McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1919-02-14
BUCK SNORT.
Tells Of a Dear Relation Of His


and I've been a-learnin some the past
week. A long lost and very dear rel
ative (dear because he liked to a-bin
expensive to mel tried to rob me.
You see, most of the Snort family
but me had died out, er moved off
summers else. My father had one
brother, Ran Snort, that left here
before the war. He had two boys,
Crawl and Rip, the torn-downest set
that ever was in these disgins. Rip
couldn't a bin moren fifteen when he
stole a mans briddle and had to git
out to keep from gittin strung up,
because there was a hoss at the 9th
er end of the briddle, and hoss-steal-
in meant hangin them days. | never
head werd from Rip Snort any more
till the other day, when a fat, putsy-
Quilted feller about sixty years old
come to my house and said he was
my dear cousin, Rip Snort. that left
here long ago, and was my only surviv-
in dear cousin. | didn't see how be
could look as young as all that, and
him being gone from here since be-
fore the war, but he told me so much
about ole times and people, specially
the nabors we knode before the war.
and about old Purdy, that | didn't see
how he could help bein the one he
claimed to be.
Rip told me he was like that feller
they tell of in the theavter PLAYS, ole
| Rip Won Wrinkler, or Van Wrinkle, er
sumpin like that, that went to sleep
and slept twenty years and then come
back and nobody knode him. and he
didn't know anybody. | kinder sus-
pected he was putin on, but when he
got to tellin me stories about ole Sol
Perkins, that was 80 rich and who
worked on Sundays at whittlin gate
latches and stitch things, about the
smart sayins Of Crawl Shepherd, and
the doings of Jerry Capooth, Crunch
PUNK, Bill Joplin and the like, and
things | positively knode did happen
here before the war, believed him
Sallie was about half down sick, but
she cooked fer him and we treated
him the best we knode how, fer q
couple of weeks. Rip told me a
sight about what he was a-doin out
West. in Montanny State; sed he had
a whopping big cattle ranch out there,
with more steers on it than in all Of
McNairy county, or from Grand juno
tion to Memphis. That led i'm up tc
tellin about how he had to send di.
rections out there by tellygraf to tel
bis hired hands what to do. He said
he had five hundred hired hands al
work, and it took a lot Of tellegrafir
to keep EN- posted. He looked me
right square in the face and said he
needed fifty dollars to send them di
rections to his msn that very day. HI
was SO business-like / took him al
his word, but found that Sallie hat
took the money to the hank at Sci
mer and gave it to Squire Adams tt
keep. So ! got my check-book anC
wrote him check for fifty. Rig sec
be hardly ever bothered with checks
and seemed put out because | did
MT have the cash fer him. HI
grumbled awhile and then lit out fel
Selmer so quick that got suspicious
This feller had tole a heap abouf
ole times, but | noticed that he did
Mt seem to know his fathers frs
!.
name. nor my fathers either, and h'
had plum fergot his mothers maidel
name. The more | thought about ii
the worse | felt The real Rip Snor
would a-been rs at least if he wa
alive, and this Teller didn't have n
sort of resemblance to the Snort fam
bly,. | remembered that Rip had los
one finger in bear trap when k
was a boy This feller had all hi
fingers. Dad-burn his picter, b
laid up here in bed till ten o'cloe
and Sallie had to bring his coffee t
him in his bed and then git his break
fust extra. Fought to a-kicked hi
setter offn the place the very fist day
But how about that check? 1t wa
too late to foller him now, so | ri
down to the store and tried to ge
Squire Adams on the Telephone.
haint no use ordinarily fer these cor
traptions, but this was hurry cause
and | tried to get Selmer on th
phone. It was party wire, and sti
of me a-talkin to the Squire, coul
4 L. IL = .aLa.n nlnnnr fha line a-tel