Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-12-14
The Jim-Jams.

"Were the monkeys ever after me2
| Well, L should smile. After me; had me
had me down! Crawled up on top of me
and ran all over my PROSTATE form!" and
the old soaker drew long breath and shud-
| dered at the recollection.
''It was out in Texas" he continued.
''Texas is the greatest State on the American
continent for the jim jams. More men will
have dellrium tremens in Texas in Decem-
Der and January, than in any other State in
whole year. Why, I have seen 'em two
In bed, fighting devils until you couldn't
rest. was in San Antonio once-got roar
| ing drunk there and stayed drunk two
weeks. was as timber as a rag for whole
week, and one day, just as l was entirely
and completely broke, the police run me in.
The next morning / was not in
condition to be tried, and stayed in the
lookup all that day and night Two days
without liquor found me SO restless that l
could not sleep. I knew that my system
needed to be let down gently from such a
spree, and l had begged for whisky without
success l was cornered. l had no money,
no whisky, no friends, and l saw distinctly
what was sure to follow the sudden with
drawal of the stimulant that had kept me
up for two weeks | asked for morphine
and they said they wern't getting up funer-
ais. begged them for Gods sake to give
me anything that would save me from de-
hrlum tremens, but they laughed at me. I
paced the floor of my cell all night. [ felt
weak, my hand trembled with nervousness,
my feet and hands grew cold. All at once
L felt ike my body was swelling. My head
felt as heavy as lead and half as big bar
rel My legs felt as big around as tree;
felt like was sinking away. 1 got scared
at my condition and then began to imag-
inc all sorts of things. 1 fell into sort of
reverie, from which I was awakened
by seeing the face of dead
man, with his sad, CLASSY eyes
peering In through the grated door of the
cell and just visible IN the dim light. The
face moved away slowly. Great heaven /
would recognize that face to-day if were
to see it, it made such terrible impression
on my mind. NJ cell was dark. / turned
away from the door andin minute, i sawthe
face in one corner of the room. 1t moved
slowly from side to side and then / saw
two. Then third head came that was
severed from the body and the blood was
| still visible about the throat. Then l saw a
| dozen heads and then the room was full of
them and they all made at me. I gave a
| yell that was loud enough to have walked
all San Antonio and made break for the
| door. Do you think man would come to
my help? Not man. I raced around that
cell and nearly burted my brains out
against the wall and finally made dive for
my blanket. 1 covered up my head but I
covered up several other heads with it and
could feel their cold cheeks against mine.
yelled and howled like mailman. I beat
at 'em with my blanket, but they would
dodge me- and couldn't hit one square
lick. Finally 1 made terrible lunge,
and fell on the floor almost insensible
to everything. Then they left me,
and I was congratulating myself on my es-
cape and wondering how long it would be
until daylight, when suddenly sprang from
my pallet like had been fired from can
non. A huge rattlesnake had slipped into
the folds of my blanket, and was coiGng
himself about my neck. I felt for my knife
only to remember that it had been taken
from me when I was locked UP. Then
caught the monster in my grasp, and while
| he missed and ratified, and struck at me,
| tore him from around my neck and dashed
him toward the floor. He turned and stand
| ing on his tail reached deliberately up and
| hit me on the nose. / could see his little
bead-like eyes as they twinkled devilishly,
and could feel the keen fangs as they pene-
| trated my flesh. My face began to swell
| and l felt weaker than ever and finally
reeled and fell on the floor. A thousand
snakes came through the walls and ran all
over my body, and big old monkey came
and sat down on the floor close to my head
and said that 1 would never get out of it
alive. that old Satan was coming and
would burn the house down and
| that | was to go to torment,
and was to lay forever stretched stark naked
on red-hot table. / begged for mercy,
and then heard pistols firing outside and
looked out and saw the police fighting the
devil and his angels, and the snakes and the
big monkey inside shouted to the devils to
'whoop 'emup,' that was 10 there and they
had me. I asked the big monkey what
they were after me for. He said that I was
a refugee from justice, and that while had
escaped the punishments of earth, could
not escape the punishments of perdition.
I heard footstep in the hall, and then the
cell door opened and the benevolent face of
a human being appeared. I flew into his
arms. His face was to me the most bea1ti-
full ever saw 1 kissed where the crows
feet had gathered about his temples, and