The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1902-02-28
ARP HAS THE GRIP.
Bill Says He Is Busy Taking Med
icine These Days.
He Sneezes ana Wheexes-Mrs. Arp
Gives Him Everything Good for
Cold, Including Large
Doses OF Castor Oil. ssEH
Copyrighted by the Atlanta Constitution


of infinite Jest and most excellent
fancy" H.. ...,..
1t has been years since / met my
friend, Mark Blanford. | see by the
press dispatches that he is dead-died
in Columbus last week. 1t grleved me
for time, although he was old enough
to die. Eighty years is good old
age if the man has been good. Every
time one of these old trees falls it
shocks me. George Barnes died not
long ago in Augusta, and was grieved,
for | loved him and / unconsciously
whispered: "Next!" Only three of US
left of the senate of 1866. There were
Al, but the old reaper has cut down all
but our Chief Justice Simmons, our
chaplain, Brother Marlborough and my
self-and l am sick.
But / was Illuminating about Judge
Blanford--men called him Mark-we
who knew him best. He was, as Ham
let said of Yorick, a man of infinite
Jest and most excellent fancy. When
the spirit moved him he could enter
tain his friends most pleasantly, and
it was our delight to get him and
Judge Underwood and Judge Buchan-
an together, with Evan Howell as
teaser, and spend the evening hours
during the session of the supreme
court when Mark was one OF the
Judges. During the court hours Chief
Justice Warner was sitting there as
serious and solemn as Presbyterian
preacher drinking in the record and
digesting the law of the case, while
Mark took in the surroundings and abb
sorbed the humorous side OF every
thing. He was a good lawyer, but
Jumped to conclusions like a woman
and never saw much difference be-
tween the plaintiff and defendant I'M
less one of them was a woman or
widow. One night we visited Mark
in his room and he RECALLED us with
his experiences in justices courts
when he was young and devilish The
old-time justice court was good
school for a young lawyer. he not
only practiced law in it, but the arts
of oratory. and could use big words
with impunity,I for neither the old
squire nor the jury knew their mean
ing. but were impressed with their
learned length and lingering sound. L
still remember the Fretman case that
Mark rehearsed that night. a Yankee
school-teacher from the Nutmeg state
had sued Jim Jenkins for SIS worth
of schooling for his two boys, Iroup
and Calhoun. jenkins wouldn't pay
it because the two little nullitiers
hadn't learned anything hardly, and
they told him that Fretman gave pow
erful long recesses and carried on with
the big girls amazing, especially with
Sally Amanda Jones. Fretman was a
pood-looking Yankee, with pink
cheeks and winning ways, and was
popular with the girl scholars. Some
times Salamander, as they called her,
didn't go out at recess, but pretend
ed she had some sums to do, and want
ed the teacher to show her how. Troup
said he heard her squeal one day, and
peeped through the crack and saw
Fretman squeezing of her. She was
a red-headed girl.
Old Phil Davis was the justice
court. Marks plea was that Fretman
wasn't a scholar, and not fittin' to
teach, and that he couldn't read writ
in nor write readin' nor spell all the
words in Daniel Webster's blue-back
spellin' book, and he made motion
to put him on the stand and spell him.
Fretman's lawyer fought it, but the
old squire said he must spell Fret
man was scared. He trembled all over
like a cold, wet dog. Spell phthisIc,
said Mark, and he spelt it correctly.
He then spelt him right along on all
sorts of big words and little words and
long words, and Afterwards, but Fret
man never missed, until finally Mark
saws: "Now spell ompompynusuk.
Fretman drew long breath and said
it wasn't in the book. But Mark
proved it by an old preacher that it
was in his book, and so old Phil spoke
up and said: "Mr. Fretman, you must
spell it, SIR" He was then sweatin'
like rundown filly. He took one
pass at it and missed. "You can come
down. sir said Mark; you've lost
YOUR case" And sure enough old Phil
gave Judgment against him and he
had the cost to pay. But he was good
grit, for he stuck to his school and his
At the next court Mark moved to
nonsuit a doctor who had sued fell
Ter, and he filed plea of malpractice
and demanded a profert of his di-
ploma. The doctor said he had one at
home, and begged for time to go after
it. Old Phil gave him time, and he
rode six miles Rnd back as hard as he
- .-l.-.al- e l.. NJ. IL.