The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1881-03-11
A DUEL OR A WEDDING.

i am an hTutnt dumlIeT OI lemale
beauty. i ought to have been an artist
or a sculptor but | am neither. ! was
bookkeeper for Brown & Co., wholesale
dealers in hides and tallow. Henry
Bower, young man OF very lively dis
position, was employed in the same
Office, We boarded and roomed to-
gether.
One night Henry and | attended one
of the lyceum lectures in W. We
had hardly been in the hall five minutes
before my attention was fixed upon one
OF the ladies upon the front seat. She
was little to the right of me, but as
she was talking very earnestly to the
lady next TO her, her face was turned
toward us; and susceptible as l am, /
could not but be impressed with the
beauty of it.
Indeed, Icouldnt withdraw my gaze
from the beautiful young lady before
me. She had golden hair, and her bluest
of eyes swum full of love and sweet
ness. Her nose was small and straight,
and she had Just the prettiest dimple
among the bushes on either check. And
then such a mouth! What red lips!
teeth of pearl, GasLing between the
roses. Her forehead was smooth and
broad, and her neck, / saw, as the fur
cape dropped low on her shoulders, was
white as alabaster, and smooth as ar
bic. In brief, | did not hear a word of
the lecture.
A month passed without my seeing
anything of the beautiful stranger. But
about that time l received an invitation
to visit my friend Mrs. Segard in
M. She is q widow of forty, and
is the mother of certain Miss Scgard,
familiarly called Clara. l knew that
Mrs. Segard had tried to bring about
marriage between Clara and myself, and
believeI was not much opposed to the
match. Clara was good girl, every
body said; very pretty brunette, with
flashing black eyes and,hair, but her iorm
was short, thick and dowdish admire
handsome form quite as much as a
handsome face. Knight have married
her really think ! should, but for o
little affair which happened at u.
The morning / started for NJ, Bow
ers accompanied me to the depot. While
/ was buying nay ticket / noticed an
other gentleman come into the waiting
room. My first thought was that it
was my shadow that ! saw before me.
He was about my height. had light
complexion like mine, and eyes OF
grizzly gray, and one of them turned
in, Just like mine. He had on tall silk
hat, tipped on one side of his sandy
locks, and so did l; and furthermore,
he carried In his hand a small carpet
bag, with tag marked "J. Med. tied
to the straps. So did /.
] looked AT him, and he returned the
compliment.
81 say, sir" said the stranger, look
ing down at the carpet bag that | held,
and examining the tag, are you John
Mcclellan, or am IP"
my name is McDougal. Ihope you
arc an honest man, for you see if you
sh ould happen to rob bank, forge a
note, pick pocket, or cut somebody's
jugular, / might have to suffer, perhaps
swing for it,"
canfgive you reference as to my
character" ] answered.
Yes, that's very good. But, Mr..
McDcugal, which way are you going"
down. Ihave bought my ticket"
"Then I'm going up. don't think
we'd best travel together. There's the
train starting now. Goodbye, Mr..
McDougal, wish you success, and for
my sake don't spoil your character"
To get to M, which, by the way,
is ratLer out-of-the-way place, asmall,
one horse town, with one tavern, two
churches and poorhouse, had to
leave the cars mt T. and then take
private conveyance TO M, five miles
distant. ! could have gone by the stage,
but that only leaves u once a day,
at five o'clock in the morning.
So when the cars stopped at u
took my carpet-bag in my hand, and got
out upon the platform,
There was quite a large number Of
people at the station, but ! took no
notice OF any OF them, except tall,
brawnv man, in a brown overcoat and
slouched hat, who started for me rs
soon "a stepped off the cars.
was about to move away, when the
slouched hat laid his hand heavily on