The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1911-12-28

4 =
Christmas, while we was settin out ON
the sunny side -of the depot awaitfn'
fer the mail Fl lowed ] had seemed to
fQuit caring very much about it like I
used Wound regarded If somewhat as
p matter otscourse, and sooner, over
less damage done. Lem, he was of the
same mind. and ventured that he didn't
even calculate to have any, turkey for
christmas this YEAR. unless things
Hooked up considerable had to- take
the money for other things 49,.
i : Ezra Skies, he always idealizes on
things, he riz right up in the meetin'
soto speak, and said that he was sorry,
Iof the way we we're doing away with
the old Christmas spirit-said we
seemed to be maxim It thing of the
Hp&st- He made me feeLzights ashamed.
tho I didn't know as how had any
call to.
Il Lem was never much to be set upon,
fRnd he answered right back, about the
folly OF some things he could men
tion, and Bill Wright Joined in,4tnl.
they had right smart controversy,
but directly the mail come in, and we
Eall dispersed.
Afterwards, got to sthinkin' about
it, and got all mad and worried at the
anne time. didn't want to feel guilty,
of murderfn no old Christmas spirit.
! didn't rightly understand anyhow
lust what Ezra had been dtriYin' at
| Christmas spirit,-spirit; went and
takes down the dictionary bought not
long ago from the newspaper people,
and looks up that word spirit
T. The breath OF life, an apparition; a
ghost, specter or supernatural being
of any kind; emotional states; mood,
humor: the vital or essential part of
anything" ',..
F. i begun to get plum ratified. knew
good and well that / for one hadn't
Killed any of these things. Then my
leye fell on some further definition
t"fReal meaning, liquor containing all
cohol."
| "A great and binding light began to
dawn on me. Then that was what Ezra
had been driving at. Always was a
great fellow to hand out philosophy
tied with ribbons, and / think had
that he was leaning leetle to prohibi-
ton. I began to understand it all, and
thought it would be fine to turn the
| tables on Ezra tho he is hard to head.
Saw Lem down to the grocery store
the next morning, and told him what
I had fingered out Ezra meant by that
talk of his. 5 s.. ~ .sszszz-s.z
Lem was j kinder. stumped, hadn't
thought about it in that light and
| when I pulled out the piece of paper
wrote that out of the dictionary on
he took off his hat to scratch his head
81 bet you one thing" says he, 81
bet that Teller that wrote that diction-=
airy wasn't any little old prohibition
list, why listen! He took the paper
right out Of my hand and read; where
had wrote it down hurried like and
kind of at random, and it sounded diff
ferent in a way, but real conviction,
somethin like this
Liquor containing alcohol the
| brath of hfe-ghost specter, superna-
| tural being of any kind" He said not
the liquor itself, but kinder the result
of it, was meant by that, and asked
me if 1 didn't remember the time old
Jim Jones had, the jimnies. Emo
tional states" Yes sir, he had them
too" says Lem, for his wife come
and asked me to go and help him in
bed"
THE vital or essential part of any
thing"
"There now" says Lem, there's
| where he is getting at it
"And I'm mighty sorry" says Lem
to me that Ezra has turned so free
agin good cheer. But say 1 got an
idea. 1 low he has got us beat about
this Christmas spirit business but
Never say die till you hafto," says.
| he, and / got it in my head to teach
Mr.. Ezra somethin. about other kinds
of Spirits. We can show him some
] Christmas spirits that are apparitions
and spectres ghosts and specters and
/ supernatural beings all rolled into
one big mass, and that's not all-and
| with no liquor containing alcohol"
concerned"
| After Lem had spoke out his mind,
he turned and left no more could 1
get out of him on the subject till the
night before Christmas, he come to
me all excited like. you just come
aroun," says he,' meet us at the
school house along about nine tonight
and we will see about this Christmas
spirit BUSINESS "a
:, wondered what he was up to, and
II went. Got there kinder late. and
Ezra seemed to be maxim kind of a
| speech. Says he. was grati1ed at the
| revival of the old time spirit of Christ
mas, and ioyed in the true celebration,
II didn't see anything of any spirit
/ still. s.'cF.s.s.@s z5f~E s'z.s
] They had planned a. big celebration,
oe some sort and didn't ask any ques-
lions, simply followed the crowd,
They seemed to be goin to get some
Christmas trees back on the hill, plan
min to have all sorts O. fixins' the day
after This didn't seem like LENS
Estyle to me, and I looked at him ,du=
bfous like, but his face was inscruta-
lble, as the preacher says.
/ We crossed the creek and skirted
| the bufyin ground hill, clirnbin' the
] next one we came to, and l lowed that
I was where we were to get our trees.
r. FcWell if we didn't forget that ak, j
T aint here!" Lem exclaimed" and we