The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-06-26
THE rUEL AT 'POSSUM BRANCH

Auanias Pickett, yellow, lived on on
side of the branch and Jerusalem
johnson, black, commonly callet
'Jn," lived on the other side. Mis-
sophy Glggles, the color of an under
done bnckwheat cake, lived about five
miles from the branch and was thu
canse 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
ofafes, and yet its local coloriro is en-
RETAINING enough to warrant its being
taken from the somewhat moldV
cupboard of obscurity and placed on
the inviting center table of the present
DAY
The dark and bloody ground of Ken
fucky, with its expiations on the field
OF honor, Blennerhassett's Island with
NJ Tragic tale of love and dishonor.
nave both been embalmed IN song and
story, why not 'Possum Branch with
ms Had OF woman's caprice. mans de-
Sotlon, and the fearless herosm of fas-
cnated 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
she West it might be dignified by the
name OF river. In Florida it is simply
branch" A branch of what T
am not at this moment prepared to
state
II Is lined with live oak, water oak.
cypress, persimmon and some few 9TH
CT varieties of trees.
The county road goes over it dry
snoa' on rustic bridge, shaky |
and decrepit, the nucleus of any
amount OF possible and probable acci-
dents
Inc water IS about ten feet deep and
very dark. No one but a coroner
conld possibly find any enjoyment
looking at it.
She bridge also serves as a short cut
for predatory foxes seeking THROUGH
highways and byways for the succulent
eken. the philosophic turkey, and
She disciple of certain school Of med
5cIne-thc duck.
AT times the trees that line this bank
lake ON vivid beauty.
The bamboo climbs to the tons
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
Taieh with wide-eyed wonder the
creakrng vehicles and strange figures
that pass slowly by. Outbursts of
sarest song can be heard there
through the soft lancuorous DAYS. {
and swift darting fins, like err. |
rant rays of light, ripple the wa
tiers below. |
On the east side are half dozen or l
so OF rough log cabins, KEEPING i
gnard over few acres of broken c
solli cotton and potato patches. the
garden of long collards and turnips. Q
ME parterre of sunhowers and q
Islanders. /
Each demcsne has its di.apidated o
chicken house, its rheumatic shed for
The reflective mule, and its boudoir for Z
playful swine.
The owners and inhabitants of these {
Freeholds are happy careless negroes, :
raising enough to eat and little to h
sell, basking in the sunshine, and obey t
ng implicitly the scriptural iniunc-
lion to take no heed to the morrow.
In little log house, standing on the h
rery banks of the branch. in crouch r
ng attitude, as if just about to leap Q
INTO the waters for bath, both cleans Il
ng and sanitary, lived at the time of +
which l write, Ananias, one of my b
heroes, %
On the west side of the branch the D
Gene was almost literally repeated, fl
With the exception that one of the fl
ouses was of frame, with two rooms el
nd lean to, and had forty acres of S,
and attached to it. h
There lived with his parents, Jeru-
slem, my other hero. until the fiend al
jealousy entered his otherwise pla- in
ID bosom, and left wreck and ruin
lere n,
Five miles off was another little set OF
ement of the same genus, and here til
iss Sophy, my heroine, helped bake bl
re hoe cake in the ancestral mansion,
I'd by washing for the neighborng tn
'anters' families, earned the shekels
at went to purchase articles of m
adornment, articles so dear
the average feminine heart: "
Ananias was tall and thin, elaborate