Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-09-02

he were preaching a funeral sermon.
This story was bear story. Praxitcles,
and Nose told it to me exactly as he
told il so years before, showing me
how he had caught one of the bears
with one hand by the throat and choked
it until It fell in heap, while he kicked
the life out of the other two that had
piled themselves on him-just as ne
had shown me 80 years before, with q
variation that impressed me.
You see that when Nose first be
gan telling me that story, along about
the close of the war, he showed me
how he grabbed one of the bears by the
throat with his right hand and kicked
the other two to death with his left
foot at the same time. After he lost
mis- right arm in the bear trap, when he
would come to that interesting point in
his story he'd stop and say: You'll
have to excuse me, Reuben, for you
must remember that it was with my
right hand l choked the bear-this
way-bur now I've got to show you
with my left hand how / done it. So
pretend this was my right hand and
then he'd 60 on and finish the story.
And it happened that the leg Nose shot
off was the left one, and so when he
told me the story the times / went tc
see him after that, and came to where
| he kicked the bears, he would say tC
me, as cool and collected as could be:
| Reuben, / kicked the everlasting
breath out of them two bears with my
left leg, so you'll have to excuse me for
IL To lat
my right one how l done it, being as
my left one is planted up yonder on the
RIDGE
land this unsettled me more and
more, and I've been saying to myself
ever since that if Nose was lying he
wouldn't be so uncommon conscientious
as to excuse himself for having to use
| his left arm to choke that bear with,
| because he didn't have any right arm,
and for calling his right leg into service
in kicking the other two to death be-
cause his left one was gone-would he?
| Then, again, there's unregenerate cuss-
| edness. There's a lot of it in the Com
| fort family. Has Nose got it, or is that
story true?
SO here I am, PraxiteIes, founder
ing in uncertainty and doubt. 1t doesn't
seem to me that I'll be able to take any
pleasure at all in hearing old Jordan
roll if l have to pass away with my
mind unsettled about Nose and his
story. l want you to go with me and
see Nose. He'll tell the story. and you
can judge at once as to whether it is
true or whether it isn't. l don't care,
now. whether it is or whether it isn't.
I nj n l-unTx of inCr n hnut
one way or the other. or I'll pass away
with load on my mind
''Glad that 1 might be able to make
my remarkable fathers coming end one
of peace and Joy, went with him to see
Nose Comfort. We found him in bed,
his sole remaining arm in a sling and
his solitary leg bound up in splinters.
why, Nose said my father, after
recovering from his surprise. What's
happened?'
IL was IS years old last Tuesday.
Reuben said Nose, and took walk
out. My old crutch slowed from under
me. and 1 dropped. Broke that leg that
l lost the partner to, and unjointed this
here lonesome left arm O. mine. Kind
o lays me up
'Seventy-eight years DID, heard
my remarkable father mutter; only
one leg and only one arm; t'other leg
broke, and t'other arm unjointed! Now
Ill know whether it's truth or unre-
generate cussedness!'
I'VE sympathized with Nose and sat
there talking for more than two hours
without his once even limiting at the
story that was worrying my parent.