The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-09-05
WALL, BY eosHl"
Tho Husband THAT Didn't Know the Stun
of Which His Wife Was Made,

Tho Husband That Didn't Know the Stun
of Which His Wife Was Made.
We were winding down one of the
. mountain roads in Tennessee in cart
drawn by mule. The land was bar
rem, the cabins no better than novels,
and it was a query how people made
bare living or were content to stay. By
and by we came to turn in the road
where there was trough to water
horses and mules, and the cabin of set
tier. This cabin was the poorest of all,
and nothing around it indicated that
the owner made any attempt to cultivate
the soil. We reached the place just in
time to witness a tableau. A Yoman,
poorly dressed, and her face bearing the
look of one who had seen much worry
and suffering, stood near the trough,
a satchel filled with clothing sat on
the ground beside her. Five feet away
stood her husband, burly, tough-faced
mountaineer, and he held switch in his
hand. Neither minded us as we drove
up, and it was full minute before the
husband said:
''Mary, Ill wollop yer
''Jim, We dasn't!" she replied.
MARY, We can't leave me nohow!'
Jim, I'm gwne ter do it! I've
starved an suffered till I'm clean gonel
I'm going home
MARY, if ye don't take up that satchel
and march IN I'll wollop We good and
stoutr'
There were two of us besides the
driver The woman looked up and
scanned our faces, as if to Judge how
far she might count on our help, and
the driver said:
faint rulable fur strangers to mix
in, Mary, and Jim's got a knife and
would kill somebody. Better 60 in"
"NeVer!" she Kissed
IF you don't, said the husband, as
he came step nearer, "I'll make the
fur fly! Take thatln
With swiss he brought the switch
down across her shoulders end raised it
again. She stood stock stiIl for min
ute and looked him in the eye, and then
walked into the hovel.
'Rayther peart, but the CAD will cure
HUI SIlUItNl lHC uuSDduNl dS IC hlCh
the switch through his fingers,
His triumph was short-lived. In sixty
seconds Mary reappeared. She had the
mountaineer's heavy rifle in her hands,
and as she came out she raised it on a
line with the mans heart.
Jim, | want ye to git!
MOP
'SartinW
'"Shoo! Can't do it!''
"Click! clickr'
Mary, what We gwine Ter do!''
''Kill we like q wolf in yer tracks if We
don't walk away"
''Whar' top'
Nobody keers. Gosumwhar '-keeI
goin'-don't never come back! Hurry
up, fur I'm going down on the stage!"
He looked into her eyes and saw tn,
change. Poverty and brutality haC
come to an end. Love had turned Il
disgust, and in place of fear was sucl
bravery as he would not have looked TO
in a man on the road. He saw ''shoot'
in her eyes, but he still hesitated.
"Mary, drop that rife!' he whis
pered.
Olh' CIV Ii yOu arc holo WHoh
finished counting twenty I'll kill you a
sure as there is God in Heaven!"
He began backing away. When h
had gone twenty feet he turned an,
walked. When he had gone a hundred
he halted, wheeled about, and after
lingering look muttered:
wall, by gosh! Mary, let's max
up"
keep a-gittin', Jim she replied, a
she still covered him with the rifle.
In five minutes he was cut of sight u
the road. The woman placed the gu
and satChel in the cart, walked into tn
hovel to be gone two minutes, and whe
she came back to the cart and took sea
with us flames were creeping through
hundred crevices between the dry logs
Without word she climbed in, an
only once during the five mile ride di
she utter word. At bend in tn
road she looked back at the pyramid c
smoke and flame wrought by her hand;
and said, rs if to herself
Jim didn't know Mary, gim didn't!
Detroit Fee Press.