The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-11
OLD zEB WHITE.
And the Time When He Saw His First
Elephant
By M. QUAD

(By NJ. Quad.)
One winters evening when old Zeb
! White, the possum hunter of Tennes-
4 see, was in reminiscent mood, he
told me this story. Mrs. White sat in
/ the chimney corner knitting as he told
it:
when got married I thought I was
/ about the peartest thing on the face of
this airth. I could out-jump. out-hol-
/ Ter and Outright anything I had come
across on there yere Cumberland
mOuntings. I had never been licked
4 by bar or man, and if anyone was
shoutin' when I come around he shet
up mighty sudden. Yes, was the hull
thing, and it kinder makes me lone
some to think back to that time"
To the time when you made a fule
of yourself observed Mrs. White,
/ without raising her eyes from her knit
1 ting.
"Arter had got married" continued
Zeb with wink at me. Il thought to
steady down. but folks wouldn' t let me.
/ If didn't have a furse with somebody
about so often they talked around that
L was gOln' into conSump tiOn. I dIdn
go howlin' around like a hungry lion
/ lookin' for trubble. but the critters who
/ were achin for lickin' come to me.
/ had to tackle ten different men in my
own front yard in week
And you was glad on it" remarked
Mrs White
Wall I was no man to run for the
/ bresh when q man come along and said
/ he was most dead for the want of a
whoppin'. I took it to be the kinder
I way to turn to and give him what he
wanted. One night in the summer as /
/ had just got to sleep a yellin' starts UP
/ about q half mile away. 1t was
noise betwixt the roarin' of a lion and
! the growlin of a bulldog, and as it
drawed higher the old woman sot up
! and asks:
s. .Zeb White. but what in the name
/ of all creashun is that
" It's a bullgine got off the railroad
/ tracks and maxim it's way across the
/ kentry' says I.
" IT'S nuthin' of the kind says she.
/ It's Gabriel soundin' his trumpet for
/ the Judgment dayl
I'VE was both mistaken, however.
| The noise come higher and higher and
/ bimeby we made out that it was a man.
/ He had come to lick me. He had come
/ fifty miles. It was a moonlight night
! and I got UP and looked out of the win
] dow at him. The sight made my ha'r
/ curl. He was nigh seven feet high and
as broad as a barn. He was as big as
the giant in the side show. When he
saw my head at the winder he gives
roar that goes echoin' over the noun
! ting and says:
Come down, zeb White-oh, come
down. I've been hankerin' for over a
month to git my paws on youi'
7 hain't got no furse with you,
But come down and obleege me
and make me feel that life is with the
livin'. I've heard that you are
powerful fighter. and that you was
man what felt for other men. Don't
disappint me, Zeb. If I have to go
away from here before breakin' you
in two it will be the saddest incident of
my life
withstandin' the old woman hung on to
me with tears in her eyes and said I'd
be killed I went down.
and I wish you had got wolloped, -
said Mrs. White, with a tinge Of acid
THAT amt like you. ma. and you
can't make the stranger believe it I
had to go down You cant let teller
/ come roarin' around your own cabin
without findin' out what he's roarin
about. When I got down and saw the
4 size Of that man my heart went tuckin'.
/ He had an arm like backlog and
Ar this zeb white2' he asks in
! purrin' voice
! cit ar
.. The Zeb White who has whopped
every critter for fifty miles around?'
/ q I am that person. sahH
Then I'm the thankfullest man in
all Tennessee. Zeb, I'm goin' to squash
/ you all to squash.
." 'Shool
yes. I'm goin' to do it. but as gent
/ ly as kin. Yes, III be as tender with
/ you as a father. and I'll shed a tear or
Z
! I depart. Ar you ready.
Think of a respectable man bein'
down there fussin' at that time o
/ night exclaimed Mrs. White. with a
/ toss of her head
IT made up my mind that I was a
/ dead COON continued Zeb, but would
/ do the best I could We squared off
and went at It, and in about two min
I utes I was surprised man. So was
! the stranger. He was nOthin but a.
wind-bag. He was as fabby as a goose
and as soft as wax, and I believe 7
could have licked him with one hand
tied behind me. It was over in five
( minutes and he was hollerin for ner-
/ cy. When I let him up he said.
. 'Zeb, it was square and fair and 7
4 hain't no complaint to make. Did you
/ ever see a circus2
" 7 never did
Then go down to Bristol on
( Wednesday and see one. Thar's all
all sorts of animals and one is called
an elephant. He kin lick you in two
minutes.
g" What's he like2' I asked.
g" Never you mind, but don't even
! look cross-eyed at him
Me n the old woman had a deal of
curiosity about that elephant, as we
I had never seen one. and so we got
ready and went to town The circus
/ and the elephant was thar. along with