Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-10-04
The kmende Honorable,

1t IS rather interesting to watch the
manner by which old customs have been
slightly changed and handed down from
age to age. Peculiarities of old tradi-
tons still inger among us and are
fOrked over to posterity like 4 Wappy-
iawed teapot or long time mortgage.
No one can explain it, but the fact still
remains patent that some of the oddi-
ties Of our ancestors continue to appear
from time to time clothed in all the
changing costumes of the prevailing
fashion.
Along with these choice antiquities
and carrying the nut-brown flavor of
the dead and relentless wears comes the
amende honorable. From the original
amende in which the offender appeared
in public clothed only in q cotton-fan-
mel shirt and with q rope about his neck
as an evidence of a formal recantatiOu,
down to this day when (sOmetimes) the
pale editor in stick-full of type admits
that ''his informant was in error" the
amende honorable has marched along
with the easy tread of time. The blue
eyed mOlder of public opinion with one
suspender hanging down at his side and
writing on sheet of news copy paper,
has more extensive costume, perhaps,
than the old time offender who bowed
in the dust in the midst of the great
pOpulace and with q halter under his
ear admitted his offense: but he does
not feel any more cheerful over it.
| have been called upon several times
to make the amende honorable, and |
admit that it is not an occasion of mirth
and merriment People who come into
the editorial office to invest in a retrac-
ton are generally healthy and have 4
stiff, reserved manner that no cheerful
ness or hospitality can soften.
l remember an incident of this kind
which occurred last summer in my Of
flee while | was writing something
scathing. A large man with an air of
profound perspiration about him and a
plaid flannel shirt, stepped into the
middle of the room and breathed in all
the air that [ was not using. He said
he would give me four minutes in which
to retract, and pulled out a watch by
which to ascertain the exact time. [
asked him if he would not allow me a
moment or two to 90 over to the tele-
graph Office and to wire my parents of
my awful death. He said | could walk
out that door when [ walked over his
dead body. Then [ waited a long time
till he told me my time was up, and
asked me what [ was waiting for. [
told him was waiting for him to die
SO that l could walk over his dead body.
How could I walk over dead body un-
til life was extinct?
He stood and looked at me, at first in
establishment, afterward in pity. Final
ly tears welled up in his eyes and plow-
ed their way down his brown and grimy
face. Then he said that | need not fear
him.
You are SAFE said he. GA youth
who is SO patient and so cheerful as you
are, one who could wait for healthy
man to die so that you could meander
over his pulseless remnants, ought not
to die violent death. A soft-eyed
seraph like you who is no more CONVEX
SAINT with the ways of this world than
that, ought to be put in q glass vial of
alcohol and preserved. I came up here
to kill you and throw you into the rain
water barrel, but now that [ know what
q patient disposition you have, [ shud-
der when I think of the crime [ was
about to commit. Blu Nye.