Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1883-08-04
Col. Watts on Cyclones,

''Speaking about cyclones, I" remarked
Col. Dick Watts, reminds me Of the
Aume was running moonshine distil-
lery in the mountains of southern Ken
lucky. That was some twenty-five or
thirty years ago, and am not afraid to
refer to it, as the statute of limitation
bars any proceeding that any of my
enemies might desire to bring against
me were they acquainted with my past
life l and several others were opening
IA little copper still, not much bigger'n
q wash-bOiler, in the vicinity of Bald
Knob. a mountain peak in Lincoln
County. Our still had capacity of
about four and one-half gallons a day,
and we run her to her full capacity, but
after deducting leakage and drinkage,
we hardly ever barreled six quarts a
day. One week we run short of mate
rial and were compelled to shut down.
ITO pass away the time we concluded to
yget up shooting match for beef
1You've heard tell of beef shooting
matchesp Well, if you haven't I'll tell
jyou all about 'em. All the people liv-
ling within circuit of twenty miles or
SO chip in and buy good fat beef. 1t
lis slaughtered and divided up into four
yquarters, making four prizes to be shot
flor. The hide and tallow constitutes
another prize, and the lead shot into the
target goes to the man making the Sixth
best score Well, we got up our match
land when the shooting took place there
must have been something in the atmos-
phere that made my nerves sort of
shaky, for couldn't hit nothing. The
best 4 could do was to win the lead, and
some of it was buried in the tree we had
shot at fully three inches deep. The
whole gang had gone away and left me
/ picking out the bullets, and l had sue
/ ceeded i'm gouging 'em all out except
three OF four, when suddenly heard a
noise likethe blowing off of a mud-valve
4 on steamboat. / looked over toward
the west and was Mortified to see ire
4 mendous cloud sweeping right directly
for me at the rate of about a thousand
miles a minute. Directly under the
cloud was something that looked like
an immense balloon. The lower part
of ii trailed along on the ground, sweep
ing trees and everything before it,
4, Trees, houses, fences and whole corn
fields, for miles and miles, had been
lifted up and carried along before that
terrible whatever-it-was, and when
first got onto the thing it must have
been towing fully four or five hundred
acres of all sorts of stuff. never saw
such a sight in my life, and / dom want
to again. She was steering straight for
me, and was just about to commit my
soul to the Almighty and ask forgivness
for having ever started a moonshine
still, when the blame thing veered to
one side and shifted over toward Bald
Knob. You better believe I-feltrelieveta
for the way that cyclone (that' $
what scientific men afterward called it)
struck that knob wouldn't have left
enough of me, had it swept down on me
to make wiener wurst Of. The whole
top of that mountain was torn al as
clear as though it had been hewed of
with an AK, and left it as bald as a
baby's head. After that it was called
Bald Knob. But that cyclone put a
stop to my moonshining, for it had
dumped half of Bald Knob and four or
five acres of farms and their improve
ments that it was towing right on top
of our still, burying it about $40 feet
deep. / came to Louisville after that
and went into legitimate business. This
is the first time that / have ever as
much as mentioned anything about that
cyclone. 'l-Lovisvtlle Commercial.
fNf ~ - 49, IT,