St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1894-12-22

AAf same he lived
zSSS and died in the
AX Flat Woods
~ down bel low
<Nwx%MsS ~ 4 fuckers mill.
NMMEMSA&NN%MS SS$.N And even to the
WMNAMWsNAN N ~ boys and girls
WAMNsMa w y of the younger
wea Ams#a generation
them that didn't have no particlar ac-
quaintance with him in the hesh-have
oil heard tell of him and could give You
the general facts in the case. The good
Lord has made a heap of men, and
many various and sundry different
sorts of men. / reckon He must Of
made Jordan Biggers-He got the blame
for it at any rates-but he never made
any more like him. Maybe he was SO
sick Of the job till he busted the m0ulds
aad took out and quit.
adorned On The Wrong Side"
Now it aint for me to seat myself
with pen in hand and put slandera-
ton on any man ivin or dead. but more
particlar dead, whereas l will give out
nothin but the naked, unwashed truth
with regards to old man Jordan Big
gers
You have seen men before now that
seems as if they didn't have any partic-
lar business livin. but was borned and
brung up to fill out a gap in the general
run Of creation. as it were. You have
heard tell of men reckon no doubts
that looks like they was jest naturally
built mp on the wrong side and never
could fall in and take up with the ways
OF the common human family.
Well, that was Jordan Biggers all
~v>A I.n Go "A nv vk6N6 y
knows he never had any business in
this world. 1t seems like he sorter hap
pened in and sloshed around till his
time come and then petered out. If he
ever did have anything to do it was to
git ON the other side and pull back
wards the wrong way. If old man JOr-
dan Mggers had of fell in the creek and
got drownded and the settlement had
Of turned ont to look for his body no.
body wouldn't of went down stream
.huntin it. He wouldn't of floated that
way. He would of floated up stream
dead certain.
was a young man IN the first prime
If life whilst he was KNOWN along to-
wards the sixties. but If do say so my
self ] reckon was about the onlyest
man in the settlement that ever got ac-
qraintcd with Jordan Biggers. And
ont any. Anybody could see him and
talk TO him, and everybody in forty
miieo a1ound could tell who he was
whe6 they saw him comm. But with
all tAa& they couldn't scrape up any ac-
Cnain4ance with him, and even to his
own dear father and mother didn't to
say know him exceptin only by sight.
And then it was only durin the last
remainin days of his life that come to
know anything for certain about him.
1t seems like he sorter tuck up with
me. as he would put it, and in his old
age he use to send for me and talk with
me right free and plentiful. And whilst
his senses. like everything else he had.
took the wrong side every clatter and
run mp stream, l never heard tell of
anybody that wanted to take down a
musket and shoot Jordan Biggers for q
fool.
"Nost StrcnEeat Card In the Pack
Life is SO Internal short and vain and
feetin, and am too alfred busy to
write book whereas don't make out
like l can tell you all about old man
Jordan Biggers. But to the best Of my
remembrance and ability / will give
out some of the mainest facts in the
case. He was way yonder the queerest
and most strangest card in the pack.
He never was known to take drink
with any livin man on the face of the
earth, and yet it was q positive fact
known of everybody in the settlement
that durin his day and generation he
had managed to climb up around more
whisky, good better and otherwise,
than any three men in all that pleasant
strip of country. He would see you
dead and hauled of feet foremost be-
fore he would let you take drink with
him, and then you couldn't run him
down and rope him and throw him and
would nominate his own pizen and pay
for it and drink it and you had to do
likewise also the same.
Jordan Biggers wouldn't shave up
clean. and yet he didn't wear whiskers
like anybody else. He used to shave
around and about. here and yonder, in
little dabs and patches till his face
looked like the shattered fragments of
ruination. In his old age he use to dye
his hair in streaks and spots with every
shade and color from a charcoal black
to a pokeberry purple. As good luck
would have it Jordan was the onlyest
]ivin child his father and mother had,
and when they died they left him there
with good plantation and nobody to
live on it but him and the niggers.
And whilst he never did suffer for any
thing he wanted bad he never was
est of clothes and but blame few of
them. l recollect oncst upon q time
went over there to pass off little time
with old man Jordan and before I
knowed what was comm he lit in and
preached me little sermont ON clothes,
which the same was SO full of good
common sense till it stuck and STAYED
with me.
The s'Sermont On Clothes.-
''You have seen clothes chests and
clothes lines and clothes pins, Rufe, but
did you ever see q clothes fool % says
he to me. We'll ! have" The very
woods is plum full of 'em. There is
whole durn big passle of clothes fools
right around here in the Rocky Creek
country. You may not know it, Rufe.
but you are one of 'em, and not single
blasted bit better than the rest. What
makes me say what do? Cause peo-
pie act like they do-that's all. What
makes you buckle up in your store
bought clothes and put on your fried
shirt and your tight boots when you
ktdrt 10 IOWu On S0turU6y or go 10
meetin on Sunday? You say it is be-
cause that is the right and proper way.
! say it is because you are clothes fool
and general public coward. You are
skeered other people would have some
thin to say about it if you went along
thin dressed and cool and pleasant with
your plain clothes on. when other peo-
pie amt got durn thing to do with it.
Don't you have to buy your own clothes
and pay for 'em and then wear 'em
Do yoI reckon would 60 and put on
coat aud vest and galluses and under
shirt and the like Of that when the
weather is so golnation hot till can't
hardly keep on one clean shirt and one
pair Of breeches. II my clothes are
clean and fixed up so I can wear 'em
and live comfortable in 'em it is nothin
to me whether they look like your
clothes or Bill Smiths clothes or not
It is none of your business and none of
Bill Smiths business how my clothes
are made, or what they are made out of
or how | wear EN- And when all
comes to all. il makes but blame little i