The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-15
TAYLoR's BEST SHOT.
IPhiladelphia Times.1


 James Taylor was born in the neigh borhood of I've river mills in 1893. He will be eighty years of age on the 10th of September, and never sSore an oath, never tasted intoxicating liquors, never che~ed tobacco, but is an invet- crate smoker. He never rode on a steam boat or railway train, and has not been three miles from home since 1861. He was the father of five children, three boys and two girls. Both are dead. Two of his sons were killed in the Confederate and the other in the Union service. He listened with the profoundest interest to the story of Bogardus and Carver, and with smile he shrugged his shoulders, saying:
 Thar, strangers, you're comin' to the pint now. Why, when l was young,' and be stopped to think "when l was young, about 20 guess, could outshoot any in the valley. We used 10 swing an apple on string, and mountin' cur horses, gallop like mad and fire at it. could hit it every time. could knock an apple of post nine times out of ten, ff;y yards away, an could take the bill off bird in tree as clear as a whistle an never disturb feather. That's a i fact"
 "What do you regard as the mos, skilltul shot you ever made?" we asked
 You mean the best one 1 ever made yes, and ! mout say the happiest O my
 We nodded in the affirmative.
 Well, strangers" he began, "I'll tell ! uC,i all though; was 2I then, an but few peo- pie lived herea bouts, an what did lived a long ways apart. Down in t'other end o the valley lived John Angleford, who had darter, and loved her like mad, but someway or other, she didn't kipder wan, to hitch to me. About three miles away lived another man who had a son, an she tux to that boy. This made me kinder jealous like, an' him an me used to fight oftea. But didn't give in; I'd made up my mind to git that gal ef could. Ooe day, in the.tall the year I'll never forgt that day-l shouldered i Old FAitaful,' that's my musket, an went up into the mountains to sec wha; kind O game was abroad. Well, reckon, I'd been trndgin' around in the ! S out seein' of thing, when all 0 a sud dden herd scream that almost friz my blood. heard it ag'in, and knowed il war woman's holler; so j.s' cocks O,d Faithful an starts through the bushes But afore got to the openin heard horses hoofs c!ankin' an a-clat terin over the stones. hurried right on to the openin' an thar seed what it wal all about seed II at glance. O.d l Angleford's horse war a.tearin' along like as If the old boy uar arter him. an thar war Sary ] +ne her fAce as white as chalk a. ciingin to his back for dear life, an right betwixt her an the horses head a-'ryin' 10 reach the gal, war the biggest catamount ever seed.
 Your times come, ohn,' says to myself. 'Steady now; aim right an you'll. win the gal es' as that ar horse with the screamin' gal got opposite to me l blaled away for the catamount's head l knew it war life or death 10 one of the three on them; but di mt miscalculate l never did. The load went into that ar catamoun.'s head, an he rolled over dead on the ground the horse stumbled an as he disappeared over a precipice cotched the faintin' gal in my arms an hurried down the road with her to her own home. For long time she had a ragin' fever, and kept a-callin': 'Is he come? Is he comev Nobody could tell what it meant You see, men them days would go of an st4y for days a-hunnn so the absence O old S:ru,hers' boy didn' :, make anybody think strange. Well, one 1 day she come to, an the first thing she axed about war if Al S,ru,hers had come hone Thinks I, thar's something guar something wrang about this, SO I'll see. shouldered 'Old Faithful an started out Away I'D whar the cstamount had jumped on Say Jane's horse found him-ugh what sight seed Thar he war, stark dead, a-stickin' on an oak limb, that had gone clar through his body an his horse war dead, away down on the sharp-pointed rocks below. We give the poor fellow decent burial The way l could account for his death war tha, Sary lanes screamin' frightened his horse an runnin' in among the trees he got cotched on the pint O the low-dowu limb
 Here he rided his pipe, and said:
 Come in, strangers, an I'll show you something"
 We followed him into the cabin.
 This ar O. d Fai,hfui,'' he said taking down an ancient looking gun from the rack and batting ii affectionately what done the business for me An this he continued, unrolling musty. looking parcel, ' ar the skin O the tarnal varmint that brought about the happy change in Sary Jane, an thar" pointing to white-haired old lady who sat rock ing and smiling in a corner of the room