The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-10-14
FIGHTING JOE.

| was standing in the churchyard of
a small town on the borders of
South Staffordshire one bright Sunday
afternoon in April. was a stranger in
that part of the country and was pass
ing through the place in the course of
a long walk from the larger adjacent
town, TO which my business haG taken
me the day before. The extensive min
inc operations of the last twelve or tif-
teen years had altered the little unpre-
tending village materially and though
the quaint old church and some long
and low buildings, suggestive of
Iarms and homesteads, still retained
an air of rustic simplicity, they were
being gradually obscured and the place
itself sophisticated by the formal rows
of plain and ugly tenements, built eX-
pressly for the mining population,
which each year was becoming more
e. and more numerous.
had amused myself by deciphering
some of the inscriptions on the grave
stones-well nigh obliterated by the
weather-stain and the moss that time
= had suffered to find the root-hold in the
hollows of the lettering when man,
presumably a miner, in the Sunday
clothes peculiar to that class, carrying
little child of two or three years and
1OilON6N w tGuOluGl OOlICNllebO OiuCA-
seated himself on a flat stone. and
opened a conversation.
- A civilly-spoken fellow enough,
+. though with the uncouth accent Of
CO. the country. ! readily accepted the
invitation he offered, and we chatted
~ pleasantly. He had known the place
many years, he told me, aye, long be-
fore it had grown into the town it now
Z was, when it was nothing but an humble
: village, and when the long grass or
ripening corn bowed its head to the
wind on the spot where the unsightly
10 en- ne-house and tall red chimney now
stood, and where the heaps of Stag and
cinder marked the busy life of the toll
ers in the earth below.
That handsome marble monument,
he told me, denoted the last resting
place of the late rector, and this broad,
massive piece Of granite was the tomb
~ of a certain local Squire. popularity
known as esquire Jack" who, it
seemed, was much given to horSerac-
inc, cooking and such kl.dred sports,
and who, being sad me er-do-well,"
a thoughtless, reckless fellow, but
withal good-natured and easy-going,
was, as such gentry not unfrequently
are, the most popular member OF his
O. family.
AS my new acquaintance pointed out
these objects and others which he
thought, l suppose, would interest me,
he had risen from his seat, and we had
strolled leisurely through the church
ward. 1t was in a corner and rather in
"a hollow, that, before a humble mound
of green turf, and decked with the
pretty spring flowers, carefully planted
in the form of a cross, we both, as of
one accord, paused. It had not any
grayestone, but only a piece of wood
supported by two short uprights. On
this were rOughly-carved, as if done
with pocket-knife, these two words:
Fighting joe"
-, q That is a strange inscription to put
over a mans grave" | said; and then
added, ''WhO and what was he?'
The man seated himself on 4 stone
close by and was silent for n few sec
onds. He had set down the little child
he had been carrying and the two little
things, attracted by the bright flowers,
( had found their way to the mound and
were about to gather them.
Here, you mustn't touch them flow
ers." he said and, taking a hand of each,
led them away.
.'Well, mate" he then went on to
say TO me, in reply to my question, Il
s.r don't rightly know who or what he was.
-r He was stranger down here, and Meth
er me nor my mates ever heard tell
where he came from or who he was.
When this here pit, Fenton's Pit we
call it, was first worked we had but few
hands hereabouts and men rs could
work had no call to wait long for job
and got a good wage as well. Most of
the hands were StaffordShire but we
never knowed where Joe came from,
and / don't know as we asked and
.~p'raps he wouldn't have told us if we
had. He was quiet and lonely-like and
said but little-that is, when he was all
right; but when he'd had a drop of
drink, as maybe of a Saturday night
when he had gotten his wage, of all the
hands | ever see TO swear, spend his
money, wrestle or fight, there wasn't
49, one like Fighting joe"
"And hence his name, | supposeT l
asked And of course it is the old
story again-drink, quarrel, a fight
and a violent death; though L cannot
understand, in that case, the evident
care that is bestowed on the poor fell
lows tOmb-such as it is.
p. ''No, SIR" the man said, gravely,
after a moments pause; ''not quite all
that A violent DEATH yes; and such a
utdlu IL uli8uI play OOu ulSuI ut CT
happen to the worst of US; but it wasn't
drink. nor a quarrel nor fight with an
other man, that brought him to it. 1t
10 was more the other way, poor lad
more the other way"
The rough fellow beside me said this
with gentleness of tone and manner
that was sufficiently outof keeping with
his appearance to excite some degree of
curiosity and | told him / should like to
= learn more of the story.
ITS not much as such as you might
care for,n the man replied 4" Here"
he said, turning to the little ones who
were straying toward the green
mound again. .'you nlustn' t touch them
,posies. thou knows; 90 and get some of
Them and he jerked a small piece of
coal he had in his hand toward where
some daisies and dandelions were grow
ing among the rank grass.
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