The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-31

- NAAN 10 NNltluS. IN. EF E-EE
Please register,'"i--he bent his head,
The great book indicating.
The stranger. wrote. I read the scrawl
The sacred page engrossed on,
Inc naine was nanght, the place was all
y. Winthrop Virgins, Boston,
Life.
THE DUEL AT ,POSSUM BRANCH.
Ananias Pickett, yellow, lived on
! OF the branch and Jerusalem
johnson, black, commonly called
.Jn,' lived on the other side. Miss
Sophy Glggggles, the color of an under
one buckwheat cake, lived about Ave
miles from the branch and was the
cause OF an undue secretion of bile in
both MAS and .Ju.,'
The branch itself is not of sufficient.
Importance to be indicated in red coll
ors on any map Of these blessed United
States, and yet its local colorirc is n
PERTAINING enough to warrant its being
taken from the somewhat moldy
cupboardiof obscurity and placed on
the inviting center table of the present
day.
The dark and bloody ground Of Ken.
tticky, with its ~expiations on the field
u honor, Blennerhassett's Island with
Its tragic tale Of love and dishonor.
have both been embalmed IN song and
story, why not Postum Branch with
us Had OF woman's caprice, mans de-
Votion, and the fearless heroism of fas-
hearts. The branch itself is
9 dull. sluggish stream about ten or
WE'VE ieet wide, running through the
southern portion OF Leon County. In
the East 1t might be called a creek. In
the West IT might be dignified by the
name OF river. In Florida it is simply
q "branch. A branch of what, /
am not at this moment prepared to
state.
II 10 lined with live oak, water oak,
cypress, persimmon and some few 9TH
er varieties of trees.
the county road goes orer it dry
shod, on 4 rustic bridge, shaEy
and decrepit, the nucleus of any
dents.
Inc water IS about ten feet deep and
very dark. No one but a coroner
could possibly find any enjoyment
looking at 1t.
The bridge also serves as a short cut
for predatory foxes seeking through
highways and byways for the succulent
chicken, the philosophic turkey. and
the disciple OF a certain school of med
ieine-thc duck.
At times the trees that line this bank
take on vivid beauty.
The bamboo climbs to the tons
Of the tallest ones and filings a
graceful crown over their swayine
beauty. 2
Scarlet coronals of unknown flowers
emphasize the fragrant green, through
which tiny birds peep out and
watch with wide.eyed wonder the
creaklng vehicles and strange figures
that pass slowly by. Outbursts of
rarest song can be heard there
through the soft languorons DAYS,
and swift darling fins, like err
rant rays of light, ripple the wa
ters below.
On the east side are half a dozen or
SO OF rough log cabins. keeping
guard over a few acres of broken
SOL; cotton and potato patches, the
garden Of long collards and turnips,
the parterre Of suntlowers and,
oleanders.
Each demcsne has its dilapidated
chicken house, its rheumatic shed for
the reflective mule, and its boudoirfor
playful swine.
The owners and Inhabitants Of these
freeholds are happy careless negroes,
raising enough to eat and a little to
sell, basking in the sunshine, and obey
ing implicitly the scriptural iniunc-
lion totake no heed to the morrow.
In alittle log. house. standing on the
very banks Of the branch, in a crouch
ing attitude, as if just about to leap
into the waters for abath, both cleans
ing and sanitary, lived at the time of
which write, Ananias, one of my
Lersas,
Ongthe west side of the branch the
scene was almost literally repeated,
with the exception that one of the
houses was of frame, with two rooms
and a lean to. and had forty acres of
land attached tot.
There lived with his parents, Jeru-
salem, my other hero, until the fiend
of Jealousy entered his otherwise pla-
cid bosom, and left wreck and ruin
there.
Five miles off was another little set
tiement of the same genus, and here
Miss Soply, my heroine. helped bake
the hoe cake in the aacestralmans:on.
and by washing for the neighhoring
planters families, earned the shekels
that went to purchase articles of
feminine adornment, articles 50 dear
to the average feminine heart:
Ananias was tall and thin, elaborate
y so as to legs. and the sunso of twenty
hveyears had enhanced the dingy yell
low OF his complexion.
Ills eyes were Of the vintage known
US pop, and the premature removal
Of three front teeth had given him a
Weirdly poetical p~earance.
Among intensely black surround.
ings. tbs fairness of his skin was a
drawback, especially as his pa
rents, by sonle strange oversight, are
both OF the same orthodox color.
In temperament he was somewhat
hanghty and passionate, and by his
deiiieanor seemed to be continually pro-
testing against his environment.
Although entirely bellies
letters, or, in fact, Of any letters, he