Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-05-15
THE PLEASANT HI, TORY OF
SQCIRE JACK AND THE p 4 RSON;
Being q short story In Two Parts.
With Conclusion and Moral. y a7 z
CHA PIER l.
Hoo Squire Jacks Chickens scratched alF
TIE Dnranal's Penon = Z. = /

CHAPTER /.
Hoo Squire Jacks Chickens scratched up
the Parsons Pease. ~
Not that Squire Jack was engaged in the
poultry business, any more than the other
members Ct tina Hicxorytown Church. His
neighbors, like all good people in country
villages, kept chickens, turkey and geese,
and so did he of course. Nor was Squire
peculiar in keeping a flock of moral toWis;
fer all his neighbors. like sll other NOR
tails, did the same What Squire Jack was
specially noted for s. that In his mock OF
moral fowls, which all his life long b
gained their livelihood by ra.cning
among his neighbors faults and tailihgs
there was one bird, noble, high tepp ng
Ior g-spurred cock, which SINGULAR 10 re-
late, while he let other peoples gardens
lone, cou d scratch up the Parsons early
nease more perseveringly and more effect
uaiIy than any other cock IN the country.
The Hiekorytown Church wss, as the
English would say, poor living" wheth-
er b Cause the people were poor, or be-
cause they were close-fsted, matters not
he g to re ate
But SO it was. the pastors were often
changed. Anu when new parson mad
fsmou- long tailed game COCK WALK over
inty the parsons yard and tear up his early
peas, and scratch Mp his garden and make
it look like the abJmination of desolatlon,
and cry cock a.doodle-do over 1t all, was d
sight to make all Hickorytown shake its
sides with laughter. Sqtire Jack 8 birth
WAS famous fowl in0eed, but he came
home to ioost one night III plight so sac,
md so bed rag ged, and so bellttled IN his
own ewes ard estimation withal, that he
was never thereafter, to his dying day,
known to mount q fence anu crow. bow
and By what means this sad mlsadVenture
befelt the poor cock, We shall now proceed
to relate, or in other wOr3s, we shall tell,
firstly. how Squire Jacks chickens came
home to roost.
Squire JACK had a hobby, as who has
nor? and be rode it hard, Ms VINO had
better rgh,2 But alas one day his horse
lay down and died. Sqeire Jacks hobby
horse or as. in another figure, we have
termed it, his game cock WAS this, to wit {:
Squire Jack read his Bible; and there were
one or two chapters which had a pecu liar
fascination for him. These were the tenth
of St Matthew and hetenth of.St. Luke
| OF leading and expounding these, es-
| peCially in the presence of new parson,
he nev~r weared, AS indeed he was never
| defeated in his forcible exposition OF thu m.
| A self>made theolegian was Squire Jack
| and great indie, Wa he in the department Mt
of Exegesis; especis y in so far MS 1t con-
| cerned our Lords iLstru Ll,ns to the apes
| ties us to the manner IN which They SHOULD
| go forth into the world and the means By
| which they shou d be supported He was
''dead sot ag preachers hevin Sal ,ry.
| Lot 80" work like Paul did, al earn their
own livin'.''
., IN. Ten years back the Hickorytown
| Church had been about TO take steps to
| buy pasonage. but Squire Jack tn ew
the whole m ting into helpless confusion
| By o., wertul speech. in which he Chal-
| lenged any man in HickorytoWn to give
the Scrptural authority chapter and verse
fer preachers hevin' personsges. He'd
| like to know " neither Peter ever he'd a
personage?n The "personage' was never
got
No, my friends"--thus would he, time
and again, b. gin his harargue in the vii
| isge store of winter nights, and in none the
| lower tone bee ause the parsnn was by
No, my friends, l amt agin the preach
ers Preachers is all good enough in their
| place. w hat | am agin, is th9 thing OF
preachers getting personages md wesring
| SHINY black coats and having white hnnGs
ti"ua woman. and getting from four to six
| hundred dol arS year. I'd like jest once
in my life to see the Seripter authority ftI
| that Did Paul have parsonage? Did
Peter bev hiny black coat? DID Thomas
| or Philip or any of the rest of 'em ever hev
any salerS2 No, sir they had nothing and
the Lord told 'em they shou dnt take
| nothing; nor two coats, nor "A purse, mol
money, nothing ut all, but may be a staff
Ihat's the Way they YVES to 60 out. with
their lives in their hands, aud trust in thu
| Lord to keep EN-. And now what L wan
To know, and what I've been asking every
preacher we've had here in Hckorytowr
fer the last twenty year-and we've hec
| right smart If ,, m in that me--Is thli: L
| pr"a"'lerS IOWA Gays better than the
apostles wasp
/. WAS n telling speech. 1t was knock
down argument Ii scratched up the par
sons peass most effec' uaIly. and GROVE
| cock u doodle.do over the whole forlorr
garden Many was the tilt squire JacI
had run with the preachers, and Away,
wi h the same result, the parson was lnVar.
lably endorsed an lnglOriou-ly defesteC
md put to shame in the eyes Ct All Hick-
orytown. ln v III d,d the preachers argus
that these Instructions to the apostles cault
not reasonably be applied to their success
ors. nor were necessarily intended to be s,
applied, On tue ground that times and cir
Gums ances had SO greatly changed since b
me apostolic p riod that 1t would pl .lnl,
impossible to adhere to the strict letter Q
tns t-xt. Squire Jack was proof agalns
J the historical argument, and would non
OF Lutlr EeH0Cu LueOiORiCht IoEoi u6 was
plain man, and could understand plail
words, and there it was in the Bible, i
black and white, and as plain the nos
on your face, and you shouldn't an
uldn't ct ou5 of it. twist now yo
might. WAS preachers nova days bel
ter than the apostles was?"- hate whs
he'd like to kn-,yl Thus it CHANGED thai
for full twenty years past. SOU re Jack
ia game co K had been scratching u
Al n success sion of parsons peese, " In n
MAJ. 10 clip his comb or cut his spurs 70
him.
CHAPTER III.
Hoao Squire Jacks Chickens Came Home
Boost
It happened about is time that ther
moved into Hickorytown new pastor {
Hickorytown Church. the Rev. Sclom,s
Sly, n quiet, unobtrusive Kind of mar
with no, hing remarkable about him b.
his poverty and queer kind of merr
lwinkle ia the corner of each eve Wit
| MI fa nd thrae children he moved into