The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1880-12-02
A Bilious Friend.

! y& ed upon the shedding of hu
man blood. 81 killed one of IN
best friends" he continued, lighting
his pipe and throwing the larges
pair Of feet in the company on to ,
chair, with an effort and subsequent
twitching about the face which very
plainly told that the old man wai
suffering with rheumatism
"What! killed your friend2' ex
clsimed one of the company.
Eyes, as warm friend as / had
on ear:h."
"Acciden tally, wasn't it?"
"No, sir, purposely. If you men
amt in hurry, I'll tell you the cir
cum stance."
Every one expressed a desire TO
hear the story, and the old man, af-
ter a moments reflection, began:
81 was young teller, and had
just come to Little Rock, when one
night, while passing saloon on the
levee, / was attacked by several
ruffians. L fought desperately,
knocking one of them down-and l
tell you was slick buck in those
days. l was advancing on another,
when he drew a horse-pistol and
leveled it at me. The moon was
shining and could see fiendish
expression of delight on the face
of the ruffian. just at that mo-
ment the pistol was knocked high
in the air. The ruffians fed, and l
saw before me a tall young man.
He asked me if l was hurt, and adj
vancing, took me by the arm. Well,
we became friends. His name was
George Wemick. Plenty of old
people in this town remember him.
God knows how well do. You
people seem to be growing restless.
I'll cut the story short. George and
1 became room-mates. An attach
ment-one of these here old-time
friendships-sprang up between US.
Poor fellow, he had one fault, wins
ky, When drunk, he was the most
dangerous man / ever saw. Many
q time have / seen him walk into a
crowd, slap some ones face, and
then knock him down for resenting
the insult. He used to say, John,
/ am bilious, and you know that
fighting is my only medicine.
must have medicine
"One night he came into my
room after an absence of several
days. l saw that he was full, and
tried to engage his attention on a |
serious subject, but failed. Finally |
he remarked that he Yves bilious
and had to have medicine. He
went down, and several hours after
ward he returned with the end of a
mans nose sticking on a knife
blade.
"'I got my medicine he said,
1T is not very polite to hand you a
piece of meat without a fork, but }
on this occasion of emergency I'll
have to use a knife. 1t was rather
a hard matter to get the medicine.
/ had to look all around. Finally |
a man came down the street. l told +
him that was bilious, and had to
have some medicine, but mistaking
my meaning, he told me to go to
drug store. This was an insult,
and in my great need of medicine,
| Knocked him down and cut off the
end of his nose. The people of the
town ought to understand that
when get bilious / want the medi-
cine of human flesh and blood. What
use is flesh and blood, anyway? 1t
can not enter the kingdom of heav
en-. John, if 1 hadn't found this
fellow, l should have killed you.
Hang it, you ought to know that
must have medicine!
"He threw the piece of human
flesh on the table and told me to
look at it. 1 turned away in dis
gust, and drawing pistol, he, my
best friend, told me to put it in my
mouth. l argued with him, but In
a wild howl he told me that he
needed more medicine and that if
1 didn't put the piece of nose IN
nv mouth he would kill me. He |
cooked the pistol and / took up
the piece of flesh, and, pretending
to put it in my mouth, dropped 1t
down my sleeve. This satisfied
him and he went to bed. l went
to the window and threw away the
end of the unfortunate nose and
crept down stairs. Next morning
George got down on his knees and
with tears in his eyes implored my
He found tue man
who had suffered the loss of part
of his nose and gave him $500 !
every cent of money he had. For
a long time he remained sober, and |
the circumstances of his last case
of bihousness were almost forgot |
ten. l had become more and more
attached to him, for every day
was impressed with the nobility OF
his character One night, at the
appointed hour, he failed to come
home. Another friend of mine had
come up to pass the evening with
us. We were reading David Cop
perfield, and George, who was
splendid elocut,onist, was going to
read to us. We waited and waited.
Determining that George would not
come in until very late, l took up
the book and began reading. just
as l got TO where Mr.. Omar, the