The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-11
GENTLEMAN
FROM INDIANA
BY BOOTH HARRINGTON.
Copyrighted by Mcclure, Phillips & Co.

and the fOTefathers of the Bardlocks
and Tibbses and Briscoes and Scho-
fields moved up here from North Caro-
lima a good deal just to get away from
some bad neighbors, mostly Skilletts
and JOhnsons-one Of the Skilletts had
killed old William Platts two sons.
But the Skflletts and JohnsOns-one of
the SkilleJts had killed old William
Platt's two sons. But the Skilletts and
Johnsons followed all the way to In
diana to join in making the new set
tiement. and they shot Plat at his
cabin door one night, right where the
court house stands to-day. Then the
other settlers drove them out for good,
and they went seven miles west and
set up a still A band Of Indians. on
the way to join the Shawnee Prophet
at Tippecanoe, came down on the
Cross Roads, and the Cross Readers
bought them off with bad whisky and
sent them over to PlattVille. Nearly all
the Plattville men were away, fight
ing under Harrison, and when they
came back there We're only a few half
crazy women and children left. They'd
hid in the woods
The men stopped just long enough
to hear how 1t was, and started for
the CROSSROADS; but the Cross Roads
people caught them in an ambush and
We really never did get even with
them, though all the early settlers
lived and died still expecting to see the
day when Plattville would go over and
pay off the score. It's the same now as
1t was then, good stock with u.s. bad
stock over here; and all the country
riff-raff in creation come and live with
'em when other places get too hot to
mold them. only one or two of us old
folks know what the original trouble
was about; but you ask a Plattville
man, to-day, what he thinks of the
Cross Roads and he'll be mighty apt
to say, L guess Wen all have to go
over there some time and wipe those
hoodlums out It's been coming to that
a long time. The work the Herald did
has come nearer bringing us even with
SiX-Cross- Roads than anything else
ever has. Queer. too-a man that's only
lived in Plattvile a few years to be
settling such an old score for us.
They'll do their best to get him, and
If they do there'll be trouble of an il
legal nature. l think our people would
go over there again. but I expect there
wouldn't be any ambush this time;
and the pioneers might rest easier in
- He broke off suddenly, and
nodded to a little old man in a buck
road into farm lane which led up to
trim cottage with a honeysuckle vine
by the door. That's Mrs. Wimby's
husband" said the judge in an under
tone.
Miss Sherwood observed that Mrs.
Wimby's husband" was remarkable for
the exceeding plaintiveness of his ex-
preston. He was weakened, blank,
pale-eyed little man, with a thin white
mist of neck whisker; his coat was so
large for him that the sleeves were
rolled up from his wrists with several
turns, and, as he climbed painfully to
the ground to open the gate of the
lane, 1t needed no perspicuous eye to
perceive that his trousers had been
made for a much larger man, for, as
his uncertain foot left the step of his
vehicle, one baggy leg of the garment
fell down over his foot, completely con-
cealing his boot and hanging some
inches beneath. A family VeXed ex-
preston crossed his face as he endeaV-
ored to arrange the disorder, but he
looked up and returned Briscoe's bow,
sadly, with an air of explaining that
he was accustomed to trouble, and that
the trousers had behaved no worse
than he expected.
No more inoffensive or harmless fig
ure than this feeble little old man
could be imagined; vet his was the
distinction of having received a terri
BILE visit from his neighbors of the
CROSSROADS. Mrs. Windy was q
widow, who owned a comfortable farm,
and she had refused every offer of the
neighboring ineligible bachelors to
share it. However, a Vagabondiug
tinker won her heart, and after their
marriage she continued to be known
as Mrs. Windy" for so complete was
the bridegroom's insignificance that it
extended to his name, which proved
quite unrememberab Bile, and he was US
ually called 'Widder-W Woman Windy
Husband" or more simply, Mr.. VIM
by" The bride supplied the needs of
his wardrobe with the garments of her
former husband, and, alleging this pro-
ceeding as the cause of their anger, the
CROSSROADS raiders. clad as white
Caps" broke into the farmhouse one
night, looted it, tore the old man from
his bed. and compelling his wife, who
was tenderly devoted to him, to watch,
they dashed him with sapling shoots
till he was near to DEATH A little vel
low cur. that had followed his master
on his wanderings, was found licking
the old mans wounds, and they del
uged the dog with kerosene and then
threw the poor animal upon a bonfire
they had made, and danced around it
in heartiest enjoyment.
The man recovered, but that was no
palliation of the offense to the mind
of hot-eyed young man from the
East, who was besieging the county
authorities for redress and writing
birthstone and saltpetre for his paper.
The powers of the county proving eth
err lackadiaSical or timorous, he APP
pealed to those of the state, and he
went every night to sleep at a farm
house, the owner of which had receiv-
ed a warning from the "White-Caps. -
And one night it befell that he was re-
warded, for the raiders attempted an
entrance. He and the farmer and the
farmers sons beat off the marauders
and did satisfactory amount of dam
age in return. Two of the White
Caps" they captured and bound, and
others they recognized. That the state
authorities hardened to the voice of
the Herald and its owner: there
were arrests, and in the course of time
there was trial. Every prisoner prov
ed an alibi, could have proved a dozen:
but the editor of the Herald" after
virtually conducting the prosecution.
went upon the stand and swore to man
after man. Eight men went to the pen
itentiarY on his evidence, five of them
for twenty years. The Plattville Brass
Band serenaded the editor of the Her
AID again.
There were no more raids. and the
SiX-Cross- Roads men who were left
kept to their novels, appalled, and
shaken, but, as time went by and left
them unmolested. they recovered a
measure of their hardness and began
tc think on what they should do to
the man who had hrnnpht rnisfnrtiinn