The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-03-11
A NIGHT OF HORROR
Colonel Vann Has a Novel and
Thrilling Experience.
He Pays a Visit to Sam Dickson
'POSsum Ranch
ANo BARELY ESCAPES WITH LIFE
What the Oxford Day Says of the Col.
Ored Orphans Who Will Give
Concert in Durham.

This proposition is evidently the ipse
diXit of some old sage who lived in the
dark ages, the period in which man was
slowly emerging from the chaos of first
principles" and was still blest with the
caudal appendage of his not very remote
ancestor, Major Polliwog. We do not
believe that Colonel Solomon was the
author of the quotation which graces the
head of the present article; he was too
muchly wived to harbor the remotest
doubt as to there not being anything
new under the SUM-" Just imagine one
of Colonel Soils little family episodes in
which jealousy was the root of the evil,
and then kodak the old king, surrounded
by his thousand or fifteen hundred wives,
all shooting off their tongues at him at
once, and each one frantically trying to
secure lock of his hair as a memento of
the jovial occasion! Immediately after
this hilarious scene friend Solomon would
be in position to confde to his spiritual
advisor that there was multitude of
"things," entirely new" of which he had
never dreampt in his widest philosophy.
We will never be able to discover the au-
thor of the nothing new" proposition,
therefore We'll drop that part of the sub
iect and come down to modern times :;
and while we are cropping in natures
darkness we hope to amply prove, as the
sequel will show, that there is something
new under the SUM-"
Through special invitation of Captain
Sam Dickson, THE GLOBE detailed ye
scribe to visit and write up that gentle
mans 'Possum Ranch" which is situated
| in the mountains of Swain county. In
company with the gallant captain we, one
week ago, went up and spent several up
roarously delightful days at the ranch
in question, and we now give you the re-
suit of our trip to the 'land of the sky"
The second evening after leaving Dur
ham we pulled up at Snooksburg, a sta
ton on the Murphy Branch railroad.
| Here we left the cars and, after securing
a vehicle, directed the driver to take US
over to Mount St. OHooligan, fifteen
miles away, where we arrived at Il o'clock
tagged out and as hungry as Comanche
| braves who had been month on the war
path.
Here we found nice supper awaiting
US, prepared by Mr.. and Mrs. Pat St.
O'Hooligan who were expecting us, as
| Captain Sam had telegraphed them sew
eral days in advance of our arrival.
| The menu was all that heart could wish,
'possum. steak, 'possum egg omlets, roast
'possum stuffed with Fairbrotheran
yams, and possum ct ceteras, numerous
as the stars in the galaxy, so to speak.
The battle of the knives and forks lasted
| just one hour; and after doing ample
and complete justice to the savory fixings
we went to bed devoutly in love with all
the world in general, and the O'Hooli-
gans in particular. Along about 2 o'clock
in the morning we suddenly awoke,
and if the tower of Babel had been sit
ting Immediately above the region where
we had deposited those possum tixings
at supper time, it is hardly possible that
we could have felt worse than we did at
that moment. We were positively Of
the opinion that our spinal column had,
by some unacceuntable means, got tied in
dOuble-bow knot, and that a savage
bulldog was vigorously and cheerfully
yanking at both ends of the bow Friend
O'Hooligan, hearing our groans, came to
the rescue, and after persistent and
lavish use of camphor, turpentine, and
some other things of a nameless charac-
ter, we'll rubbed in, left US doing and
sweating beneath huge tobacco poul-
tice placed just above the seat OF our
woe The door of Captain Sans room
stood ajar, and during the intervals of
quiet between our paroXysms We could
distinctly hear, coming from that quarter,
groans, sobs, and prayers, intermingled
now and then with some choice language
lclosely akin to, if not real profanity. We
hope that the good brothers and sisters
of Sans denomination will, under the
circumstances, forgive this lapsus lingue
on the captains part, and not oust him
from the household of their common
faith for the occasion was one of those
critical periods in the life of our friend
in which he stood not upon the niceties
of grammar, nor the fine distinctions ia
culcated in his early theological training
We caught an occasional nap as the night
dragged along, and during those slum
herous moments strrDge dreams would
glide into the realms of Morpheus and
add renewed horrors to our already sui
cidal condition. We dreampt that we had
, shutfled off the mortal coil, and that DR.
Johnson had surreptitiously gotten pos
session of our corpse through the aid Ot
Col. Bill Maynor; that he and Other
NJ. DIS were dissecting it in the good