St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-05-29

him as perfect and familiar as schooi-
how knows his old blue-back speller-
then BY gracious don't know Twin
mortal man on the broad bosom Of the
discovered earth.
Many and many's the time ! have
heard Blew make his brags about how
lie could ''come into the game with
marry pair and take the pile. and IN
regards to that he is the onlyest man
Ii have ever saw that could handle the
documents" to that extent.
In the Gane 70 Win.
"This plain, everyday life which we
are now Twin is agame. anyhow. Rufe.
and everybody plays it one way or an
other" says Blew to me oncst upon
time. IF you don't play somebody, the
next thing you know somebody will
PLAY you. We are all in the game
horned and bred andbrung up in it-and
the onlyest way under the sun to keep
from playin your hand out is to shuck
OF your mortal tolls and put on your
white wings and quit this dull old
world.
"Now as for me, il didn't know any
more about -handlin Of the documents
than some people. blamed il wouldn't
tend q night school hand runnin for
ten years to come. And if there is any
points about the game in general which
/ haven't already learnt, by the stars
and stripes it was tore out Of the books
before my day and time.
Fright now. Rufc. you mought Is
well to take out your little note book
and set it down that Blew Scroggins is
| in the game to win. You never heard
me make any proud. high-fyin remarks
about the family records of the Scrog-
gins generation of people, and yon never
will. So fur rs know, we didn't come
down from the highristocracy Of the
first settlers Of this great and GROWN
country. On my own hook l raley
don't know for certain whether l ever
had any great-grandfather at all scarce
". but reckon did. At any rates,
am willin to leave that question for
time and future history to settle. No
doubts you have heard me claim some
k:nnery with a man by the name Of
Scroggins which fit plum through three
wars and swum the Potomac river one
cold winter night to bent George WASH
ington in a little game Of stud poker.
but we will let that pass. Rufe. Ac-
cordin to the Scriptures all men are
liars on and on. more or less.
,"Eut whilst the Scroggins people IRE
only plain American citizens-withou
any extry frills and fancy trimming
you -monghts = well to5remember that
there are two, places in this country
where no mol fman Of my name can
be found-th& J6or House and the
Crazy Asylum. And l am in this game
to win. Rufe.sE never will be good
enough to tqi but and preach. nor
smart enough 10 run for congress. and
f1its little lnss1niDRn cthin that have
learnt in books. But by gatlins, ! do
know tremSAdius well that - with
fiushes barred-four aces will bust the
bank. And fahfin the game to win"
E :;1lE.s:sss:sssa..ks.2 :. s.. ..a s.s.....-
liiNlak anoiHeeks and months and
yeaf4 nave Rolled by and stacked up in
| the nast since me and Blew rid down the
old jackson Trail road one mornin
slong in the spring of the year and
heard him talkin with his mouth about
the game of every day life, wherein
he had learnt the documents and would
play to win. And it all come back to
my mind as clear n bell the other day
when old man Ran Phillips driv by our
house on his return back home from q
trip over in the River bend. couldn't
keep from thinkin about tho time when
old man Ran met Blew in little game
which handsome young wilder wom-
an and 60 acres Of swamp land was the
stakes-and how the old man. with
full hand and three cards up his sleeve,
as it were. had to cut the pot and divide
speak Of or to bet on.
Everything that goes up must come
down. Rufe," says Blew to me out at the
horse rack one night after supper. I'm
this God forsaken country mortal man
born Of woman is foreOrdained to sin
and sufferin, and from NIL the signs of
the times it would seem to me like old
man Ran Phillips will hsve to stand his
turn and take his dost."
WIN Nuuk 0ACv ouuV OuS ~ StOW 0uu
cautious like and whistled few stanzas
soft and low. And from that day till
this have took particular notice that
slow wink and = little soft whistle
from Blew Scroggins simply means that
somebody must suffer, and you mought
Is well stand from under.
"You recollect that old man Ran has
got 60 acres of bully swamp land which
joins my farm over there on the creek.
Rufe," Blew went on tarectly. swell,
naturally Of course haven't got any
money. If whisky was goin at four
bits a barrel raley couldn't buy enough
to change baby's breath. But don't
straddle that 60 acres Of swamp land II
less time than three weeks-with the
deeds and titlements made out
bomb-proof in my own full and proper
name-then human nature amt human
any more. the ways Of this wicked world
ore past dndin out, and Blew Scroggips
has never yet shielded his colts teeth.
What's on the wind7 Old man Ran
Is Z poor, lone widower-with nobody
to comfort and console him in his few
remainin days on earth-nobody to darn
his socks and patch his clothes, and no
body fling the sunshine acrost his path
a. he hobbies on down the hill, q It
were. Old man Ran wants to ut mar
Sied. He wants to marry . bad till 10
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