The Palatka news and advertiser., 1915-04-23

| As a boy. born in the town of Col
vile, of parents in moderate circum.
stances. John Williams WIS called dull
When he had reached his majority he
was accounted light in the head" He
was Il butt of ridicue for years and
years, and no one could ever remember
that he resented it When he was told.
as was often the case, that he was only
half wftted he laughed in a good na-
tured way If people laughed at him
he laughed back, and if the joke was
on him ii seemed to please him as
much as if some one else had been nit.
There was only one thing about the
town fool which was not as plain as
day. From the time he was eighteen
years old he kept a diary. 1t was
often wondered what he wrote down.
but no one ever had chance to see
The diary didn't take in daily events.
course Of twelve years an abundance
of things were jotted down At the
age of thirty John Williams was fatal
ly injured by the kick of horse.
only three or four days to live the pub
lie had no sympathy to waste. Per-
,haps the town foot didn't expect any.
From time to time the doctors told him
bn a 1pnnnn1 md In hAsra m
set his house in order that is. he had
his diaries brought to his bed and sent
for justice of the peace and II worthy
witness. He had II few deathbpd CON
fessions to make. No went back
twelve years. sawmill in the town
had been destroyed by fire. The day
after the fire man named Thompson
had put redhut cent on the sidewalk
for the town fool to pick up. The
diary recorded both events The con
feSsion WIS to the effect that John
Williams had seen Thompson set fire
to the mill 1t was written out and
sworn to and Witnessed and then came
confession No. In that same year
some one had stolen three smoked
hams from the cellar of vilIager.
Following close upon the loss of the
hams, as duly recorded in the diary,
the village blacksmith had ducked the
town fool in his water tub for joke.
The confession was to the effect that
Williams and the blacksmith stole the
hams and that the latter was the only
one to profit by the theft. The two
confessions implicated men who had
always been considered upright. and
the justice felt ii his duty to say:
John, this is serious business. You
know you have only three days to
live"
Eyes. know" replied John. but |
we have hardly begun yet. I've got
to get whole carload of things of !
my mind before | GO
No. 3 dated back eleven years. A |
horse had been stolen from a nearby |
and about the same date a |
village painter named Swayne had |
painted the town fools boots bright |
red by way of joke. The confession
solemnly confessed that the painter |
md Williams had stolen the horse and
.urned him over to stranger to be
'un out of town and sold. Many, little
letailS were put down. and. as it was
sworn to, the justice heaved
sigh over the deceit and wickedness
If man who had always been looked
Up to as full of integrity.
Confession No. went back ten
'ears. A church edifice belonging to
he Methodists had been set on fire
md partly destroyed. 1t had been
,retty well settled that 1t was the
work of tramps who had broken In.
,ut no one had been arrested. VIII
iamS now confessed that the Widow
Davidson had hired him for So to set
he fire
Confession No. 3 was a corker. Some
even years previous there had been
ocal election in which party feelings
an high. Just before the election came
n one of the candidates for mayor had
'een badly shocked by bolt Of light
ing which struck the house. Nobody
ad ever questioned the fact that II
vas a straight case of thunder and
Ightning. but now the dying man
Fanted to wash his conscience. He
AIMED four prominent men In the vii
lge who were In a conspiracy. the
murder Of the candidate. They hadn't
t him In on the ground floor or any