Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1898-05-26
A FUNNY INCIDENT.
a FRAGMENT OF HISTORY THAT is
FULL OF HUMOR.


non, His Associate, Was an Ambition
Fried Chicken Eater,
MIS-. John A. Logan once gave To
1. newspaper reporter in this city lette
from southern editor that created
lot Of talk. 1t was Immediately afte
the death CT General Grant. The re
porter had gone to the Logan residenc,
TO interview the general about somt
:. matter then before congress. The gen
er&l was in bed and the reporter was
shown to his room. In the course of the
evening Mrs. Logan entered the bed.
chamber and took part in the converse
ton. In her hand she held letter, the
contents Of which her husband knew
about. She wanted to give it to the re-
! porter, but the general objected. But
as the newspaper man started to leave
Mrs Logan slipped the envelope into
his hand. The next morning nearly
every newspaper in the country printed
a copy Of it, 1t was rare and racy
document.
Colonel Alexander G. Horn of Meridi.
an, Miss, then the editor of The Daily
Mercury, was its author. The letter
was intended as an explanation of an
editorial that had appeared few weeks
before in The Mercury. Colonel Horn
and j. D. Shannon were associates in
the publication Of the aforesaid journal.
On the morning following the death Of
the hero Of Appomattox The Mercury
contained one of the most cruel articles
! 1h0I1t (rpnpro1
press. 1t dared any true southerner to
grleve or show signs Of sorrow over his
demise. 1t called upon the people of
DING land to exult and rejoice at the
death of tho man who had slain their
sons and burned their homes. The peo-
pie OF Meridian were astounded. They
went to the editor, Colonel Horn, and
asked him, in the name of peace, to
write another article withdrawing it.
he was obdurate and instead of doing
as his neighbors wished dictated anoth-
er ore equally as fierce as the first.
At that moment the name Of Colonel |
Shannon was before the senate awaiting
confirmation as postmaster at Meridian.
An enemy Of his, knowing the love that
General Logan had for General Grant,
lnclosed copies of the paper to him, ex-
pecting that Logan would oppose Shan
non nomination. Shannon and Horn
had dispute over the editorial and
their relations became so strained that
a street duel was only averted by the
of mutual friends. Colonel
Horn letter to General Logan was to
the effect that Colonel Shannon was in
nocent Of the article and had known
nothing about it until he saw it in the
paper, L cannot quote the letter with
llteral cAactncss, but part of it was as
follows:
No; Shannon had nothing to do
with it. In the first place he hasn't
sense enough to conceive such a senti-
mcnt as was expressed in the editorial
and he bad he would be too cowardly
20 write It, He is my partner, am sor-
~ to say, bat by making him postmaster
you will atiora me the opportunity of
getting rid Of him. '
And why not take him, John? There
S mighty narrow strip between the
adlcal republicanism that you repre- t
ent and the Cleveland Mugwumpery !
nat shannon tries to represent. He is I
ot democrat. never was and never a
Vll be- L predict that you will soon I
ave INN over Oh your side, and God S
peed the day! We Democrats down
ere don't want him. t.
~ am growing old, but | am still in y
osapssion Of my mental faculties, and a
hope to live many years longer to tell q
ne truth from day to day about the p
esplsed Yankees and their politics. 1 e'
N seriously afflicted with hemiplegia, II
se | would have mauled HI out of n
hannon long ago. 81
Logan, You ought to remember mo
one OF the fellows that figured some
hat conspicuously in the Kemper
'unty trials. l guess 1 can take the L.
edit to myself of having had the Dem CO
rats who killed the Radicals there DC
quilted before the courts I would di
ie another job of the same kind tn
" You and l ought to be friends. Op- g,
'sltes besot liking You have been a wi
9th of boy in your party, and l have ed
Ell a sheol of fellow in mine" DC
General Logan replied good natured- ye
to this epistle, after which friend I'M
correspondence sprang up between ju,
0 cratic genius at Meridian and the We
lator. Logan read the Shannon letter "1
the committee room of the senate, ha
then laushingly said that inasmuch lee
his friend Colonel Horn wanted
annon confirmed he didn't see how
could oppose him. Colonel Horn,
reconstructed, has long since passed son
= 9 %, anu d lie" years later Colo fni
Shannon was buried at his old Nv,
ne III Paulding, Miss, town once doy
de famous by the publication of The his
'ekly Clarion, many years ago, of "D
lch paper he was one of the founders. 1;tt
ring the Sullivan- Kilrain trial at mo
WIS some years ago l sat at the break wal
table with Sullivan and Colonel tb;e
'nnon. Sullivan ate three fried chick dra
/, Shannon four. Charlie Rich, the co,
y Il: 1' eo' VIC wv " eh'er yer
q chicken eating match. Some one noe
ed Sullivan how many he thought
could get away with, and Sullivan
about eight. "
Eight spoke up Shannon. "Well, hus
Will have to do better than that. the
may be the champion prizefghter, you
you will have to whet up that APP thin
to OF yours before you can take
y the chicken eating champion the
l." In Il
he chickens were bought and cleaned now
were ready for the iron when tho my
mel was taken violently i'll. Before
ouid recover Sullivan was out of
state. --.lamcs S. Evans in Chicago 81
os Herald. office
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