i ; 



ni'ss of guilt for ponie ot'fenot' and 

 consequent fear of arrest and puriinh- 

 Mipiit for it. The most corunion of 

 .\>o>i(' ilirce sjiccilications is, no doubt, 

 «•;•.. ad. ce. The young man, espe- 

 cially, who stuffs a pistol into his 

 I'ockei betrays a sinister purpose not 

 to oI>s(.'rve the proprieties of a gentle- 

 man, and not to confine himself to 

 good company, and his cowardice 

 prompts him to arm himself with a 

 liftol. As a rule it is the coward 

 .vhi) first uses his pistol and is almost 

 uniformly first fo shoot. Conscious! 

 of havitiij violated the proprieties of 

 a genlloman, or o^ having wronged a 

 fellow being, with the first intima- 

 tion that he will be required to ac- 

 count for it, and prom])ted by a cra- 

 ven spirit he whips out his pistol and 

 commences shooting. It would per- 

 haps bo a great mercy to a certain 

 cla«s of young men, were they sent 

 to the pei:ilentiary for the act of 

 carrying a pistol before their coward- 

 ly souls are stained ■with innocent 

 blood. 



There is anotlier class — a sort of 

 nondescript — vviio cany pistols. 

 They can give no valid reason why 

 they carry them other than a mere 

 desire to do so. This class is most- 

 ly of small menial caliber. They 

 possess a strange sort of vanity — are 

 '^ -iiled with the idea that they are 

 '•iijects of both fear and admira- 

 "un an^orig timid people, i can 

 ■ K->'{ illustrate this senseless vanity 

 ly relating an incident in the life of 

 'U E;\al Tennessean, who in the ol- 



deo times used to carry Itoni loa<l» 

 of Hour, bacon and iron down todtmi- 

 ter's Landing in Alabama. lie 

 would anchor his boat and spend a 

 month or two in selling <»ut his car- 

 go to the newly settled people. It 

 happened, that or)e night he went 

 out to a country frolic. Being a li\e- 

 ly old buck he took a full band with 

 them. There wan ono girl i'l the 

 crowd who was a little belter dressed 

 than the others, having a big tb>unce 

 or ruffle around the skirt of her dress. 

 She had not taken .'my part in the 

 dance. So my fritmd li. concluded 

 to bring her out. She had a large 

 roasted potato in her hand at the 

 lime, and stepping in front of her 

 with a very low and courle«ufi bow, 

 he said ; "Miss, won't you be so very 

 kind as to lake a reel with me?" She 

 whirled about and said : "Here mamy, 

 bold my 'later till I dance with this 

 fellow." Dashing into the center of 

 the room with arms swinging right 

 and left and tossing her head into the 

 air with a gyration of the neck, she 

 shouted ; "Clear the way here you 

 common sort and let border-tail come 

 out!" And my friend B. said he 

 found the 'most ample test for his 

 powers for endurance. Now, here 

 is a portraiture of the young man of 

 this class with a pistol in his pocket, 

 and when I meet one «>f them I al- 

 ways think of my old friend B. and 

 his Alabama girl : and, as for that 

 matte'r I find a great many places 

 for the application. Before dieraiss- 

 ing this class let me lell you a secret 



