Huntsville gazette., 1886-03-20
II, BOTH JoNAHs
The Fate of One of Them Ia a
Logging Camp.

Before Wolf River camp was in win
ter quarters the majority of the men
had reached the conclusion that a fellow
named Serenus Smith, who was put
ting in his first year as logger, was a
Jonah. Every body recognized his pc
culiarities, and when MenOminee Ken=
drick said he was Jonah the epithet
was fixed upon him. and as Jonah he
has since been known.
Regarding this as joke to begin
with, the men finally came to look
upon Smith as mysterious character,
and at length some one with smatter-
ing of Biblical learning suggested that
the only thing to do with Jonah was
to throw him overt oard. From that
time Smith lost caste rapidly.
"There amt no good in him." Me-
nominee said half dozen times day.
-'He's Jonah, and he ought to be run
out. There's something unhealthy
about him, and never yet knew any
good to come from one of those fellers
We had a Jonah up on the Flambeau
two years ago, and we had to get rid of
him, and I'll miss my guess if we don't
find it necessary to shove this one be-
fore long, tl4 r5as
Little by little the few intimates of
Smith fell away, and he presently was
as completely isolated as though he
lived in these wastes alone. Nobody
would eat, sleep, or work with him,
and at night or on Sundays in all the
convivialities and amusements of the
camp he was left out. The treatment
which he was receiving began to tell
on him after awhile, and as he grew
more and more sinister in appearance
the conviction of the men that there
was something uncanny about him
strengthened prodigiously.
One Sunday just before the holidays,
when he had tried unsuccessfully to
scrape an acquaintance with several Of
the men, he at length cornered one of
them, Jack Humphrey, and asked him
what was the matter.
Il don't knows any things the
matter" said Jack, trying to move
off.
"Well, something ails you men or
me, which is it?" insisted Smith.
'.It's you, then," said Jack.
You're Jonah, and that's all there
is to it.
Beyond that Jack would say nothing,
but Smith, continuing his interrogato-
ries from man to man, heard from
every one of them the unanimous de-
cision of the camp that had been ar
rived at. The intolerable loneliness of
Smiths position made him well nigh
desperate, and it is believed that he
would have left the camp had not a
new arrival of men brought one indi-
vidual of whom he could make COM
panion. The two were then together
all the time, and confidence was es-
tablished between them which at last
some of the men came to admire and
then to envy. Jonah, as Smith was
then called, was gayer, brighter, and
apparently healthier than ever. He
whistled, sang and laughed. His eyes
grew bright and his cheeks red. He
made renewed attemps to render him
self agreeable to his associates, and if he
failed to convince them that he had
been misjudged he found consolation
and compaLionship with Hitchcock,
his new friend. All hands remarked
the change that had come over Jonah,
and nearly all were willing to admit
that they might have been mistaken.
Things ran along in this way until
the other day, when Hitchcock revealed
his identity to Hendrick and
few Others He had come into the
camp in the disguise Of lum-
herman, but he was a detective
who wanted the man called Jonah for
murder committed three years ago in
Kentucky. He had gained Smiths
confidence, and had heard from his
own lips complete story OF his crime,
the last and most important confession
having been made on Sunday. The
two Men had talked freely Of their past