep a good
hotel another good Characteristic, that
he knew how to raise his own family
carefully and respectfully, had thereby
won the respect and esteem of the
numerous guests who had had the bene-
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