The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-03-08
A Breach Of Kentucky
Etiquette Which Was
Worse Than Laying
Down Five Aces

From whut ! can gathah," said the
Kentucky colonel Chain shirts are bein
vey much worn again in Breathitt coun-
~. Since the last little fracas they ah
all the style once mo-. they tell me.
fChain shirts has had a good deal to do
with breakin' up feuds in Breathitt counr
ty fust and last. knew a feud whut
was almos' bloodless on account OF a
che shirt Only one killed.
" Twa mt gennully known TO long
while that chain shirts was fashionable
n Breathitt county. They KEEP It dahk
IT was an ole man named Wesley Cold
rain whut accidentally give It away.
He wo' one. One day lie fell in the
rivah and come putty nigh drownln :.
When they fished him out they found
that he had one O them heavy ffteen-
pound chain shirts on.
Didn't no soonah get about than people
come from miles around a borrowin' Of IT,
They sent their childun
" Please, Mr. Coldrain. the childn1i
would implo'. 'fathah says VIII you be so
kinds to lend him your chain shirt to-
night2 He's goin to a panty.
In Breathitt county it's the same s IN
cent enough. but whut with the nah
watah and the hoss pistols and the
douile-barreled shotguns, theah amt
nevah no tellin' Just wheah II will end.
The findin' out about the chain shirt
was the beginnin Of the almos bloodless
feud ! was tellin' yop about. It was
laik this:
"ole man Coldrs.n and friend Of hisn
named Jones wah In the habit OF ledgin
Of the cyahds OF eycuins when theah
want nuthin' special dein' In the shoot-
In line.
Now, ole man Coldrain while he was
putty fair all round shot. want ~ say
exactly squah when 1t come 10 1edSin OF
the cyahds. So one night when Jones ne
lays down 70 aces old man Coldrain he
\ uys and lays down five.
'Of cose, you don't undahstan' much
about cyahds, but you ought to undah-
stan enough to know that five. aces IN
any paht Of the country IS goln, beyond
the limit. 1t gennuly means 4 knife stuck
through tie hand whut lays EN- down. II
Il don't mean suthin wuss.
Jones. he nevah said nuthin'. He 1es'
quit the game apparently lettin Of it go
at that but it appeah'd to rankle in his
mind. He couldn't seem somehow t.
think Of nuthin a tall but them theah
five aces. every tire he begun TO think.
IF that had hecn tile end OF 1t theah
wouldn't been no story. but II wa t.
Jones, he shook hands with the ole man
ve'y amicable, but the next mawnln' he
to ask If he mghtnt borrow ole man
Cnldrains chain shirt. ole man Coldraili,
all nnsuspectin', sent i ovah with his
condiments.
his way to the postofice. a unknown
tahty took a shot at him from behind a
big rock. The bullet neahly broke his
ahm, but that didn't hut SO much as the
Of knowin who fahd 1t.
"Howsomevah he sent immediate to
Cincinnati fo' one of the new fashioned
chain shirts whut didn't weigh enough to
drown a man.
''In the meantime Jones he hadn't Of
fercd to send back the old fifteen poInd
chain shirt he had borrowed. and ole man
Coldrain, whut wuz afeahd to 90 neah
the watah with it on anyway. let him
keep 1t.
"Then one othah night as he was going
to the postoffice again ole man Coldrain
was shot at once mo from behind big
rock. He stood up and took them theah
shots laik a man with a chahmed life.
Nev;Nl feazed him. WhOevah Ii was a
shootin' might s well a boon shootin' at
a bouldah fo' all the hahn II did.
But between shots ole man Coldrain
who want no idiit. nor blind, neithah
caught sight Of the would-be murdercr
II WANT nobody mo- nor less than his
old-time pahtner at cyahds. Jones. stand
in up theah lahge as life and twice S
natchul in his own chain shirt whut he
had borrowed of him, a shootin at him.
You'll say so yo'se'f that that was
addin insult to injury. 1t was all right
TO shoot az him II he wanted to- theah
want no laW agin that in Breathitt
county. but to protect hisse'f with the
ole mans own chain Shirt When 1t
comes TO a question Of limit. II was wuss
than five aces. Ill leave it to you. now.
If 1t want.
mo. They don't allus do the squah
thing in Breathitt county when they get
to shootin no mo- than they do in Har-
rodsburg. Seems laik the thust fo' blood
goes to the brain
But to maik a long story short ole
man Coldrain he went slowly home and
to bed. a-thinkin' q good deal of one thing
and anothah. Then the next mawnin' he
sends one OF his young uns ovah to Jones
with q polite note a-requestin' of him to
send back his chain shirt II he wah quite
through with it, He wanted it. he said
in the note to 20 huntin In.
"Ole man Coldrain, If the truth wah
known didn't have a spank OF humor In
his whole maik UP; but you'd a thought
he had II you'd a known whut sort of
huntin he was intendin to do.
THAT night he took little walk all by
hissef in the dahk towards the postoffice,
a passn' of the spot wheah he had been
shot at the night befo'
HE sneaked up soft laik. and comm
suddenly upon Jones. who was lyln' in
wait TO- hin-no chain shi no nuthin'
lest got reckless. seemed laiA, didn't care
no mo-he shot him dead. And that
theah was the beginning and the end of
the chain shirt feud Of Breathitt county
whut numbahd only one victim
"Theah might been mo- but the chain
shirt habit suddenly took sech strong
hold on all the immediate friends, rela-
tives and sympathizers of the two fam =
lies mos interested, theah want nuthin'
doin' in the KILN line a tall. New York
Sun.