Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-01-14

meant business. The old critter beside
me gurgled in his throat and stretched
out on his back, but having a clear
conscience and owing no man a debt
l sportively saluted the leader OF the
band with:
eff you seeketh truth you seeketh
the greatest jewel of them all, but
in seeking truth fail not to remember
that a hornet has two ends"
What WI seeketh." answered the
man as he made a moose in the end
of the rope. "is the bow backed old
boss thief who lies before us. Git up
| you, and be hung"
at will come easy to him. He is
wanting to leave this cold world and
go hence to new enes."
"Ill be burned if / do" shouts the
| old man as he rises up. 1--we changed
my mind about the dyin' business, and
propose to stay around here fur TWEEN
ty years longer!"
"Tll bet you don't stay twenty min
its!" says the nan with the rope.
But l objek to bein' hung fur steal
in a boss like that. He hadn't car
ried me ten miles when his legs give
out"
Then the men who had come up in
chase asked me to take the old crit
ter aside and bring him around to the
pint of realizin' that he orter be per-
fectly content to be hung. and I led
him away and said:
HE that is alone in the world and
hath been thrown down and given the
razzle dazzle will find no guile be-
yond the grave"
And also:
HE that is without hope or am
bishun is already dead, and a little
hangin' can't hurt him any,"
And further:
HE who is hung to-day will not be
struck with lightning tomorrow. To-
day I am here to speak consolin' words
to you in your last moments. To-
morrow | shall be fur away and you
may be hung without a blessin"
There's sunthin' in that" he says
after thinkin' it over. I'm purity GER
tain to be hung before the week is out
anyway. and mebbe 1 hadn't orter
kick about three or four days. What
! We got in yer wagon?"
I'm takin' of tin types"
Il never had mine took in all my
life, but I want it now, and / want 1t
fur nuthin'."
But you are goin' to be hung, you
know"
"Ill never be hung if l don't git that
tin type! / want to be holdin' it in my
hands and lookin' at it when l go.
| When I'm planted / want the pictur' to
| go into the grave with me-"
1t was my duty to soothe his last
minits in every way / could. and |
posed him and took his pictur'. 1t was
a work of art SO fur as my part of it
went, but after he had looked at it fur
awhile he fell to weepin' and cussin'
by turns and exclaimed:
'Durn my hide, but if I am as home
ly as this l order bin dead thirty years
ago! Am l as bad as this makes out"
.Eyar urcS cavc
Then go ahead with the hangin' and
leave the pictu' on the grass here to
skeer wolves to DEATH"
And then they hung him. They hung
him bekase it was the custom of the
country, and bekase it was really a
favor to him. There was no undue
levity. There couldn't have been more
dignity and solemnity If they'd beer
thinkin' it over fur a month. / vas
with him to the last I didn't seek to
encourage him in the belief that he
was goin' to have a high old time in
the land beyand the sun, but / sorter
creased the way fur his goin' and kept
him braced up. When he was with
Us no more / mounted my wagon and
drove on. and as / logged I felt to ex-
claim:
Man cometh up like a flower and is
cut down. Man dieth and wasteth
away, and behold where is he?"
Also:
!" He that hath been razzle dazzled
will be iap-doodled no more"
And lastly.
He won't have to put up no barbed
wire fence to keep the hogs outer his
'tater patch. Peace be with him