The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1906-04-27
rupELo, MISSISSIPPI FRIDAY APRIL II. 1906
pEN.PlCTURES OF THE 0LDEN Time
BY COL w |. CLAYTON.

- Vim OuN.
4. q
to learn how J. A. Green acquir.
ed the title Of judge before he
was reallya Judge, and sat down
and wrote Green to find out, and
was very much disgusted to re-
ceive a reply saying he was at
one time selected as judge of a
shooting match!
. By reason of having been elec-
ted colonel of a military regi-
ment during the war. and carry
ing part of the regiment into the
actual service Of the State, l was
very properly called colonel, but,
as captain was the highest mil
itary title | had in actual service
during the war, that was the
highest title | could receive from
Col. Sale. Col. Sale was a great
admirer of and Deliver in Gen.
Bragg, and was on his staff du-
ring the war with the rank of
colonel. Wherever duty called
him during the war he was ready
and willing to go. | was not as
inquisitive as some men, and
therefore | never learned where
and how Col. Sale obtained the
civil title of judge, but | know he
priced the military title much
more than the civil. My best
remembrance is that he was
judge of some court in Alabama
before he moved to Mississippi,
and think it was Probate Judge.
| remember a case which was
tried at the old Methodist church
building in the town of Tupelo at
the time the court house was in
rebuilding after having been
burned down, in which Col. Sale
represented the plaintiff, and in
which the defendant sought to
and did avoid the payment of a
five hundred dollar note for mo-
ney borrowed because the note
was executed and the money bor-
rowed on the Sabbath day. Col.
Sale was a great believer in the
Sabbath and it's observance, but
he did not think it should be
made the means of dishonesty,
nor did he believe the note was
ever executed on Sunday, al
though the almanac showed that
the date given the note was on
the Sabbath. Another thing
which seemed to worry him con-
siderably was how a man who
was himself a member of the
church and professed to be a fol-
lower of the Divine One, could
so far forget his religion as to be
borrowing money and executing
notes on on the Sabbath day; but
still further, if a man could so
far forget his duty toward his
God and his religion as to over
step the bounds so far as to be
thus guilty, how, in the name of
all that was sacred, could he add
the further sin of dishonesty in
keeping the poor Philistlne's mo-
ney and never letting him see
the edge of it, under the cloak
of observing the law of the Sab
bath, rather than the practice of
keeping holy that sacred day. On
these points the criticisms of the
lawyer were very severe. | think
the defendant would have been
designated by Col. Sale as man
having the absence of that debt
paying expression on his face
which should characterize every
honest man.
Col. Sale was a strict member
of the ME. Church and a firm be-
lever in it's doctrins, and when his
physicians informed him he had
but a short time to live, he said
he was ready, and arranged his
business affairs, and then address
ed himself to his relations toward
his God in a very matter of fact
and business kind of way, and so
folded his tent and took his de-
parture, in a quiet and undisturb-
ed way as an Arab would move his
tent from one part of the desert
to another. May | not hope that
he has found the bright Gases,
sparkling and gurgling amid the
paradise of God, long years
ago, and like Jackson, he, having
passed over the River, is now
resting under the shade Of the
f,snnc