The Nevada County picayune. (Prescott, Ark.) 190?-current, 1906-06-19
A COMICAL
COMPROMISE.

g Tie ntN. TtdHllbdl iIAtcs tlit Wcii-
known pastor of the Middletown Meth
odist-E piseopal-A Jerusa-
lem-Zion church, that the true method
Of putting an end TO an apparently in
terminable quarrel is for ,he parties
4 thereto to agree to a compromise. Mr..
Prince himself tried the virtues of a
compromise on the occasion OF his
painful controversy with Colonel
Smithers, who maintained that at
least two or three OF his chickens
ought to have been left in his chicken
house, and that he was impelled to
prosecute Mr.. Prince by a desire to
teach that acquisitive gentleman that
80 distinct chickens in one night was
more than any self-respecting preacher
ought to carry off. Nj. Prince, after
vainly representing to the colonel that
the arrest OF a eolored clergyman in
connection with chickens would be a
public scandal, offered to compromise
the matter by whitewashing the entire
Smithers mansion. On the basis OF this
agreement the matter was satisfac-
torily settled.
Whenever a member of his congre-
cation got into any difficulty and came
TO Mr.. Prince, the latter always recon-
mended that the disputants should
agree TO a compromise So we'll known
was this habit that when Mr. Blue and
Mr.. Montgomery, two leading colored
citizens OF Middletown quarreled over
the question of the ownership of
house on the Atlanta road, and came
to Mr.. Prince to ask his mediation,
they We're not in the least surprised
when the good man gazed on them
through his spectacles and said:
"Breddren, just coppermise this hyer
thing
The origin of the great Blue and
Montgomery dispute is lost in the mist
Of antiquity. There had stood for
many years on the Atlanta road
small shanty, IA feet by l6 TO which
both the contestants laid claim. AS
the shanty had been erected by col
ored squatter who had no title TO the
land in which II stood, and the value
Of the shanty was very small. no law
yer had thought it worth while TO
NEEDLE in the dispute. Each claimant
had put separate paddock on the door
and each had solemnly promised to
should be broken 1t Is true that
neither one had the courage to shoot,
but as each was secretly afraid of the
other, no attempt was made TO enter
the house. In fact neither Mr.. Blue
nor Mr.. Montgomery wanted TO live in
the house, and il was understood that
the moment the dispute should come TO
an end, the victor would move the
house onto his own land.
! To put an end TO the chronic quarrel
between Mr.. Blue and Mr.. Montgomery
Mr.. Prince proposed, as a most skillful
compromise. that the disputed house
should belong TO the man who should
/ haul it away, Mr. Blue owned a
horse. and Mr. Montgomery owned a
mule. Mr.. Prince recommended that
On fixed day rollers should be put
under the house, that the horse should
be hitched TO one end and the mule to
the other, and that the house should
/ belong TO the owner OF the animal
which should pull the hardest. This
compromise was accepted with a good
deal of enthusiasm by Mr.. Blue and
Mr. Montgomery, and the Rev. Mr..
/ Prince promised to be present the next
morning at ten o'clock 10 act as UNI
/ pire
Long before the appointed hour, not
Ia. AIr Deafr h sr~.a.5 Fa1r NJ
/ If the colored pOpula Of Middle
/ town, assembled 10 sec the result Of
/ the compromise. At half-past nine Mr..
/ Blue appeared Oh the ground with his
original horse ana p other horses Dor
rowed by him, with the netarious pur-
pose of pulling the house away from
Nh Montgomery mule, but at a quar-
( ter before ten the latter arrived with
/ II mules and six pairs of oxen. A long
argument eusued as TO the admissible
/ ~ Of borrowed horses and borrowed
mules, and Mr.. Blue raised the point
/ that oxen were clearly a viouation OF
the spirit as well as the letter OF the
compromise; but Mr.. Prince decided
that each contestant had the right to
use all the draught animals he could
obtain, and that the compromise must
be carried out.
The horses were duly attached to one
end of the house, and the mules and
oxen to the other. When all was ready
the signal was given by Mr. Prince.
and the animals, encouraged by the
hips OF Messrs Blue and Montgom-
v, and the yells of the multitude,
pulled with great energy. For a few
seconds it seemed doubtful TO which
side victory inclined, but suddenly
there was rending of timber, and the
two halves of the house were dragged
in opposite directions, each utterly
ruined for any purpose except that of
frewood
Mr.. Blue, rendered desperate by the
unexpected result of the compromise,
grasped his mighty rawhide whip firm