Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1885-07-23
THE DUEL AT 'POSSUM BRANCH

1CAS1 ~ OAoOOn DIlSNOIIs
Ananias Pickett, yellow, lived on one
sldc of the branch and Jerusalem
johnson, black, commonly called
''Ju," lived on the other side, Miss
Sophy Giggles, the color of an under
done buckwheat cake, lived about five
miles from the branch and was the
cause of an undue secretion of bile in
both "Nias" and "Ju."
The branch itself is not of sufficient
Importance to be indicated in red col
ors on any map of these blessed United
States, and yet its local coloring is en-
tertaining enough to warrant its being
taken from the somewhat moldy
cupboard of obscurity and placed on
the inviting center table of the present
day.
The dark and bloody ground of Ken
lucky, with its eXpiations on the field
OF 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
It's lliad of woman's caprice, mans de-
votion, and the fearless heroism of fas,
cinated hearts. The branch itself is
dull, sluggish stream about ten or
twelve feet wide, running through the
southern portion of Leon County. In
the East it might be called creek. In
the West it might be dignified by the
name of river. In Florida it is simply
"branch. A branch of what, I
am not at this moment prepared to
state.
1t Is lined with live oak, water oak,
cypress, persimmon and some few 9TH
or varieties of trees.
The county road goes over it dry
shod, on n rustic bridge, shaky
and decrepit, the nucleus of any
amount of possible and probable acci-
dents.
The water Is about ten feet deep and
very dark. No one but a coroner
could possibly find any enjoyment
looking at it.
The bridge also serves us . short cut
for predatory foxes seeking through
highways and byways for the succulent
chicken, the philosophc turkey, and
the disciple of a certain school of med
icine-the duck
AT times the trees that line this bank
take on vivid beauty.
The bamboo climbs to the tops
of the tallest ones and filings a
graceful crown over their swaying
beauty.
Scarlet cOrOnals of unknown flowers
emphasize the fragrant green, through
which tiny birds peep out and
watch with wide-eyed wonder the
creaking vehicles and strange figures
that pass slowly by. Outbursts of
rarest song can be heard there
through the soft languorous days,
and swift darting fins, like en-
rant rays of light, ripple the wa.
tiers below.
On the east side are half dozen OF
SO of rough log cabins, keeping
guard over few acres of broken
soil; cotton and potato patches, the
garden of long collards and turnips,
the parterre of sunflowers and
oleanders.
Each demcsne has its dilapidated
chicken house, its rheumatic shed fol-
the reflective mule, and its boudoir for
playful swine.
The owners and inhabitants of these
freeholds are happy careless negroes,
raising enough to eat and little tC
sell, basking in the sunshine, and obey
ing implicitly the scriptural injunc
ton to take no heed to the morrow
In little log house, standing on tn,
very banks of the branch, in crouch
ing attitude, as il just about to LEAF
into the waters for a bath, both cleans
ing and sanitary, lived at the time o
which write, Ananias, one of m,
heroes,
On the west side of the branch tn,
scene was almost literally repeated
with the exception that one of thu
houses was of frame, with two room
and a lean to, and had forty acres o
land attached TO IT,
There lived with his parents, Jeru
salem, my other hero, until the fien'
of jealousy entered his otherwise pla
cid bosom, and left wreck and ruiz
there.
Five miles off was another little set
clement of the same genus, and her
Miss Sophy, my heroine, helped bak
the hoe cake in the ancestral mansion
and by washing for the neighborinI
planters families, earned the shekel
that went to purchase articles o
feminine adornment, articles so dea
to the average feminine heart:
Ananias was tall and thin, elaborate
ly so as to legs. and the suns OF twent
five years had enhanced the dingy ye
low of his complexion.
His eyes were of the vintage know
as pop" and the premature remov'
of three front teeth had given him
weirdIy poetical pearance,
Among intensely black SURROUND
ings. the fairness of his skin was
drawback, more especially as his ps
rents, by some strange oversight, 81
both of the same orthodox color.
In temperament he was somewhi
naughty and passionate, and by D
dcmeanor seemed to be continually pr
testing against his environment.
Although entirely ignorant OF belle
letters, or, in fact, Of any letters, !