The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-24
KNIFE GOOD AS MAXIM GUN
 TO START KENTUCKY FEUD

mountains of Fudge County in the open aiah. and eyed each otnah fust at dis erect distances.
 "The Deacon, he had put a table undah big beech tree and set jug of moon- shine whisky on 1t for theian refreshment. Puytty soon Pikeses and the Billupses, soht of wahmed up by the look of the jug gathahd aroun' the table and shook hans with each oither.
 ''Then they all drank hahty of the jug of moonshine whisky whut the Deacon had been kind enough to provide
 They say that all moonshine whisky is putty bad, but it appears that this was the wust evah. Some was unkind enough to remark that the Deacon had eithah paid a vey low price fo' it or had ob tained it suh' cautiously
 Anyway they drank it all up, and then he placed jug of mountain apple jack in the spot wheah it had been.
 ''The mixtuah was if possible, wuas than the punch they suhv at some of the New York pahties It made the men ugly.
 'Aftah emtyin' of the jug of applejaclx, one of the Pike men. Sam Pike wanted some mo The Deacon ne felt offended 'Twan't polite. he said. Besides he didn't have no money to buy no mo- so he up and asked Sam Pike whut about that 1 theah dollah and a half he owed him, whut he had owed him fo' a yeah or two.
 "Jes what Sam Pike answahed ain't on recohd, but the next thing the two men wah 1ghtn. You undahstan the Deacon he had been drinkin' hahty as any on ! 'em of his own whisky. He fo'got that he had been appointed special messen- ger of a special Providence to maik peace ba fttp his advuhsay with all his ole time enuhgy and his advuhsa'y he sprung at him. | "Of course the Deacon he hadn't come ! provided fo' any such muhgency He didn't have nuthin to defen' hisse'f with
 but ole rusty iackl1nife. Howsomevah, he drew that and sailed in, jabbin at Sam Pike fo' all he wus wuth. He jabbed till | Sam Pike was as full of holes as a sieve Then when anothan membah of the Pike l family lept into the fray he jabbed him few
 This second Pike man he vaulted back and drew his jackknife. Then they ept at each othah with muhdah in theah hahts, the mountaineers crowdin' aroun' | eagah to look on.
 ''The Deacon an the Pike man clinched.
 It was easy to see that it was to be a
 wah to the deth The Deacons knife l on hghtin.' He dropped the knife and closed up and cut his han half in two. | but that didn't detuh him frum keepln-
 sprung at Sam Pike. The two men
 swayed rum side to side and the othah | members of the two facshuns none on 1 em havin' come provided to this peace
 gathunin' with their usual array of shot 1 guns, drew tackknives all roun and went at it.
 When it was ovah and the dead and
 the dyin' had been counted it was foun'
 that they numbahed to the tune of about l fifty all told, but as fo the Deacon, the
 suhgeon whut was summoned found that i he had twenty-sevun jackknife woun's in 1 his body, mo or less. One of these
 woun's split his lef lung in two sevuI | othahs wah quite as deadly and any one
 on 'em would have killed anybody but a Kentuckian instantly, but the Deacon he
 lived fo' three days.
 Lived long enough, as a mattah Of | fac to gathah all his fren's and extrac solemn promusses from them that they would avenge his death by keepin' up the ! wah till eve'y blessed son. frien or rela-
 tive of the Pikeses had bit the dus' with l his boots on.
 Yes Theah ah a few Billpses heah
 and theah in Fudge County, but I say,
 on account of his noiseless jackknife
 openin of the feud by the Deacon if you looked till doomsday you couldn't find a Pike"