Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1899-01-28
TWO AGAINST A MOB.
AN Old Time Mississippi River Shooting
ScrapS.


zone If the worst shoe ing scrapes
that ever happened along the Miss
issippi river began the man at the
wheel, relsxing his hold on the till
Ter, which bad been hard down, and
permitted it TO spin sround with the
velocity of top, took place out
there, just above the mouth of The
bayou, about 80 years ago, when
they burned The old post-ofiicc and
the warehouse. You can see where
they stood by the piles Of bricks
there on the bank"
All admitted the ruins were plain
" visible, when be changed to the
opposite side Of the wheel, and after
spirited effort made to counterfeit
the effects OF an impinging current
that bad caused the boat TO swerye
from her course he continued:
1.-The boat that was on had got
caught il the fog, and we tied up
under the point there about S o'clock
in the afternoon, and a lot of US
went on shore 10 take a little ex-
ercise. 1t was on Saturday, and
good many people had come in
from the country to do their trad
ing and get their mail. Some of
them were pitching quoits and
Others shooting at a mark when we
first landed, but they quit when they
saw The man carry the mail bag we
had brought and went in and stood
around waiting for The letters TO be
sorted. They had all been drinking
and were pretty noisy. When the
postmaster said there were only two
letters and that they were both for
Bud Johnson, a colored man, g
mnrmur OF disapproval went around
and several of them insisted on 4
new deal.
4" You can look for yourselves,
said the postmaster, tossing them
the bag, but after searching and
finding it empty they were in
worse frame of mind than ever.
Presently one of the lumber, a local
politician, got up and made speech
derogstory to the administration.
He insisted that the government
was ptejudiced against white folks,
and that be had no use for the office
anyhow. Several of the others
present expressed their approval of
this sentiment, and general smash
ing up of every. thing at once fol-
lowed. During the row the coal
oil lamp was broken, the house set
on fire and everything burned up.
Colonel Bunch, who owned the
property, noticing the fire, came up
from his plantation below and de-
nounced the perpetrators of the out
rage as vandals. The colonel was a
high spirited man and didn't stand
any foolishness, but was getting
10 years now and couldn't do much
but talk, so that when one of the
men declared he could whip any
Bunch on earth he looked like lie
felt himself in pretty close place,
bnt the colonel stood his ground
until at last, when the contending
parties we're about to come to blows
his son appeared upon the scene,
and learning The cause of the trou-
BILE, sprang between the two, and
drawing his revolver, said, "My
name is Bunch, and when my father
gets to be too old to defend him
self can stand in his tracks and
take his part"
SAT this juncture the shooting
commenced, and l made for the
boat, Everybody seemed to take
sides against the Bunches, and you
would have thought them a band of
guerrillas from the way they kept
the fight up. Presently 1 noticed
the colonel roll down the bank and
stop just at the edge of the water,
and then his son came staggering
down, too, and fell near his side.
They we're both deadl We wanted
to leave, but the men were afraid to
go on shore to unite the lines, for
the Infatuated crowd Was still call
ing for more Bunches ard the col
ored man who had got the letters,
but he had climbed a tree, and they
didn't RGoN where he was. An
hour or so later, when the crowd
had dispersed, he slid down from
his hiding place, came aboard the
boat and we hid him in the hold
until we got away and he was over
his fright. He said there were five
men lying on the bank that the
Bunches had killed before they
fell"
The boat at this juncture showing
a disposition to become fractions,
the pilot gave his undivided atten-
ton for q moment to the wheel,
when he went on:
"But there is not much shooting
along the river now, and you hardly
ever hear of q feud. When there
were only about three families in
county, two ,of them were usually
engaged in an effort to exterminste
the other on account of some imag-
mary wrong, or maybe prompted by
jealousy. Since the country has
been settled up they are all right.
used to think myself he went on to
say after brief tussle with the TIL
Ter, "that what a man wanted was
49,