Willmar tribune., 1899-12-20
4 Now Kind Of Du6I.
BY DAVID KER.

! BY DAVID KER. J
EVERYONE said - although they
IL took care to say it only when he
could not hear them-that Squire Fitz-
gerald, popularity known as ''Fighting
Tom," was born to be the plague of all
his neighbors. If so, he certainly full
filled the purpose of his birth better
than most men do.
He seemed to have no other object in
life except finding quarrel to fight out,
or else fighting out quarrel that he
had found. When no pretext for a row
was to be had, Fighting Tom was the
quickest man alive at inventing one;
and, indeed, it seemed to be all one to
him, provided the affair ended in
fight, whether the man with whom he
fought had done anything to him or
not.
What with horsewhipping, knocking
down, shooting or ''pinking" with a
small sword, every man who could be
brought to give him the chance, our
worthy Mr.. Fitzgerald had made such
good use of his opportunities that there
was not man in the parish to whom he
had not done something, and it was
favorite joke with the wags of the
neighborhood that the fighting squire
could not sleep at night if he had hap
pened to go through a whole day with
out killing or hurting some one, which
did not happen often, as you may sup
pose, in times when gentlemen fought
with their best friends for chance dis
pute about the speed of horse or the
color of a dog.
1t was a sight to see this terrible fel
low galloping into the little town on
market day upon his great black horse,
which no one could ride but himself,
with his hat cooked fercely over one eye
and his heavy whip in his hand, ready
for good cut at anybody who might
dare to get in his way; but it was sell
dom enough that he had chance of
using it, for the moment he was seen
coming down the road everybody took
to their heels as if he had been a mad
dog.
And then he would swagger into the
coffee room of the King George, where
the farmers used to dine, and take the
best seat at table and lay down the law
to the whole company, watching all the
while to see if anyone would dare to
contradict or oppose him.
But it was very rarely that anyone did
so; for he was great, brawny fellow,
six feet high and quite as ready with
his fists as with his sword or pistol, and
it was his favorite boast that there
wasn't a man within ten miles of his
house whom he couldn't thrash easily
We have said that this amiable gen
tleman was popularity believed to have
quarreled with every man in the parish
of Bullocksham. But this belief, though
correct enough in the main, was not en-
tirely so. There was one man with
whom he had never quarreled, for the
simple reason that the most quarrel
some man alive could scarcely have
managed to get any cause of dispute
out of dear old Jabez Goodharte, the
Quaker.
For threats, abuse or loud talk of
answer, and that was to smile his own
pleasant, kindly smile and say in his
chirping little voice, which sounded just
like the chirrup of canary: "Men say
that it taketh two to make quarrel,
FRIEND and I will not be one."
And Jabez certainly acted up to his
words; for whereas Tom Fitzgerald car
ried with him wherever he went an at
mosphere of strife and brawling, the
kindly old Quaker seemed to put every
body in good humor with the mere sight
of his compact little figure and bright,
CHEEKY face.
Sully old Grimes, the tollman, who
grumbled at everyone else, twisted his
grabbed visage into a kind of wintry
smile as Mr.. Goodharte passed, and had
even been known to wish him merry
Christmas-a most unheardof stretch
of cordiality for him.
Two hulking wagoners fighting in the
market place had been stopped by Jabez
stepping fearless(y in between them
and joining their huge brown hands in
his with few words of kindly re-
proof.
Even stiff old Lord Ivytower, the
proudest man in the whole county, had
condescended to shake hands cordially
with Mr.. Goodharte and to give him
five pounds for ''his poor;" for Jabez
seemed to consider all the poor of Bull
locksham as his own especial property,
and was always trotting about with
baskets of food and bundles of flannel,
now sitting up all night with a sick
child, now reading to blind old wom-
an, and now putting an unemployed
man in the way of getting job.
Hitherto Fitzgerald had let his quiet
little neighbor contemptuously alone,
as not being a fighting man; but at
length something occurred to make him
change his mind. News reached him
through one of those countless individ-
uals who attend to everybody's affairs
but their own that Jabez Goodharte had
been heard to say, in answer to neigh
Dor who was warning him agahs:
Fighting Tom:
"Fear not, friend; if Thomas Fitz-
gerald seeketh to harm me, I am well
able to overcome him."
Half an hour later the man of war
stood in the little garden of the man of
peace. ...s .,.,..x -:..
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