The Dawson journal. (Dawson, Ga.) 1878-18??, 1885-01-15
THE BOSS BOY OF TIE SCHOOLS
The inconvenience He Experienced
From the ''Battern9 on the Barn.


and was always about to break his
neck, but managed to live through
it all? Do you call to mind the
youth who never allowed anybody
else to fall out of q tree and break
his collar bone when he could at
tend to it himself? Every school
has to secure the services of such
boy before it can succeed, and
so our school had one. When I
entered the school / saw at q
glance that Che board had neglect
ed to provide itself with a boy
whose duty it was to nearly kill
himself every few days in order
to keep up interest SO / applied
for the position. I secured it
without any trouble whatever.
The board understood at once
from my bearing that / would sue
coed. And I did not betray the
trust they had reposed in me.
Before the first term was over /
had tried to climb two trees ct
once, and been carried home on q
strecther; been pulled out of the
river with my lungs full OF water
and artificial respiration resorted
to; been jerked around over the
north half of the county by a frac-
tious horse whose halter l had
tied to my leg, and which is n1w
three inches longer than the 9TH
err; together with various other
little early eccentricities which I
cannot at this moment call to
mind My parents at last got so
that along about 2 o'clock p. m.
they would look anxiously out of.
the window and say, Isn't itabout
time for the boys to get here with
Williams remains? They gener1
ally get here about 2 o'clock"
One day five or six of us were
playing 81 spy" around our barn.
Every body knows how to play Il
spy" One shuts his eyes and
counts 100, for instance, while the
others hide. Then he must find
the rest and say Il spy so-and-
so and touch the goal before
they do. If anybody beats him to
the goal the victim has to blind
over again.
Well, l knew the ground pretty
well, and could drop twenty feet
out of the barn, window and strike
on a pile of straw so as to land
near the goal, touch it, and let the
crowd in free without getting
found out. I did this several
times and got the binder, James
Bang, pretty mad After a boy
had counted five or six hundred,
and worked hard to get in the
crowd, only to get ierred and
laughed at by the boys, he loses
bis temper. 1t was SO with James
Cicero Bang. l knew he always
hated me, and yet went on. Fin
ally, in the fifth ballot, / saw a
good chance to slide down and let
the crowd in again, as | had done
on former occasions. l slipped
out of the window and down the
side of the barn about two feet,
when / was detained unavoidably.
There was 'batten" on the barn
that was loose at the upper end. l
Think | was wearing my fathers
vest on that day, as he was away
from home, and l frequently wore
his clothes when he was absent.
Anyway, the vest was too large
and when~I slid down that board
ran up between the vest and my
person in such way as to sus-
pend me about eighteen feet from
the ground in a prominent but
very uncomfortable position.
remember it very distinctly.
Jas. G. Bang came around where
he could see me. He said: II
spy Billy Nye and touch the goal
before him." No one seemed to
sympathize with me in my great
sorrow and isolation. Every little
while James. G. Bang would come
around the corner and say: "Oh,
| see we. You needn't think you're
out of sight up there. 1 can see
you real plain. You better come
down and blind. l can see you
up there!'
l tried to inhibition my vest and
get down and lick James, but it
was no use.
1t wG3 Z verifying time. | can re-
member how l tried to kick my
self loose, but failed. Sometimes
| would kick large hole in the
horizon. Finally l was rescued
by neighbor, vino said he didn't