The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-02-05
Time to Quit 1t.

The old-fashioned custom of getting
up a charivari party to raise bedlam ev.
cry time q wedding occurs, can still be
heard Of in some half-civilized portions
of the country. Newman has not
yet evolved from that relic of barbar-
ism, and such hcathenish rites are some
times celebrated in this village. The
daily papers report n case of this kindin
Virginia, recently, in which one of the
hoodlums lost his life. The crowd Of
young heather grew so bold on that oc-
casion as to fire their old muskets
through the window of the bridal cham
Der, frightening the young bride into
fits at q time when she was already
pretty badly scared, and the bridegroom
bounced out of bed and fred a double
barreled shotgun into the crowd, kill
ing one and w%ounding several others.
The poor bridegroom spent the rest OF
the night trying to bring his bride out
Of her paroxysm of fright, and had
a duck fit or so himself before he sue
cecded.
The editor remembers a narrow es-
cape he had when a boy, at a charivari
in which he helped to play the fool, and,
although the whole crowd hadn't as
much sense as 4 church festival oyster,
he believes now that he was the biggest
fool in the lot, though one of the small
est boys. He had a great anxiety to
beat the big base drum on this occasion,
and the drum was on the front porch of
the house we We're going to charivari.
We all slipped noiselessly into the yard
with a small cannon, a large circular
saw on a pole carried by two boys, sew
eral revolvers and mule-kicking mus
kets, plenty Of sleigh-bells, cow-bells,
tin-horns, and various other instruments
of torture. The firing of the cannon was
the signal for the music" to open with
a grand orchestral crescendo diapason.
The embryo editor seized a mallet and
proceeded to belabor the drum vigor-
oasly, little dreaming thatit was loaded.
The reader will remember that there is
an air-hole in the barrel of every drum,
and when the young editor struck that
drum-head about 4 quart of water
sGuirted through the hole in the barrel
OF the drum and glidcd down the back
Of his neck, oh! SO cold! But it didn't
have time to stay there, for a vigorous
kick was applied to the spot where the
water had settled, and it landed the
youngster against the circular saw,
which bit him with every tooth it had.
If he hadn't been a bigger fool than a
grcenbacker, that would have been
enough fun for one night; but it
wouldn't do for him, for the fun was
just beginning. SO he borrowed an old
Mexican cavalry carbine, that burned
half a pint of gunpowder at ashot, from
u boy who said he was tired of shooting
it. He loaded it to ''pop," just as any
boy will do on such occasions, and. fired
it with all the courage of a veteran. He
heard a terrific report, and as he lay on
the grass looking up at the stars, he
didn't hear a sound, and he wondered if
ali the rest of the boys We're dead. FL
nally, he was able to walk, but he had
the spring-halt in his knees, he found
another boy doubled up in 4 fencc-cor-
ner with his collar-bone broken and the
gun still kicking at it. In the meantime,
the other boys had all fallen in a pile,
with the circular saw on top, ovcraropc
that had been stretched about six inches
from the ground. One fellow was shot
through the left arm, and the writer,
but for that arm, would have received
that bullet in his back. Ever since that
time he has avoided charivari parties
NeUman independent.