The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-24
Missouri Hospitality Tested.

former congressman from Missouri
wrote his name in the book Of a Broad
way hotel and asked the clerk to give him
a room that had bolt on the door ana
an iron shutter on the window. says
the New York Sun. As the
guest was turning to go UP to his room
a reporter asked him the question that
is usually the open SESAME to every
Missourian's heart:
How are the crops?"
What crops are you interested about2''
returned the congressman.
How about the silver cFop?" we asked.
Let's go and sit down somew where where
it is windy" and the former representa-
tive led the young man away, and when
they had seated themselves the Missou-
rian who has quit politics, told the IRE
porter this story:
whatever may be said of Missouri no
one ever questioned the hospitality OF its
people. They will walk with you four
miles if you ask them to go one, and let
down all the bars They will turn the
unsmitten cheek and ask you to hit It
after you have made an attack on the
other. Not long ago one of my meek and
slow-to-anger constituents, who lives in
an unpretentiOus house on the cOuntSy
road, was hallOwed up late in the night
by a solitary horseman, who didn't know
WleTneF ne was on luC IOdu TO Elhb OF
Lebanon. The night was stormy, and my
constituent asked the stranger TO alight
and share his hospitality He put up the
strangers jaded animal and then showed
the traveller TO the spare room. The next
morning as the stranger was leaving there
was a most unfortunate alteration. The
stranger rode away finally With one eye
gouged from its socket, a slit in his ear,
his front teeth loose and his nose resem-
bling a battered beet He went to the
nearest squire and swore out a war
rant. Then he put up at a tavern an
waited for the constable with the defend
ant.
THE plaintiff told the squire how he
had been lured in and assaulted on the
following morning. The squire was of
the old school. he had been squire in that
settlement nearly twenty years, and when
he was not trying lawsuits he enter
tanned those about him with tales of the
hospitality of Missouri. He loved to do
that. So he turned to the defendant
and asked:
How did you, a Missourian, so far
forget the tradition of our state as to
assault the man whom you asked in
your bed and board?
The Missourian asked to be sworn.
But the squire said it was not necessary
for a Missourian to take an oath in his
court.
"'Wen, your honor said the defend
ant, 1T is true 1 asked this man in out
of the storm, and ! turned out one of
my nags to make room for him. And l
gave him the spare room which my mar
ried daughter and her husband always
occupied when they visited us. The next
morning while l was entertaining him
my wife passed through the room, and
when she was gone the stranger said:
Who is the carroty-haired creature
that just fitted by%
Well, your honor, Betsey was never
a prize winner at the county beauty
show, but she's mighty good woman n,
and my wife, and the mother Of my chill
dren, and she's az good as two hired men
in hog-killing time. 1 knowed she wasn't
purity, but I didn't take any exceptions
to what the stranger said.
Well, when breakfast was put on we
went out, and being Of a religious turn
asked the stranger if he would say the
blessing. 1 thought l would give him the
table and turned up his nose. and said he
didn't see much to be thankful for. Your
honor I knowed it wasn't no Planters
House or Southern hotel meal, and we
never Dragged about what we had to eat.
When l saw he didn't pray, / said a bless
ing, and we pitched in. l know It wasn't
much Of a meal, and I didn't say anything
We fed on in silence, and finally ] says
to tines tranger.
49, How did you rest last night?"l
e He said he didn't rest much. That the
bed was hard. and ne kept thinking about
being robbed. and he was thankful ne was
alive. Well your honor I knowed we
didn't have no locks on the door, and the
dogs kept up a barking all night. But
6ifn't fay anythlng and Betsy she looked