The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-01-09
ARKANSAS DIAMONDS.
Worthless Bits of Quarts and the
Duel They Caused.


of 1t was in a place that, even in this
day of railroads. is not overly accessi-
bic.
was waiting for stage in one of the
back settlements in one of the noun
tain counties of Arkansas one day last
summel. when one of the old settlers of
the con lnunity addressed me:
81 sec in Leetle Rock paper thuther
day." he said, that there's bin some
di'mands found over in Africy."
"Thelc's nothing new in that" I re-
piled. But the field has been broad
ened, in speculation at least, until the
excitement has grown tremendously"
"Wall. don't keer none.' the old fell
low remarked. 81 amt goin'--I only
had an idec thet it might be all Il hoax
like a o'mand find we oncet he'd was a
hoax"
"Did you think there were damon
in this part of the mountains?" I in
quiz Il.
"Think. We knowed it fer awhile,
but after a scientific feller come here,
and after dooel of some size we learned
diffrunt."
The old man climbed to the top of a
barrel in the one store of the town in
which the conversation was taking
place, and as he mentioned the duel
half dozen of the loungers who were
more interested in me than they
were i'm the old mans talk, cr1ned their
necks and almost in a chorus exclaimed:
"Tell erbout thet doocl.'
Then one of them said: Yer allus
talllin' about it. but it ain't often ye say
much more'n it jest happened"
The old man appeared to be flattered.
He looked at me with the air of one who
had an undisputed position i'm the COM
munity and was proud of it. took up
the cause of the native mountaineer
boys who were lounging about the
place.
$50 ahead with the story" l said.
"We'll have a drop from the proprietor
to wet your whistle properly and then
Wen listen"
81 never talk about thet doocl," the
old man said "These young tcllers hev
all heered their daddies talk about it,
anyhow"
There was a long silence. In the
meantime the lank, slip-shod back
woodsman who was running the store
had brought out a bottle of white liquor,
better known as moonshinc whisky,
with rusty tin cup, out of which every
one took a drink. One hears much talk
of bad whisky sold over bars in large
cities, but one never knows what liquid
| fire and birthstone are until he has had
a swallow of the whisky that is TO be
| had ar the backwood's stills of the
mountain districts of this country.
Revenue officials have cleared out many
an illicit distillery, but they exist even
now in some parts of the south in a
thriving way.
"Them things looked like diamonds,
anyway" the old man remarked, as lie
thoughtfully smaclcd his lips and
passed the cup to the next one. "Thet
was in the '40's, I reckon, and the few
of us as was here didn't know much
about the country. Our folks had come
to the uplands after the sinking of the
land over at New Madrid 30 years be-
fore, and here they stuck, just as l hev
stuck seence thet time. There was nc
noospapers and no railroads Onct an
awhile there was steamboat and
thet's the only way we ever got much
word from the outside world. The
Pearsoll boys was the liveliest fellers
in the settlement. and onct a year one OF
them would go to Moo Orleans and sell
some of the hides that we got together
When he was down there he'd get idees
Of things thet we didn't know nothin
about. One of the boys would go one
time and one another, and each time
thet they went there was a big time
around, I'll tell you. Onct, jest after
Ollie Pearsoll he'd come back from Not
Orleans, he got to tellin' about seeing
a man who had paid a fortune for {
shirt stud. That was the fust time
most of us had ever hcerd abou
di'monds. Oh Pearsoll described tho
things keerfully an told us thet the,
was found only in few parts of TIL.
world. When he he'd got done there
wasn't feller in the crowd that WASH
as worked up as eff he'd heerd a ghos
story. While Ollie Pearsoll was stard
ing itt one she klnueT reSUln uItcr III!
talk-reely playin' the hero-anothe
of our fellers, Bill Sims by name
slipped around to him and took hin
to one side. heerd afterward ihet h,
took leetle stone outen his pocket an
asked Ollie eff it looked like emmy O
!. them diamonds he'd been tellin' about
l seen Ollie put his hand to his moutl
and tell Bill to be quiet, and then the,
strolled off together.
~ didn't think no more of it unit
the next evenin', when Ollie come to m
all excitement and sed: See here. Tom
I'm in trouble
"'What's up? l asked. SEEM thet
was somethin' big.
"'You remember what Eaid about tn
di'mond last night?' he went or
We'll, Bill Sims has whcle lot cf thcu
out in the new timber, an he won't tel
,, me where
'Mehbe he wants them hisself"
said, thinkin' it all joke.
I'm course he does Ollie exclaimed
AN claims my rights fer havin' toll