Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-12-17
THE BROTHERS FEUD.

Up to the Door of Death.
"You will take the road to the right, |
over the hill, at Brothers Feud,'" said
the liveryman. 1.-THE bridge on the
lower road was washed away in the
storm"
Brothers Feudp' said I. "Where
is that?'
Aren't you acquainted in this coun- !
try? No? Well, you can't be. Every |
one within a hundred miles knows
about Brothers Feud The way of it |
gave his farm undivided to his two
sons They had no other relatives liv.
ing. But they couldn't get along to-
for partition. The place is very billy,
and wasn't worth much in the first
place. And the lawyer fees didn't
make it any more valuable. But they
finally got the matter through court,
and the surveyor came out to survey
the place. They asked him who was
to pay him, and he said they would
each pay half the expense of partition.
They agreed, and he went ahead One
of them paid and the other didn't
That was nobody's loss but the survey
or's, but it made the paying brother SO
mad to think his brother had done less
than himself that he took up the divid-
ing line stakes and set them over two
rods in his brothers land That made
his brother mad, and he took up the
stakes and set them two rods beyond
the line. So they began quarreling
over that four rods of hill land that
wasn't worth ten dollars an acre. But
the tim Der was fine, and when the buy
ers came along and offered twenty dol
lars thousand for stave timber Jim
and Joe began quarreling in earnest
Each one hired gang of choppers
and the choppers took up the fight, for
| it did seem the likeliest timber grew in
the disputed strip. Why. those chop
pers had regular battles there and the
| sheriff had to go out with posse.
Three men were killed-just chopped
| to death with axes. We have had more
criminal cases from that four rods of
sand and gravel than from all the rest
of the county. We finally had to get
out company Of militia. when the
buyers run up the price to twenty-five
| dollars thousand. 1t was worth some
thing then. But each fellow spent all he
made from his trees defending his suits,
| and when the timber was finally gone
and the price fell there stood about the
only good walnut in the county That is
worth a good deal of money now. All
the rest of the walnut sold years ago
and it was worth almost its weight
in silver
"Well, if you go by there to-day you
will most likely see two gray-haired
old men sitting one on each side of that
strip of timber, each one with a rifle
beside him and waiting to kill the
| he krir
both swear they will stay right there
till they die. I suppose they will, but
if either of them gets reckless and
ventures on the strip his brother will
shoot him sure. You see, the ground
is worth good deal now. The mer
were so busy fighting in the timber
time that they didn't have time to cut
Good-by. Take the right-hand road
when you come to the hill. The bridge
is gone on the other one."
found the Brothers Feud" without
any trouble and looked with great in
terest for the two insane brothers
They had been so devoted to their quar-
rel they had never married. and they
lived all alone, each in a little cabiI
their father had given them. AS
drove along I saw group of neighbour
about one of the houses. At the doc
of the other sat trem bling, palsiet
old man, with rifle across his un
steady knees I went up to the Grove
and found that Jim was dead
been dead two or three days whel
we found him." said the neighbor.
! What more does his brother want?
I asked. He still seems to be o.
guard"
: "Well. he is 50 deaf he can't hea
t when we boiler over and tell him, ant
3 he is so blind he couldn't see when hi
t brother fell down by the log here an
died. Besides, he has lost his reason
4 He will never know that the brother!
J? feud is ended Chicago Herald