The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-25
By JOHN M. CLARK

Hell" said he returning the pistol to his pocket, take him on; that's just
 where he ought to be-" have often won
 dered what would have happened if the
 explanation had been unsatisfactory. 1
 had already figured out the nearest way
 to my horse.
 | Some wild? Yes, and a bit woolly.
 The reason of my presence at this pa
 triotic celebration in old Houston was my wish to secure employment as teacher
 and 1 was to meet that day the trustees l of school at Clear Creek falls l met them. One of them had over his left shoulder a long buckskin string that reached round, back and front, to his right side where it was fastened to the
 butt of an old army pistol l don't know just how long that pistol was, but the
 upper end stuck about five inches above | the top of what looked like very deep 1 pocket in a pair of homemade jeans | pants The man was a little, dried-up
 specimen in middle life, with scraggy | iron-g gray whiskers. long hair and a pair | Of the snappiest gray eyes l ever saw. l ID my intense satisfaction, he dtdn
 open his mouth during the examination, | but after it was over with he voted yes l u LLS Q0bSlAOll w III lO oO3
 Judge H., one of the finest looking men
 I ever saw. more than six feet tall, splen- | didly proportioned. with '1eonine" head i and kindly blue eyes, conducted the ex- l animation. He wanted to know if could | spell pain as in the body and word | of similar sound as applied to window glass? I could. Did I know the differ ence in spelling "soul." the sper-itual part O man, and the same soundin word
 as applied to the bottom of the feet? I did. Could ye figger how much su- gar & man would get for four dozen leggs at cents the dozen and sugar sell , ing at 415 cents the pound?" I could SC | "figger." What? Oh, yes, It did, son. Go ask your grandpa. It certainly sold that low at one time. Could I teach 1 "manners?' I could-and did. Then, turning to the board, he asked Twill he l do?" They all voted ''yes," and there | was-hired
 Some woolly as well as wild, eh7 | Another instance?
 | SALESMAN FROM CULLMAN 1 When Double Springs, the present capi- | tai, consisted of two crossed roads, two | springs and two houses, with miles ot 1 wooded hlllsides, travelling salesman drove in from Cullman one day It was afternoon, and he found eight or ten I 1dllVeS HaNlIlG JuIuplHS COlteSL III tlle sand of the roadbed. They halted him
 and invited him to join their sport. He l refused They then dared him to a foot race or ''rastle" Again he refused demanding the rightofway that he might proceed A great, tall. barefooted, young fellow grabbed his horses by the head and told him he must jump, run, rastle or l fout," he could take his choice, but ''Pd | a leetle ruther you'd fout, cause l think l there'd be durn sight more fun in it. l Drummers, you know, are proverbial for | their quick wit and ready tongues, and 1 this one made good use of both in the l next few minutes. He finally succeeded | in getting his horses turned and lefc hur- l riedly. He is still gone.
 l Wild and woolly If this drummer l should. speak of it now he'd say: Stump n | fierce"
 l Yet these folks meant no harm. It was | only their idea of fun and had it been i met in the spirit in which it was of fered, there would have been no unpleas- antness. Their methods were crude but
 the intent was good. With them man dominated because of physical prowess land all strangers were put to the test Hesneed not succeed, 1t was sufficient i. he was willing to try I had my initia tion soon after my arrival. At one O. two things I was fairly proficient, bu was accepted more because of a willing .spirit than anything else.
 At one thing, though, I was an abso flute failure. I couldn't shoot their long lheavy old rifles with any degree of ac- curacy. In fact, I couldn't hit a large tree off hand at 50 yards. Most of the
 men and even boys could plug the cen ter every time.
 They arranged deer hunt for me one Saturday. There was but one shotgun ir the whole neighborhood, a sawed-on af fair and the owner was going to carry that himself For me they borrowed 2 long rifle stocked clear to the end, anC quite heavy, together with the pouch charger and powder horn. We proceeded
 over the hills about four miles, and was placed on a stand" In the edge o
 a small field, in a. little clump of bushes
 Just to my left was great bluff of many
 colored sandstone, topped by tall pines
 through whose branches the wind wal
 singing. The rugged frace of the bluff
 was draped with graceful. swaying vines
 and at it's base a jolly little spring rip
 pied forth, with great feathery ferns, 1T green profusion along its banks, thei
 willowy fronds holding in the gentl
 breeze. I was enchanted with the scene
 and enjoying 1t hugely while listening tt ) the distant bay of the hounds
 , Suddenly, on the wooded hill across tho ] hollow I detected a movement Watch ing 1t closely I soon made out a deer
 coming in long, graceful leaps directly
 toward me. I thought, "Old fellow, IT
 get you" I eased myself around ana
 cooked my gun I knew enough abou
 the rifle of our fathers to know yo,
 must spring the hair trigger, which I did
 and by some means I touched the finger trigger "Bang!" went my rifle in z | n,