Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-08-04
MistelIaneuus 8eading.
IN A TIGHT PLACE.
condust In an Emergency, Of a Man
Who Thouqht Himself a Coward.


Arkansas. The travellers agreed thai
they hated to have anybody say any
thing like that about them.
well 1 don't know how true this
remark may be as applied to the Davis
person." observed a Texan in the
group, but it is my opinion that such
a remark could be truthfully applied
to very few men. Most men are cour-
ageous in tight pinches, even the men
who imagine deep down in their con-
seriousness that they are instinctively
and inherently cowardly.
Take, for example, the case OF
Judge Freeman of Texas. Freeman
imagined himself to be a coward. He
had never - fortunately, he said -
been put to a test, but he was dead
certain that he would crawfsh in a
tight place and show himself to the
world as a coward.
This was before he ever ran for
Office in Texas. When he first ran
for office in a Texas town a peculiar
ly vitrolic editor of a paper published
in the Texas town began to attack
Freeman in a manner that could only
mean blood.
Judge Freeman's friends got
around him and told him that he'd
have to kill or at any rate wing the
editor or get out of Texas.
Freeman came to me in his trou-
BILE.
81 feel like I'm going to show the
white feather in this business, he
said to me. You know what I've Of
ten told you. I've got a yellow
streak. Just now the yellow streak
is working this way: I'm more
afraid of killing that fellow than I am
of getting killed myself. l hate the
business and / hate to think. that If it
comes to a showdown I'll crawl
1.-TWO days after that the editor
published another vile broadside and
then we all knew it would happen.
THE editor left his Office for home
that afternoon. He hadn't taken a
dozen steps before he caught sight Of
Judge Freeman emerging from the
post office, about sixty yards down the
street Somebody standing in a door
way called out to Judge Freeman at
the same instant and the judge saw
the editor advancing upon him.
Both men drew and fired at the
same instant But they were poor
shots, both of them. and their bullets
went wide. They continued to fire as
they advanced upon each other.
There was nary sign of weak
ness in Freeman. On the contrary.
he looked perfectly cool. He was
naturally a handsome man and his
face looked transfigured and fine in
that intense moment.
There were only four cartridges in
the EDITORS gun and he fired all of
them without making a hit. When he
had fired all four shots he threw his
gun on the ground to indicate to his
opponent that he was through with
firing. and that editor looked to me
like a man ready to run.
Judge Freeman still had two car
tridges left in his gun. But when he
saw his enemy throw his pistol away,
the big heart of the man appeared.
He lowered his gun and stood in the
middle of the sidewalk, calmly wait
ing.
1.-The editor advanced upon him,
seemingly for the purpose of thank
ing the judge for his generosity in not
continuing the firing, and of making
up The judge seeing this, followed
his enemy's example and threw away
his gun, in which the two cartridges
remained So there he stood, entire
ly unarmed
"As soon as Freeman cast away his
gun, the editor, who had advanced
close to him, suddenly whipped out
bowie from beneath the collar Of his
coat and began to slash at Judge
Freeman. It was a ours trick, and
that editor never was allowed to hold
up his head in Texas again.
Now here, if not before, was the
spot for Judge Freeman to show his
yellow streak, if he had one. The edi-
tor was chopping away at him, and
Freeman didn't have so much as
pocket knife on him. But the man
who foolishly imagined himself to be
a coward was not only equal to the
occasion-he rose nobly above it.
HE reached out and grabbed the
editor around the waist and, being a
powerful man, he threw the editor to
the ground. Then he planted foot
upon the forearm of the hand that
held the knife and wrenched the big
blade from the PROSTATE editor S
hand. Grasping the bowie, the judge
bent over his bitter enemy and put the
blade to the mans throat
"'Are you through he asked the
man who was down.
II am if you are replied the edi-
tor.
Judge Freeman stood up and
threw his bowie over the top of a
store.
"'All right get up he said to the
man whose life he could have taken
as easily as Sitting the throat of a
possum.
The editor got up and slouched
away.
you're the great old coward,
suppose 1 said to Judge Freeman an
hour or so after the encounter.
His reply was curious.
"I reckon 1 am-just as much a
coward now as ever 1 was he told
me.
How do you make that out?
asked him.
why, this way he replied. !
wasn't myself when | had the run in
with that fellow. / was somebody
else. Otherwise | never could have
gone through with those proceedings
l hardly remember anything that
happened, because, you see, the spirit
of the courageous chap went out OF