The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-05
THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ROW.
A Parallel Case to This Affair Found In n
Memorable Georgia Scene.

A Parallel Case to This Affair Found In a
Memorable Georgia Scene.
Atlanta Constitution.
TIL fight between Mr.. Watterson AID Mr.. Ran
dali is one of the most remarkable eombats of
which sacred or profane history has made record.
Lit is true that Mr.. Randall has not taken any
part In the fight, and has not even been present
while the fight was going on. But Mr.. Waiter
son says he and MIR. Randall are having a fight.
and as Mr.. Randall has not formally denied that
he is engaged in this terrific struggle, we pre-
sumo Mr.. Watterson is right. It may be that
Mr.. Randall does not know the fight is going on,
but we should not consider ignorance on his part
an answer to Mr.. Watterson's positive assertion
that Mr.. Randall not only does know of the
tight, but that he is actually engaged in it We
therefore assume that there is a fight between
MIR. Watterson and Mr.. Randall, dismissing this
branch of the subject, with the remark that if
Mr.. Randall really does not know that it is going
on, it is his own fault.
Mr.. Randall is certainly not missed in the
fight. The Star-eyed Slugger 'of the West is
covering the whole ground himself. We do not
see any room for Mr.. Randall, even if he should
happen to learn of the conflict and take a notion
to go in. Wherever the Star-eyed has lit, he
has torn up the ground and carried it with him
and as he has been on the jump now for lib
hours without intermission for food or slumber,
he has lit promiscuously. Even if Mr.. Randall
should desire to enter (presuming, Of course,
that he hears of the fight and there was a bit of
unscratched and unplowed ground on which
he could balance himself while he punched his
flyers, he is too badly beaten to rally. Actually,
without being present, as far as we can ste,
without even knowing it. he has been mashed,
wiEded, mutilated, and, we fear, fatally injured.
On another scene and in another ring-to-wit. at
Washington, in the whisky ring-Mr. Randall
downed the Star-eyed with a violence that shook
even the distant State of Kentucky. But the
Star-eyed was present on that occasion, and
knew that a fight was going on. 1t was com
| M tive aaox, %hauafopa RI dnuvu him R1f
here he downs his man without his man being
present, or without his man knowing that he
was being downed, or had been downed.
There is but one other fight of which we have
any record that deserves to be mentioned in the
same breath with this. Judge Longstreet,
blessed be his memory, opens his inimitable
book, Georgia Scenes with a narrowing story.
Be it known that the Judge was out for a ride on
a pleasant morning, in the Dark Corner" of
Lincoln county. We give the quotation:
"Rapt with the enchantment of the season
and the scenery around me, l was slowly rising
the slope when / was startled by loud, profane
and boisterous voices, which seemed to proceed
from a thick covert of underground about two
hundred yards in the advance of me, and about
one hundred to the right of my road.
You kin. kin your
Eyes, l kin, and am able to do it! Boo-oo-oo!
Oh, wake snakes, and walk your chalks! Brim-
stone and fire! Don't hold me, Nick Stoval!
The fights made up, and let's go at it. - my
soul if / don't jump down his throat and gallop
every chitterling out OF him before you can say
'quit!"'
NOW Nick, don't hold him! Just let the
wildcat come, and I'll tame him. Ned1l see me
a fair fight, won't you NedP
"'Oh, yes; I'll see you a fair fight, blast my old
shoes If | don't
That's sufficient, as Tom Haynes said when
he saw the elephant. Now let him come
Thus they went on, with countless oaths
interspersed, which I dare not even hint at,
and with much that / could not distinctly hear.
tETn ,oaravfe novnai ornh I ruhok bod af
rufians has selected this holy season and this
heavenly retreat for such pandemonian riots! l
quickened my gait and had come nearly oppo-
site to the thick grove whence this noise pro-
ceeded, when my eye caught, indistinctly and at
intervals, through the foliage Of the dwarf oaks
and hickories which interviewed, glimpses of a
man or men who seemed to be in a violent
struggle; and l could occasionally catch those
deep-drawn, emphatic oaths which men in conflict
utter when they deal blows. / dismounted and
hurried to the spot with all speed. l had over
come about half the space which separated it
from me, when / saw the combatantS come to
the ground, and, after a short struggle, l saw
the uppernost one flor l could not see the other)
make a heavy plunge with both his thumbs, and
at the same instant | heard a cry, in the accent
of keenest torture, Enough, my eyes out!'
II was so completely horrorstruck that | stood
transfxed for a moment to the spot where the
cry met me. The accompliceS in the helliSh
deed which had been perpetrated had all fled at
my approach; at least supposed so, for they
were not TO De seen.
"FNow, blast your corn shocking SOUL said
the victor la youth about eighteen years old) as
he rose from the ground, come cuttn your
shines bout me agin, next time / come to the
courthouse, will you! Get your owl eye in agin
if you can!
this moment he saw me for the first time.
He looked excessively embarrassed, and was
moving off, when l called to him, in q tone en-
boldened by the sacredness of my Office and the
iniquity of his crime, Come back, you brute!
and assist me in relieving your fellow-m0rtal,
whom you have ruined forever'
my rudeness subdued his embarrassment in
an instant; and, with a haunting curl of the
nose, he replied: You needn't kick before
you're spurr'd. There amt nobody there, nor
liant been mother. l was jist SEEM how 1 could
"a fout' So saying, he bounded to his pillow,
which stood in the corner Of the fence about
fifty yards beyond the battle-ground.
"And, would you believe it, gentle reader! his
report was true. All that / had heard and seen
was nothing more nor less than a Lincoln re-
hearsal, in which the youth who had just left
me had played ali the parts of all the characters
in a courthouse fight.
II went to the ground from which he had
risen, and there were the prints of his two
thumbs, plunged up to the balls in the mellow
earth, about the distance of q mans eyes apart:
and the ground around was broken up as if two
stays had been engaged upon it."
A Upper RURTED ALIVE.