Connecticut western news., 1910-12-22
OLD 'tDINE" BARNES
A Famous old Story Teller Who
 Flourished on Canaan Mountain

N TdHnouS olo StoTY elIer WnC l Flourished on Canaan Mountain
 "Dine" Barnes was an eccentric charac. ter who lived on Canaan Mountain, years ago, and is we'll remembered by some of the older residents of the town as spinner of extravagant yarns and possessed of vivid and ar-reaching imagination. Deacon Stevens recalls him to mind clearly. and Joe Adam remembers of having his father, the late Dr. George Adm, halt old "Dine" many times, as he was trudging past the Adam homestead, to relate for young Joe s benefit, some thrilling adventure, in which the narrator himself was invari- ably the hero. ,. ...
 He had, according to his own stories, which his listeners were finally con- vinced that he had come to believe, himself, through frequent repetition. taken part in some of the notable events of the nations history, and he even maintained that he had been soldier under Washington, in the Revolutionary War, and on intimate terms with the Father of his Country.
 He insisted that his real name was Burns, and that he was a cousin, or something, to the Scotch poet.
 Old "Dine' used to relate with all earnestness, that when he was with Washington, at the old Sims tavern in East Canaan. the weather being bitterly cold, he was doing sentry duty in front of the tavern when Washington came out.
 ''The General saw that was shiver- ing with cold,'' said Dine. land he at once walked up to me, took off h& heavy military overcoat and wrapped it around me-"
 It is related of him that he had a weakness for forgetting his bills at the stores, and letting his debts run until they outlawed. and one story goes that the late John A. Beckley. who was clerkIng in store near South Canaan, volunteered to collect grocery bill from Dine, on which his employer had given up all hope of ever recovering. Young Beckley knew old Dine's one weak point, and went at him diplo- matically. He found the old man at home, and presented the bill. which had been repeatedly but vainly presented before. .-.. ,
 "Mr. Burns" began the diplomatic clerk, deferring to the poetic relation ship, "When you contracted this bill you promised to pay it. Now I ask you. on your as Revolutionary soldier. will you keep your word p
 The old man strengthened up in military fashion, and replied: When you appeal to me on my honor as a Revolutionary soldier, cannot refuse P and he paid the bill in full then and there
 MT. Adam recalls that on one occasion his father accosted old Dine and gave him a leading question, well aware that with even slight cue the old prevari- cator would go ahead and weave yarn right off the reel "Let's see, MT Burns, didn't you have a son in the Alamo massacre down in Texas ?" asked MT. Adam.
 ''I did, was the ready reply My son was in command of a detachment of the rangers in the Alamo. They fought until there was not ray of hope left, and when the last big assault was made by the accursed Mexicans, my son clambered up the wall with his sword between his teeth, called on his brave men to follow him, and they all jumped from the wall into the Rio Grande river and swan to safety on the other side." ..
 Dr. Adam turned to young Joe, who had listened to the story, and said inn pressively: Considering the fact that the Rio Grande is between one and two hundred miles from the Alamo, that was good big jump !" ,.N
 Old Dine has been dead about thirty years. but his fame and some of his stories still survive among the old fellows who knew him.
 A.