The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-07-20
PLAYING A HORSE FIDDLE.
The Noise That Scared a Texas Town an
! Resulted In a IlYnchinQ...

The Noise That Scared a Texas Town and
5t Resulted In Lynching.
The apocryphal leaves. in Tallam-
brosa were never as numerous las the
STORIES with which Col 4 William G.
Sterrettis memory is stockeds They
seem to ooze out of him at all times
and upon all occasions without further
effort on his part than the mere re-
counting of them.
Speaking of noises" remarked the
colonel, reminds me of a thing that
occurred down in Henderson county,
in my state, once. Right near Max
well was wild sort of place inhab-
tied with about four hundred million
black wolves, and the edge of it was
pretty thickly settled. A stranger
going to one of the settlers houses
never could sleep because the wolves
made such a noise, but the natives
never minded 'em bit, and even their
dogs stopped taking any notice of EN-.
suddenly the people began to get
worried. Sounds began to come out of
that wilderness such as no human ear
had ever listened to before. The bowls
of the wolves We're as the voices of the
cherubim and the seraphim alongside
of it. Every night it continued grow
ing worse and worse, until it became
downright soul terrifying. Grown
folks would get white and the chill
dren's teeth would chatter, while all
the cattle would come around the
houses and try to get comfort from
being near folks.
Pretty soon the people concluded ii
was a Bengal tiger or lion that had
got out of some circus, and they made
up their minds to hunt it down so they
could get some sleep again. So a big
party raided the woods and sent in the
dogs. Pretty soon back came the dogs
with their eyes bigger'n brighter n
electric lights, and their hair all stand
sing up, and their tails between their
legs, and they didn't stop when their
masters called 'em, but kept right on
for home as hard as they could go. The
people concluded the thing, whatever
it was, must be something pretty
terrible when Texas dog wouldn' t
tackle It, so they drew off their forces.
4. That only made the noise at night
more Internal than ever. 1t was indie
scribabfe. All the souls in torment
seemed u.s. imdygsfg and crying and
shrieking hnd carrying on together.
At last fellow came along who said
] Aeihaq4 bee4 ID Arabia, aadI Vtat the
-'noise was nothing inlthe Verde but the
night song of an ostrich.
|, f"ThespedpleSfeltsort O ashamed that
they had been frightened by anything
that wore feathers, SO they made up
their minds to start in after it again
and let nothing stop 'em. So one
night about one hundred OF 'em armed
to the teeth went forth, determined on
H.victory. The dogs went in and came
out again, just as they did heretofore,
but their masters went on.
GAS they began to near the place the
sounds came from they were pretty
near scared to death, but they were
afraid to turn back lest the thing
ostrich, or whatever it was, might run
after 'em and catch 'em. So on they
went, gentlemen, and pretty soon they
came to little cabin in a gully, and
there they found a-sitting out in front
of it an old fellow named Jim Bolts,
a-sawing away for dear life. and trying
to play Maryland, My Maryland on a
big boss fiddle.
"What did they do with him? Why,
they hung him, OF course. "Washing-
ton Post