The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-12

Hardman was the sort of man to lose
| his temper and do awful things if he
found a strange hog roofing up his
hollyhocks. Abner Crossman, who
had known both parties for Is years,
swore that he had known Deacon
Goodhue to fall off a haystack, get
mired in a swamp and fight humble
bees for half an hour without losing
the smile on his face, and he could
not believe that he had begun this
fuss. Opposed to him was Trueheart
Johnson, who said he had seen Dea-
con Hardman kicked head-over-heels
by a cow, run over by hog and
knocked down by a ram, and that he
preserved a humble spirit through
out, and even asked the cow to forgive
him if he had hurt her feelings
Mrs. Hardman's testimony was that
she was washing the dishes after
breakfast when she heard her hus-
band give a grunt and rush from the
house. She followed him to the door
and heard and saw all that subse-
quently passed, though in such a ner-
vous state that she could not be sure
of anything. She felt almost sure that
"devif' and old crank" but she
wouldn't be positive of it. She was
almost as sure that her husband
started to sing a hymn and made
some scriptural quotation, but she
might have been mistaken. She was
not sure WHO STdDDeQ lIle lISl,
but she could swear on the living
Bible that they had trodden all the
cucumbers into the earth and broken
down most of her tiger-lilies. She
ended by saying that she had had
rheumatism for rs years and that
whenever she returned a cup of bor
rowed sugar she always heaped the
measure up.
Among the witnesses was Uncle
Joab Harmon, who lived a mile and
q Ill to-
dead COW when the fight took place.
He had been called for the defense,
but he testified that all at once the
carcass of the COW gave a sort of
CULVER, and he realized that some
thing or other had happened some
where or other in the United States.
No, he did not hear the words nor see
a blow struck, but it had always
kinder seemed" to him that both
deacons were desperate men when
aroused. As for him, he had never
been in a fight in his life, and he
didn't want to be, but if a man called
him liar he would not be responsible
for results. The COW he was skinning
had choked to death on a turnip and
her hide would bring a dollar and
half.
The last, but not the least impor-
tsnt witness. was old Mrs. Jewett. She
was 81 years old, and had been bed
ridden for Is years. She lived half
a mile from the scene or cOnIllclI DuI
she felt it her Christian duty to come
into court and tell what she knew.
What old Mrs. Jewett knew was
that she had used all of 200 bottles of
medicine and had five different doctors
and yet she was not a cured woman.
Sometimes she thought she would be
if she kept on long enough, and some
times she thought she wouldn't She
had at any rate lived to see great
many of her neighbors buried and
hoped to live to see many more car
ried to their last resting place.
As to what she knew about the fight
the clock in her room had suddenly
struck "a times and then stopped, and
she had said to her daughter:
Melissa, you mark my words, but
something terrible has happened with
in so miles of usi'
1t took two days to try the case, and
meanwhile all business was suspend ed,
including the sawmill- There was no
jury, and when almost everybody in
town had sworn on one side or the