The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1879-09-11

man, wearing broad -brimmed, white,
Blouched hat. The aforementioned per-
sonage occupied the front seat of the
coach; the red-headed man the back
seat, while had the middle seat be-
tween the two.
1t was not long after the newcomer
joined us before the red-headed man
began to descant upon the conduct of
toll-gate keeper in the vicinity, who,
he alleged, tried to cheat him." and
he proceeded at some length to abuse
him roundly. As it was a matter in
which felt not the least interest,
made no comment or reply whatever.
But not 80 my long-haired, cadaverous
neighbor from Missouri-as it seemed
but who had emigrated to the far
away State from that very neighbor-
hood. and who, it also appeared from
that circumstance, happened to be an
old personal friend to the gate-keeper
thus assailed. When the narrative was
entirely ended like myself, not having
said word up to that time-he slowly
began, suffering enough to give ter
rible emphasis to his spasmodic utter
ances.
Listen to me, SIS -strangerl That
toll-gate keeper is my friend; and 1
never sit by and hear friend abused
without ta-ta- taking it up. You acted
the cheating scoundrel yourself, sir;
and t-t-tried to swindle him out of $5.
he told me all about it as I came along,
and you deserve hemp for your mean
ness, and you can't deny what charge.
You've not only t-t-tried to swindle
my friend, but you've lied about him,
besides. And that's all there is of it. .
Well, I had seen the two by day
light. and, seated between them
there in the deep darkness, 1 looked
for nothing else, for few mo-
ments, but, serving partially as shield
for them alternately, to stop bullets or
bowie-kn:fe thrusts; and the close of
the emphatic harangue found me quite
ready, at the first possible explosion Of
powder, to vamose by the coach-door
on which 1 was leaning, so that they
two migft,,if so disposed, fight it out
comfortably, but nothing of the kind
occurred, to my great surprise. The
subject of this savage lecture never
chirped," and about mile from there
he left the coach, good deal to my re-
lief, and never saw him any more.
And speaking of :" standing by a
friendi" On another occasion, I hap
pened to be riding out one pleasant
summer evening in the suburbs of one
of the State capitals, and overtaking a
prominent politician whom knew, in
deed I may say a particular friend, I
invited him to seat in my buggy, and
we rode onward together, chatting
about Indifferent matters, until it was
not long before he suggested an extern
sion of our ride to rather secluded
locality, because" he said I" he wished
to discharge some loaded pistols he had
about him." was at once reminded by
this remark that, about a week previ-
ously, he had been one of several who
had expected to stand by friend" in
an anticipated street fight, which fortu-
nately did not come off; but, however,
after a while we. arrived at the spot he
was looking for, and then ho proceeded
| to unload his pockets of small arsenal
of revolvers, with which we spent some
time shooting at mark. He had previ-
ously been engaged in sundry savage
encounters; but no one who had chanced
to have fallen in with him, sauntering
out for exercise, apparently, on that
summer evening, as the bland-looking
and eminently polite gentleman he was
would have dreamed of the armory
about him, or the use to which those
pistols were intended to be put but 8
few days before. His end was what
might have been expected from his an.
tecedents; for he died the violent death
at last which he had long sought. As
Falstaff put it, "Honor pricked hin
onl" But power at last more potent
"pricked him off when he came onl
He was killed in desperate battle il
Kentucky during the late war, as Con
federate General.