The Texas Monument. (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 13, 1852 Page: 1 of 4
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L. AllOTTI, PuDLT8MER.
HONOR TO THE BRAVE.
A. J- Posbt, Editor
No. It.
Vol. III.
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Our Skuggins Correspondence.
EIGHTH LETTER;
with due emphasis and solemnity, and
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on etn
a
massive
Aunt Sally rejoiced
y will be rrtm:-
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LA GRANGE, TEXAS. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1852.
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Stop, boys!—
These orders were
perfectly
boys, no
That was
Some dried branches were
111 11 filllllfllll
min m in in
i iiii i ij
■if
AND PzOPRlETOR.
he wanted it l
keepip down, by the aid of
ai weight, the heavy presshur of steam ’
that was fast accumulmin inside.
agint begun to look sorter uneasy, and •
sed, io a soothin, retractin kind of way, !
that,-as Kemul Hardsing had bought out
the originul settlor but a few year’s back,
payin him a fair price for his land under
the mistaken idea that tire title to it could
never be called in question, he, (the
swoun if it aint Uncle Billy !
groaned the dark object,
A Missouri Farm.—One thousand
acres in one field, fenced in with posts
and rails, a mile and a half square, and
conianing 40 acres of strawberries for the
claps of thunder, and all was calm
Aunt Sally rejoiced; more and
and everybody could see by the
Terms.
SoMOttrrioir—19 DoHarw per annum, in advance,
f 3 M ib ail moniba, «|4 at the end of the year.
ADTtBTiarra—gl per eqeir* ^®r,he,®r*t lehunO all the leadin pints i
■nd 50 cento for each aubeequent tnaernon. 10 ndifvin anM>nh. ,
tinea, or lean, to constitute a square.
Administrators* Notices, ®5 00 each.
insertions will be published until forbid and
t !-
J
TEXAS EXPKCTa ETKBY MAN TO 90 018 BUTT
Executive Department of Texas.'
Fellow-citizens of Texas—The ene-
i v are upon us! A strong force -4«r-
rounds the walls of 8an Antcrrij. and
threaten that garrison with the sword.
Oar roM.ntrj rmper ously tfes se• rice af
every patriotic arm, and longer to • con-
tinue in a state of apathy will be rrim;-
»«Z. Citizens of Texas, descendants of
Washington, awake 1 arouse yourselves!
The question is now to be decided, are
we to continue as freemen, or bow
the rod of mditary despotism. Shall we,
without a struggle, sacrifice cor fortuoes,
our lives, and our liberties, or shall we
imitate the example of our forefathers,
and buri destruction upon the heads of
All friends of liberty asd
L i
our oppressors? The eyes of the world
are upon us! All friends of liberty and
of the righto of men, are anxions specta-
tors of our conflict, or deeply enlisted in
our cause. Shall we disappoint their
hopes and expectations? No; let us at
once fly io our arms, march to tbe battle-
field, meet the foe, and give renewed evi-
dence to the world, that the arms of free-
men, lifted up in defence of their rights
and irresistible.
Now ’• tbe day, and now •» tbs hour,”
From ’he N. 0. Picayune,
stamped, snorted, and swore. In short,. A Texas Bear Hunt,
he beat the parsun’s letter, and wbat | It is now about two years since a party
made the matter worse, thar was the par- of Texians, some half dozen i
sun himself, standin in f
swallow in it all down with open mouth by in Texas
and rueful countenance.
“ My dear sir,” sed lie at last, in a
mild, pursuadin tone, “do restrain your-
self a little, and tell me, in heaven’s
name, what that man has done?”
“ What’s he done? Why, look here,
parsun,” sed Old Vesuvius, stoppin
short, and dubblin up his fist, while his
ics blazed like two volcanic kraters, in
full blast, “ef I had a thousand thunder-
bolts in my grasp this minnit, I’d hurl ’em
all rite after that scoundrel! of an agint—
the darned, unprincipled land-speculatin
Hedgehogs as he calls himself, td come
here bristlin up with legal pints and pur-
tended legislativ orth’riiy, to root me and
had settled on certin valuable seckshuns j my nabors out of our rightful lands and
reserved, by Jaw, to the kumpany, and j homes. Rattlesnakes and thunder I ef I
he was sorry to inform Uncte. Ben that only had the little grain of soul that lies
he was one among the unfortunit number i somewbar in his kontemptible little body,
implicated! ’ Fd jest add a few grains of powder to it,
Wlten^the i
gived a sudden jerk that made every jint:
in his big s[ ""
groan like the timbers of a vessel in a •
storml E__________ _ r -
but Merely cought hold ofj his
■ I
r ■ ' £
I noticed, it ohce, that he wis a
Thar Was an utter selfishness in
tbe very way be fetched his breth, like he
wanted to sack in the hole surroundin
atmosphere, merely for tbe satisfaeshun
of deprivin bis feller-crceters of its enjoy-
ment. He sed his name was Hedgehog,
sod I didn't doubt it, for his har bristled
up on his bed, his ies war small and red;
his fore-teeth stuck out of. his wide mouth
like a boar's tusks, end his nose had a
snub
for n
acres of flowers, 60 acres of peach trees,
and 200 acres of other fruit, among which
are 2500 pear trees, 200 acres of mow-
ing, and 30 of pasturage. One row of
pear trees is about three quarters of mile
long, protecting a row of arbor vite. All
the orchard ground is cultivated in straw-
berries. melons, or something else. On
tbe farm are kept 600 sheep and 160 cat-
tle. It is upon a prairie near St. Louis,
and has only been about six years in culti-
vation. It is owned by Digerson and bro-
thers, who seem to understand that to
his feet raake money by fanning, money must be
invested to begin with.— New England
Cultivator. -------
Attempt to Assassinate Louis Napo-
leon.—fflie N. York Commercial Adver-
tiser publishes the following extract fiom
I a letter irceived by tbe Africa, from a
! mercantile American gentleman resident
in Parisi /
“An attempt was made some three days
ago to assassinate Louis Napoleon on his
way from st. Cloud. An individual fired
a musket shot at him from a trench on
the route and the ball giazed his left
shoulder. Seeing that he bad failed in
bis attempt, the assassin immediately blew
out his own brains. The journals have
been prohibited from speaking of tbe mat-
ter.” ■ ■ . —
The most singular cause of death we
have heard, is given by the Lavaca Com-
mercial, which paper says that John P.
Rozier, of Texana, died in that place re-
cently from sticking a dewberry briar in-
to his finger1 wbicn soon inflamed, and
in a few weeks produced his death.
doty. Let us show ourselves worthy to
be free, and we shall be fret. Our breth-
ren of the United States have, with a
generosity and a devotion to liberty, un-
paralleled in the annals of men, offered
us every assistance. We have arms,
ammunition, clothing and provisions; all
we have to do is to sustain ourselves for
the present. Rest assured that succors
will not permit tbe chains of slavery to
be rivetled on us.
Fellow-citiaens, your
Antonio is surrounded
i tbe eend of it, like it was made
n into everybody's business.
He soon branched off from a few
common-place inquiries 'bout \ Uncle
Ben's family, to observashuns 'bout his
fine land and good crops. From that
pint, be spread himself out in a variety
of remarks on the splendid soil, promisin
crops, and glorious prospects of Texas
fannurs in gineral. Then be begun to
look solam and my stere os, and sed ft Was
a great pitty the old settlers of the coun-
try didn’t take better preeeoshuns to
•ecure good titles to thar lands, as many
on 'em bad been unfortunit in that re-
spect. Then bis conversashup took a
11 is
more than
twenty times their numbers. WiH you
see them perish by tbe bands of merce-
nary soldiery, without an effort for their
relief? They caoeot sustain the siege
more than thirty days; for tbe sake of
humanity, before that time give them suc-
cor. CitiaoM of the east, your brethren
of tbe Brazos and Colorado expect your
assistance, afford it, and check tbe march
of tbe enemy aod suffer not your own
land to become tbe seat of war: without
yonr immediate aicTWe cannot sustain the
war. FeUow-ciiitene, I call upon you.
as your executive officer, to “turn out;”
it is your country that demands your
help. He who longer slumbers on the
volcano must be a madman. He wbo
refuses to aid his country in this her hour
of peril and danger is a traitor. All per-
sons able to bear arms in Texas are
called on to rendezvous at tbe town of
Gonzales, with the least possible delay,
armed and equipped for baule. Our
rights and liberties must be protected: to
the battle-field march, end save the coun-
try.
us,
victory awaits us.
Confidently believing that
gies will be sufficient for tbi
aod that yonr efforts will b<
I subscribe myself your foi
The following old revolutionary remi-
niscence will be found interesting. As
we stated, last week, this document was
found amongst a pile of papers by one
of our earliest settlers, who handed it to
us as a memento of the stirring events of
the “days that tried men's souls,” and
we have thus deemed it worthy of publi-
cation Matagorda Tribune.
To the Citizens of Texas-
Commandancy of tbe Alamo,
February 24, 183S.
Fellow-citizens r I am besieged by a
timusand or more of ths Mexicans, under
Santa Anna. I have sustained a contin-
ual bombardment and cannonade, for
twenty-four hours, and have not lost one
man. The enemy hare dema
surrender at discretion, otherwise tbe
garrison is to be put to tbe sword, if the
fort is taken. 1 have answered the de-
mand with a cannon shot, and our flag
still waves proudly from tbe walls. I
shall never surrender nor retreat: then I
call on you, in the name of liberty, ef
patriotism, and of every thing dear to
the American character, to come to our
aid, with all possible despatch. Tbs
enemy are receiving reinforcements daily,
and will, no doubt, increase to three er
four thousands, in four or five days.
Though this call may be neglected, I am
determined to sustain myself as long as
possible, and die like i soldier who never
forgets what is due to his own honor and
that of his country.
Victory or death!
W. Baukt -T1U.VUS,
Lieutenant-colonel Commandant.
P. S.—The Lord is oo our side.
When the enemy appeared ’tn sight, we
had not three bushels of corn; we have
since found, in deserted bouses, eighty or
ninety bushels, and get into tbe walls
twenty or thirty bead ef beeves. r.
In which Jake relates htno Colonel Ben
Hardsing came in sudden contact with
an unprincipled land speculator, to the,
serious damage of the Colonel's temper,
and to the utter demolition of all his
good resolves upon a reformation of his
language.
Jackson, Miss., Sept. 14.
Mr. Monumint: I will begin this let-
ter whar the last one ended, and give
your redurs anuther glance at Uncle Ve-
ojvioas in.one of his grandest erupshuns.
For that sollid old mountain of flesh and
bone never was known to belch forth
such a quantity of flame and fire as he
did on tbe occashun I am about to relate.
Jt was such a terrible and unexpected
display, that it astonished the whole na-
borhood for miles around.
Half a year had run rounds (datin
from the parsun's letter,) and still Uncle
breathed as gently as a praree wind in
mid-summer, and all his household flour-
ished like so many flowers beneath As
baromy influence. There wamt no more
blusteriu, blasfemous fits in bis every day
talk with his friends and nabors. Now
■and then, his temper did get rufflfcd up,
and tbe dark furrows of rath would rush
across■. his brow, like ridges of black
clouds over a clear sky; but these soon
past away without any flashes of litetnn,
wr <
Mgin.
more,
pleasin smiles ever beamin on iter face,
that a grateful heart was lyin at the bot-
tom of her cheerfulness. 1 heerd her
tell Parsun Sboutwell, one day, that she
bed actually ctught'her old men, several
times readin the big family Bible that lay
up on the matel-piece, over tbe fire. He
pertended he was only lookin at tbe pic-
furs in it; but aunt sed even that was
mourn she had ever seen him do before.
As for the parsun himself, be grew so
much elated at bis victory, that he de-
clared to mtr one day, in a confidenshall
whisper, that he bad a miry strong noshun
of stickin ja pair of horns on his hed,
Ind preeebin a swarin sermon to his
whole congregashun. . I objected to the
boms, but approved of the sermon, pro-
vided be could get up a congregashun
composed of old swarin men exclusively,
leavin out tbe ladies, and young peeple.
He nevertried\the experement, however,
probably becoz I hinted to him that Uncle
Ben would be sure to find out who rote
letter, tbe moment he heerd of tbe par-
sun's deliverin sich a discoarse.
Well, one bright spring mornin, when
the birds were convertin the breezes into
vocal music, add every thing looked un-
commonly charmin, Uncle Ben sot out in
his comfortable porch, smokin with his
pipe the fresh meat be had swollered for
breckfust, in order to season its digestion.
Aunt Sally was in the kitchen, tending
to her household duties, and the children
bad started off for the school-house. I
had just returned from a huntin excur-
sion, and Uncle Ben was talkin to me in
• good-humored way 'bout his prospects.
He had been ramblin over bis fields that
same mornin, takin an exultin survey of
his fine crop of cotton and corn.
Presently^ a starchy-shirted, slick-
booted, cloth-coated man rode up to tbe
any invitashun. He strolled through the
yard, and up to the porch, with a conse-
quenshall, perfectly-at-home ease of man-
ner, and looked like he expected to be
treated accordingly. Uncle Ben received
him quite civilly, aod axed him to set
down.
keener.
hiding place. “You climb that tree!
That’s a good joke!” and a shout of
laughter filled Uncle Billy’s ears, and
flushed his already red face to a deeper
tint with anger. Tbe “consolation” and
exercise had warmed him up, and he
felt bold enough to dare anything in the
shape of a bird or beast. So, straight he
marched to the tree and asked for a lift.
It was given, and after much pushing he
contrived to secure a position among the
branches. “Go higher up!” shouted
Jack. Uncle Billy went higher up! he
was not going to let that impudent fellow
brave him “Higher up!” and §till higher
went Uncle Billy. “Do you see him?”
“No!” “Get out on that big branch and
you will see him easy.” “All right!”
That moment a crash fcas heard, and
down came right among the dogs with a
tremendous noise, a big black looking
shape. “The bear! the bear!” shouted
Jack, and with a good large stick he
rushed at the prostrate creature. The
dogs sprang on it and over it and around
it, and worried and bit and barked and
growled and fought like mad creatures.
The hunters, men and boys, all suddenly
armed w ith sticks, followed Jack’s exam-
ple, and suefr a din of yells, shouts, blows
and barking arose that it would have been
impossible for any one with delicate nerves
to survive the infliction.a single moment.
“ Drive off the dogs !
Back, Ranger!”
obeyed. The dark shape lay perfectly
motionless. “ It’s a cub bear,
doubt. Strike a light, Jim.”
soon done.
lit, and their blaze thrown on the pros-
trate form. “Hello!” exclaimed Jack,
starting back in alarm ; “why, boys, I
“ “ ml “Ugh!”
groaned tbe dark object, now no longer
dark, and disclosing to view an old blue
blanket coat torn up into the smallest
kind of strips, whilst the raccoon cap bad
no hair left on it. “Ugh !” a feeble voice
was beard ; “ 1 told you it was a —■
cat, boys!”
Uncle Billy was restored by a due ad-
ministration of consolation; be concluded
that it was darned poor fun/’ and the
whole party kindly returned with him
l>ome. He 'fras much but*noi
seriously hurt; and to this day whenever
a bear hunt-is spoken of, he contrives to
introduce some other subject, such as the
vanity of worldly pursuits, the prospects
of the corn crop, or the price of fresh
bacon. -------
A Mr. Charles Casey, who has just
puplished a book on the United States,
written upon the experience of a tour of
two years through the Union, shows an
amazing fancy for American character,
and American humor. . Describing the
Ohio, he introduces a story which is not
bad in its way :
“In tbe evening, the river was literally
bridged by a continuous flight of pigeons;
so numerous were they, that they literal-
ly darkened tbe air like a cloud. Myri-
ads on myriads kept pouring on without
cessation, and caking the breadth of the
river, the length of time crossing, and
their probable speed, I estimated the co-
lumn to be ten miles long. Wilson, the
ornithologist, says that he once saw a pig-
eon-flight in Kentucky, 240 miles by one
broad, consuming 223,272,4000 bushels
of mast per day. . This reminds me of an
anecdote current in New Jersey, which
is too good to be omitted.
“A number of gentlemen were sitting
round the bar-room of a hotel, tbe subject
of discourse being the size of a pigeon-
flight that had passed over tbe village that
day, when one of the number, who was a
great admirer of Col. Crocket, started a
new point by saying—
“Well gentlemen, you need not make
so much difficulty about the length of that
pigeon streak, as I once saw myself a lipe
of crows a mile wide, 25 mites tong, and
they were so thick you couldn’t see the
sun.”
How long did you say that flight of
crows was?” asked a tall Vermonter, who
had been silently listening all tbe while.
“Five and twenty miles, sir!’ said the
narrator, as he turned round and indig-
nantly confronted his interrogator, whose
question seemed to imply a doubt.
“Don’t believe it, Captain,” said the
Vermonter, emphatically.
“Well, now. look here,” said tbe crow
man, as be deliberately took the huge
proportions of the skeptic, “you’re a
Stranger here, 1 calculate, and I don’t
want to quarrel, so rather than fight, if
you are satisfied, I’ll take off half a mile
from tbe thinnest part!
/ TAe Power of Calm Delivery.—A
(relebrated divine, who was remarkable iu
the first period of bis ministry, for a bois-
terous mode of preaching, suddenly
changed his whole manner in tbe pulpit,
and adopted a mild and dispassionate
mode of delivery. One of Iris brethren,
observing it, inquired of him what had in-
duced him to make the change. He an-
swered. “When I was young, I thought
it was the thunder that killed the people:
but when I grew wiser I discovered that
it was the lightning, so I determined in
future to thuader tees and lighteu nrero*
agint sed that, Uncle’ Ben j ram it down roy long rifle, and shoot it to
« ti.At :-----needn’t say whar, parsun, as you
plit-bottomcd cher creak and I happen to be present.”
So sayin, Uncle Ben snapped a plug
He never sed a word, though, j outen a great chunk of tobackpr, sot
i nose and ! himself hard down on a cher, and mo-
pulled it hard down over Ijh mouth, like .shuned to the parsun to take anuthpr.
! He chawed and foamed away in silence
addishun-1 for a few moments, the yellur ambeer run-
J nin like hot lava down the corners of his
Tbe I mouth, while all sorts of convulshuns
• were goin on within. The worthy
! preecher tried to pacify him, by tellin him
the Lord once afflicted Jobe by allowin
Satan to rob him of all bis possessions,
and yet Jobe never complained.
“ Bui the devil warn’t a land specula-
tor, parsun.” replied Uncle Ben, snap-,
agint,) wonld take the responsibility of pishty; “ for God-o-mighty didn’t suffer
him to pester Jobe in that shape: and ef
Old Nick did.rob Jobe, he done it at the
Lord's biddin, without botherrz^gbe old
feller with his hateful presence. Tbe
devil didn’t sneak into Job’s bouse and
tell him, with a smilein, lyin face, that a
set of his own rascally countrymen were
min to. take ?way the laud he bad fought
for, and swetted for, and paid for into the
bargin, and thA the legislator of his own
State was backen em in all their dishon-
est tricks. Jobe couldn't stood that, par-
sun, and I can’t stand it, nuther.”
This speech rather stumpt the parsun,
but still he held on, keepin his own tem-
per down at such a mild heat that it at
length operated as a cooler on Uncle
Ben’s. Then he wenKQff into tbe kitchen
to comfort Aunt Sally?* who had gone
there at the first signs of the erupshwn. in
order io have a good cry by herself. But
Uncle Ben’s knmbustible natur had
struck agin a hard flint that day, and so
an exploshun was the inevitable conse-
quence.
This event happened but a few months
before Uncle Ben and I started for Mis-
sissippi, and I think that unlucky agint
should be held responsible for much of
his profanity since. We never heerd
any more of the “Kumpany’s location,”
however, and Mr. Hedgehog took care
not to locate himself any more in Uncle
Ben’s house, nor any whar near his prem-
ises. Yourn tell the next ritin,
Jake Skuggins.
proposin a kompromize:—Ef tbe kemul
would agree to pay over to Aim, for the
use o| his employers, a few himdrud dol-
lar*, as some equivalent for the loss of the
land, he would immediately raise the
kumpany’s focasbun.
“Raise h—II!” cried Uncle Ben,boun-,
cin u/Klikean inflated balloon. Before the
astonished agint had time to sekund this
mosh tin by jumpin up himself, Uncte
Ben stretched out his powerful right arm,
gathered bold of thit back of the agifit’s
cher, swung it round jest as lightly as ef
thar warn’t nothing in it, and emptied it
out ou the floor, purty much as he would
have emptied out a baskit of pointers, or
a bag of meel!>’As the poor little man
dropt put of the cher on his all-fours^
one of Uncle Ben’s heavy soled boots
swung back like a battering-ram and
.Mruck^iim ou bis hind-quarters, sending
him det head-foremust into the yard,
where;he landed sprawlin on his face.
Then Uncle Ben gathered up a big pail
of fresh water, that was settin on a shelf
at one end of the porch,, and dashed its
contents over his prostrate enemy, who
lay onfhe ground half-atunned, and kick-
in like a duck in a puddle. Al! the
water didn’t reech its distination, for at
least a quart of it fell, like a baptismal
shower, upon the face and shoulders of
Parsun Shouttvell, who happened, at that
unlucky minnit to dodge round the cor-
ner of the house from tbe back-yard ;
that bean the way he usually come when
payin his frequent and unecremoneous
visits to Aunt Sally. The parsun had
rushed Uip to the steps of the porch jest
a momint after the agint's body tumbled
over them into the yard, so he got a han-
som sprinklin from the- pail; and thar | St. Louis market, 150 acres of corn, 30
stood foe good man, drippin all over,
and starein up at Uncle Ben with a min-
gled eipression of amazemqnl and re-
monstrance on. his benevolent fere. He
lnoked|ike an interferin angel, who had
y»rd gate, and alighted wiihout waiti» for oortdeeK »l'?hted on the trth after a
■ heavy shower; but Uncle Ben was too
blind-mad to notice his presence.
• .But in running through the back-yard
to the Scene of conflict, the parsun bad
unconsciously enticed a whole regiment
of hounds to follow at his heels, and no
sooner had the unlucky agint recovered
himself sufficiently to rise on
when two or three on ’em grabbed hold
of his fegs, and as many more took pos-
session of the lower half of his broad-
cloth coht, changein it at once from a gen-
teel' surtoot to a hunt in-jackit, with
fringes at the bottum. The dogs pensued
him to the gate, insenin new teeth whar
a dentist would never have thought r.f
doin it, and, jest as he got the bridle-rains
thrown over hrs horse’s bed, and was
rfeein into his saddle, old Yelper leaped
up and carried away the sect of his
brichez. The horse was by this time too
much frightened himself to need any
sporrin,;and It didn’t take him long to
carry his rider out of sight ; and Jest then
his wearin apparel presented about the
bear specimen of damaged goods I ever
laid ies on. Next day I found fragments
of if, indo din bis hat, hankerchief, sheep-
skin, saddle-cover, saddle-bags, et cetura,
strewed for three miles along the rode.
Btrt I must not lose sight of Uncle
Ben as well as the agint- White the
- litlWtea* flyin from his presence, he
two, tad earn rim baek agin, paced up aod down the porch, like an
. - _L ----—--——————
uninnrreiy
pany that had sprun
little Republick.
and pi _
greatly strengthened and enlarged by rc-
legislaturs.
I ‘ *
done great things for the Unionists, but
through a narrow, crooked by-way of
words, to Uncle Ben’s premises.
But it would be too tedeous to men-
in Mr. Hedge-
hog’s edify in speech. After spimrin,
twistln, and streachin out these pints
untif he got Uncle Ben’s pashunce and
onderstandin fairly wound up ’ in a
regehr net-work of mistificashun, he
finally cum out and stated that he was
was agent fora certin colonizashun kum-
pany that had sprung into exisfance
durirt the glorius, but tryin days of our
" , The grants, power*,
and privileges of sed kumpany had been
peetet! enactments of several suckcessiv
The kumpany had gone to
onkommun trubble and expense, and had
■ : i • t a i • a
the kolonists hadn’t properly'respected
the kumpany’s rights; for som
I
reserved, by Jaw, to the kumpany, and j homes.
rights and liberties must be
An approving worid sm
the God of battles is on eur eide, end
I
enraged tiger in Iris den. He ripped, !
swore. In short,
letter, and wbat j
in number,
himself, standin in front of him,! and half composed of boys, (who by the
i are equal to most men in
other regions,) started forth with the re-
quisite number of offensive weapons and
big, ugly dogs, to “scare up” a bear in
the bottom land of tbe Colorado river.
One of the hunters was old “Uncle
Billy.” When we say “one of the hun-
ters,” we mean one of the professed
ones. Uncle Billy was given to tbe sin
of braggin abotK his prowess in the
sports of the prairie and the cane-brake;
and some of the hunting stories he told,
with due emphasis and solemnity, and a
succession of hoi whisky punches, to the
groups of idle listeners usually gathered
of cold winter nights around that stove,
in that back room of that grocery, inkhat
village of L——> would, as the Texians
say, “skcar the hide off a ten year old
calf.”
There is unfortunately, however, in
every flock one black sheep; and in
Uncle Billy’s cortege of admirers there
was one individual familiarly named Jack
Red-shirt, a splendid follow, too, who
presumed to doubt and dispute not only
the truth of the old gentleman’s chroni-
cles, but even to express the.serious con-
viction that be, Uncle Billy, knew no
more about hunting rhan a sucking dove:
nay, that be had never yet, save by acci-
dent, or in his own stories, bagged
single bead of game.
Uncle Billy was a fat man, a very fat
man; and it was generally extremely
difficult for tbe acutest observer to catch
upon his round, plump, and
countenance any other expression than
that of solid, solemn, self-satisfaction.
But when Jack Red-shirt ventured
openly to express the rebellious above
enumerated, Unde Billy’s fat features
assumed an aspect of dignified “dispise”
that would lure abashed the old fellow
himself, had he happened just then to
meet his own countenance face to face.
But Jack Red-shirt was not to be
abashed or backed out by any mortal
man, fat or lean, and eo he continued to
bother Uncle Billy, anq dispute his vera-
city and doubwhis hunter skill, until the
latter’s ire was aroused, and he swore
loud and strong that be could beat any
man in the country in a “ bar hunt,” a
“deer hunt,” dr “any kind of hunt.”
Jack Rad-shirt took the wager instantly,
and a gallon of “red eye” was bet on
either side. And this was why Uncte
Billy made*one of the party aforesaid,
going ont to hunt a bear on one of the
darkest coldest nights, and in one of the
most tangled river bottoms that ever per-
plexed a hunter. And Uncle Billy, to
keep a little heat in his huge, round, roll-
ing frame, enveloped it before starting in
a thick, blue blanket coat, pulled on a
pair of high, old mud boots, and a shaggy
raccoon cap, took a whiskey flask in one
hand and a venerable musket io the other,
and off they started. I Jack Red-Shirt
made a v«w that a bear should die that
night, and Uncle Billy swore that none
but be would be in at tbe death.
Soon the porty were stumbling, creep-
ing, pushing and winding about in the low
bottom, while the ground was generally
encumbered with a thick undergrowth,
and the great trees rose like pillars high
in the air, and formed a wild canopy of
tangled branches and dead leaves.
Presently the dogs started game. First
one gave the signal by a long, loud bark.
“Ho, Ranger! at him, boy!” The other
dogs joined in, and the next moment,
with a wild shout and halloo, and a fierce
outcry from the pack, tbe whole party,
men, boys, and dogs, rushed in one di-
rection through the bottom. Tbe startled
game, whatever it was, led them a long
chase; and the way Uncle Billy expres-
sed his opinion about stumps over which
he stumbled, vines that caught him across
tbe face, and briars that scratched his
hands, would have horrified a follower of
the conventicles. The 1 old fellow kept
up manfully with the rest, the perspiration
pouring down his flushed face, and his
short big body shaking like jelly as he
waddled along in a kind ef dog trot. He
would have stopped to rest now and then,
but the rascally Jack Red Shirt was al-
ways close by bim, shotting out every
few minutes, “Now you’ll give ink Uncle
Billy!” Uncle Billy would jooner have ;
died.
After a tiresome tramp in this way, the
dogs suddenly halted in a circle around
on old sycamore tree, and set up such a
fierce barking, that it was absolutely deaf-
ening. The game had treed ! Tbe
hunters soon arrived ar the spot and con-
sulted wbat to do.
Uncle Billy sat down, refused to un-
button his thick overcoat for fear of catch-
ing cold, took consolation from the flask,
and gave it as his opinion that the myste-
rious game was nothing more than a wild
cat. Jack Red-Shirt, who had held a
brief consultation with the other hunters,
insisted that it was a bear. The others
supported Jack. After a violent war of
words, Uncle Billy swore he would climb
the tree ind drive tbe wiki cat out of belt
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Posey, Albert P. The Texas Monument. (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 13, 1852, newspaper, October 13, 1852; La Grange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1291328/m1/1/?q=+date%3A1845-1860: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Fayette Public Library, Museum and Archives.