The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-08-07
CAPITAL
/. J. HILL President.
JOHN KELLY, Eice-President

lines ON fine horses that danced and pranced
like there were tacks under the saddles. The
roll of each company was called and every man
answered TO his name whether he was there or
not. Then the colonel took central position
and faced the long audience and waved his
glittering sword and exclaimed, "Attention,
battalion! Shoulder arms, right face, march,"
Then the kettle drum ratified and the
fife squeaked and some guns went
off half-cocked and the militia gave three
cheers for the colonel and were disbanded
until the next muster.
Old man Brooks was the chief musician in
my day and would not have exchanged this
Office with the king of England He ALWAYS
played Brooks's march for the militia to loco
mote by. They never marched or kept step
by the music, but they got along somehow by
walking and trotting and nacing and fox trot-
ting by turns.
the drama or farce, or whatever it was. He
magnifed his Office. He loved music. He
said his fife was his life and his fiddle was his
riddle. On his last bed he sent for my father
cadaverous, he motioned to be propped
an an inverted chair behind his pillow cST
he pointed to his fiddle that lay upon the shelf
near by and it was handed to him. Hugging
it to his old bosom he smiled amid his tears
and whispered 81 wish that I could play you
one more time That night the old man died
with his left hand closed hard and rigid around
the neck of his VIOLIN
After the muster was over then came the
horse racing on quarter nagS and horse swap
ping and of course some pugilistic exercises i'll
front of the groceries
Jim Bowles was the center of a crowd from
his beat and stripped to the waist, he pranced
around and popped his fist in the palm OF his
hand and jumped up and cracked his heels to-
gether three times before they struck the
ground and gave a wild Injun whoop and ex-
claimed I'm the best man in
Pinkneyville district" About that
time big Jim Robinson jumped up in the center
of another crowd and yelled, "Im the best
man in Ben Smiths deestrict," and Mic Raw
Inns screamed like a panther from another
crowd and gritted his teeth, and shook his hair
and yelled, Gentlemen, my Betsy Jane says
I'm the best man in Rockbridge deestrict, and
1 reckon she ought for to know"
1t was just like gamecocks Growing in the
barnyard, and, like the cocks. two of them
soon got together and went to fighting, and
everybody stood around and shouted, Glands
off. gentlemen; stand back, gentlemen. Hands
off let em fight fair and square," And they
fought hard and fought long. and when one of
them got to be the bottom dog in the fight, and
hollered "enough," the show was over, unless
the victor dared to crow again, and had to
tackle another rooster. have known
Mic Rawlins to whip three brag men
in one evening and Nick was no bad man
either. Every body liked Nick. He had fit
and fout and fought until he had lost a finger
and a ship out of his nose and a piece of his
left ear but he was never mad Nick told me
not long ago that he never did love to fight but
when he courted Betsy Jane she lowed that
when she married a man he had to be q man
all over inside and out and so he got to fighting
ON her account But these old times are gone
gone never to return. Even the preachers
who used to take off their coats in the pulpit
have conformed to more polite customs. Their
sngsong sermons are heard no more-nor the
nasal attachments that were something be-
tween a shuttle and snort Old Father Dan
nelly and his wooden leg are dead and so is old
Barry Pace who said to the Rome girl who
went out to hear him just for the
fun of the thing-"If that town gal with the
green bonnet on her head and the devils mar
tngales around her neck, and his stirrups in her
ears, don't quit her giglin, will pint her out
to the congregation" We have more man
ners now, though our morals may be at dis
count BILL ARP.