New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-06-25

the other bank land those the ByrOns, for
there lot of little shoe shops in that town..
We sat glazing at each other like so many cats
cleaning themselves, each using handful of
grass instead of a tongue. We had other employ
ment for tongues.
did YOU hear what Cap'n Si1e Cole done last
week." shouted one of the Bears. HE stood one
of his paint ladders up end right out in the open
field, run up the ladder quick it didn't have
time to tip over, stepped out on the air, h'isted
the ladder up another length, run to the top,
ketched the upper rung and held himself right
out arms length by the slack of his britches and
then got down again before the ladder had time
to fall. That's what Capn Sile Cole done
and we're all of us good for length of ladder,
and then tell us-can ye?-that we've got man
in Starks spry enough to fghtl"
That's only monkey trick" replied Stall
wart. 1T amt test of real man. Here's what
our own Capn Nose Britt done last week. The
two boom men in the mill-pOnd were standing
a log arguing whuther McCorrisons bat-eared
bulldog can lick Todd's brindle terrier Nose Britt
hOlered to EN- from the mill door to hitch that
log onto the slip chain cause he wanted it. But
they were so busy chawin tobacker and talkin'
dog they didn't hear Nose, and SO he stood there
in the mill door, tied rope to the end of a pick
pole and thrOwed it spearfashiOn, and 1T went forty
rods and stuck right into the end of that log those
men were standing on, and Nose give it such quick
and almighty yanl that the log right out OF the
bark and lett the men SJtlICl1n Oh JIldC DdI anu
still talkin' And they never knowed that log was
gone till they heard Nose calm for another one
Now talk about your havin' muscle in ByrOn!
Jaw, it's spryness what counts said Bear
well lick We and be mile away before you can
get your fists up
Let me tell YOU one thing broke in a Stall
wart. eff our Cap'n Nose Britt had been Gen raj
George Washington and had come to the Delaware
River that time Nose wouldn't have waited for a
boat No. sir He would have just kicked up
bubble stood on it and let the wind blow him
across. That's how light foot Nose Britt IS
and we all take after him. and if it's being spry
you're countin' on, come out of your dream!"
That's only sample of it. 1t was every moment
getting clear that there was chance of COM
promising the thing, That question of sPryness
and muscle had got to be settled. We sat there
and scrufed away at our clothes with grass tufts
and holered louder and louder and waited for night
to come and the people go away for the feelings
of the girls were always first to be considered in
the old militia days.
And Captain Nose Britt stood with his arms
folded and scowed across at Captain Sile Cole, and
Captain Sile Cole stood with his arms folded and
passed back the compliments of the season-not
saving them but looking them.
They let the rest of us do the talking.
And that being in the good old times when new
rum was steady beverage for the best of folks,
and pepper-sass hot and the standing up for your
own rights and your own town matter of duty,
most of the folks that came and hung around the
place said things to make mad just people
like to cuff and wopse a dogs ears hard before
ste -boying him That is all except the two
minister's the parsOn from Byron and the parson
from Starks. They came down to us and talked
and talked soothing and deprecatory, and every
body was very quiet and let them talk, and nobody
said a word when they got done Captain Nose
Britt never uncinChed either his eyebrows or his
mouth did Captain Sile Cole.
So the ministers hurried away and tackled
Colonel Zaccheus Jordan, who was then standing