Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1895-10-12
THE DUEL AT 'POSSUM BRANCH.

hhonios IIchett, geIlCW, IlYe0 on one
SIDE OF the branch and Jerusalem
johnson, black, commonly called
'Ju, lived on the other side. Miss
Sophy Glggles, the color of an under
done buckwheat cake, lived about five
miles from the branch and was the
cause OF an undue secretion of bile in
both Mas" and '.Ju."
The branch itself is not of sufficient
Importance to be indicated in red COL
ors on any map of these blessed United
states, and yet its local colorirp is en-
PERTAINING enough to warrant its beinO
taken from the somewhat moldy
cupboard of obscurity and placed on
the inviting center table of the present
day.
The dark and bloody ground of Ken.
lucky, with its expiations on the field
OF honor, Blennerhassett's Island with
us tragic tale of love and dishonor.
nave both been embalmed IN song and
story, why not Postum Branch with
It's HAD OF woman's caprice, mans de-
Fotlon, and the fearless heroism of fas-
cinatsd hearts. The branch itself is
a dull, sluggish stream about ten or
Twelve feet wide. running THROUGH the
southern portion of Leon County. IN
the East 1t might be called a creek. In
the West It might be dignified by the
name of river. In Florida il Il simnIv
branch. A branch of what I
state.
1t IS lined with live oak. water oak.
cypress, persimmon and some few 9TH
er varieties of trees.
The county road goes over it dry
snoo, on a rustic bridge, shaky
and decrepit, the nucleus of any
amount OF possible and probable acci-
dents.
Inc water Is about ten feet deep and
very dark. No one but a coroner
could possibly find any enjoyment
looking at it.
me bridge also serves as a short cut
Tor predatory foxes seeking through
highways and byways for the succulent
chicken, the philosophic turkey. and
the disciple of a certain school of med
icine-the duck.
AT times the trees that line this bank
take on vivid beauty.
The bamboo climbs to the tons
OF the tallest ones and filings a
graceful crown over their swayino
beauty.
Scarlet coronals of unknown flowers
emphasize the fragrant green, through
which tiny birds peep out and
watch with wide-eyed wonder the
creaking vehicles and strange figures
that pass slowly by. Outbursts of
rarest song can be heard there
through the soft languorous DAYS.
and swift darting fins, like er.
rant rays of light, ripple the wa
tiers below.
On the east side are half a dozen or
SO OF rough log cabins, keeping
guard over few acres Of broken
soil; cotton and potato patches. the
garden OF long collards and turnips,
the parterre of sunfiowers and
oIeanders.
Each demesne has its dilapidated
chicken house, its rheumatic shed for
the reflective mule, and its boudoir for
playful swine.
The owners and inhabitants of these
freeholds are happy careless negroes,
raising enough to eat and little to
sell, basklng in the sunshine, and obey-
ing implicitly the scriptural injunc-
tion to take no heed to the morrow.
In little log house, standing on the
very banks of the branch. in crouch.
ing attitude, as if Just about to leap
into the waters for bath, both cleans
ing and sanitary, lived at the time of
which | write, Ananias, one of nv
heroes.
On the west side of the branch the
scene was almost literally repeated,
with the exception that one of the
houses was of frame, with two rooms
and lean to, and had forty acres of
land attached to it.
There lived with his parents. .Jeru-
salem. my other hero. until the fiend
OF jealousy entered his otherwise pla-
cid bosom, and left wreck and ruin
there.
Five miles off was another little set
Element of the same genus, and here
Miss Sophy, my heroine, helped bake
the hoe cake in the ancestral mansion,
and by washing for the neighboring
planters families, earned the shekeis
that went to purchase articles OF
feminine adornmeni, articles 50 dear
to the average feminine heart:
Ananias was tall and thin, elaborate