Sharp County record., 1885-06-18
THE DUEL.
Two Rivals Of 'Possum Branch
on the Field of Honor.

Ananias Picket (yellow) lived on one
side of the branch and Jerusalem John
son (black), commonly called "Ju,"
lived on the other side. Miss Sophy
Giggles, the color of an underdone
buckwheat cake, lived about five miles
from the branch, and was the cause of
an undue secretion of bile in both
"'Niasn and "Ju."
The branch itself is not of sufficient
importance to be indicated in red colors
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 cup
board of obscurity and placed on the
inviting center-table Of the present day.
The dark and bloody ground of Ken
lucky, with its eXpiatonS 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 'Possum Branch, with its Had
of woman's caprice, mans devotion
and the fearless heroism OF fascinated
hearts? The branch itself is a dull.
sluggish stream abont Ton or oMel''
feet wide. running through the southern
norsiun of Linn County. In the East
z. might be called creek, In the
west 1t might be dignitied by the name
OF river. In Florida it is simply a
"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
er varieties of trees. The county road
goes over it dry-shod, on a rustic
bridge, shaky and decrept, the nucleus
OF any amount OF possible and probable
accidents. The water is about ten feet
deep and very dark. No one but
coroner could possibly find any enjoy
ment looking at it. The bridge also
Serves as a short cut for predatory foxes
seeking through highways and byways
for the succulent chicken, the philo-
sophie turkey and the disciple o. GER
tain school Of medicine-the duck.
At times the trees that line this bank
ake 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 fra
grant green, through which the birds
peep out and watch with wide-eyed
wonder the creaking vehicles and
strange figures that pass slowly by.
Dutbursts of rare,t song can be heard
\ There through the soft languorous days,
and swift-darting fins, like errant rays
0f light, ripple the waters below,
.# On the east side are a half-dozen or
\ fo Of rough log cabins, keeping guard
pyer few acres of broken soil; cotton
( and potato patches the garden of long
follards and turnips, the parterre of
i SunfowcrS and oleanders. Each
demesne has its dilapidated chicken
house, its rheumatic shed for the
y reflective mule, and its boudOir for
s I&playful swine. The owners and inhab-
ltants of these freeholds are happy and
careless negroes, raising enough to eat
and little to sell, basking in the sun
shine, and obcying implicitly the
Scrptural injunction to take no heed to
the morrow.
In little log house, standing on the
very banks of the branch, in crouch
ing attitude, as if Just about leapng
nto the waters for a bath, both cleans
ING and sanitary, lived at the time Of
winch | write, Ananias, one Of my
heroes. On the west side of the branch
thescene was almost literally repeated,
with the exception that one of the
houses was of frame, with two rooms
ana lean to, and had forty acres Of
land attached to it. There lived with
Ills parents, Jerusalem, my other hero,
uatll the fiend of jealousy entered his
oIherWise placid bosom, and left wreck
ana ruin there.
rive miles off was another little settle
men @ent of the same genus, and here Miss
SsoPhy' my heroine, helped bake the hoe
eaAe IN the ancestral mansion, and by
tnig tSaSning Tor the neighboring planters
.aillllleS' earned the shekels that went
70 purchase articles of feminine adorn-
aent' articles so dear to the average
feminine heart