It is quite probable that no fence advertisements ever paid as well, or
stirred up as big a "muss" as those painted by Big Medicine on the night
mentioned heretofore. As an artist our Hoosier was not a genius, but he
certainly understood how to manufacture a notoriety. If space permitted
I would copy all those rude notices for your inspection; but I must be
content with a few random specimens taken from memory, with an eye to
brevity. They are characteristic of the man and in somewhat an index of
the then state of society in and around Jimtown. On Deacon Jones's fence
was scrawled the following: "Dern yer ole sole, ef yer want good Koffy
go to Cook & Golding's nu stoar."
John Butler, a nice old quaker, had the following daubed on his gate:
"Yu thievin' duk-legged ya and na ole cuss, ef the sperit muves ye, go
git a broad-brimmed straw hat at Cook & Golding's great stand at
Jimtown." The side of William Smith's pig pen bore this: "Bill, ye
ornery sucker, come traid with Cook & Golding at the ole corner brick in
Jimtown." Old Peter Gurley found writing to the following effect on his
new wagon bed: "Ef yoor dri or anything, you'll find a virtoous Kag of
ri licker at Cook & Golding's." On a large plank nailed to a tree at
Canaan's Cross Roads all passers by saw the following: "Git up an
brindle! Here's yer ole and faithful mewl! Come in gals and git yer
dofunny tricks and fixens, hats, caps, bonnets, parrysols, silk
petty-coat-sleeves and other injucements too noomerous too menshen! Rip
in--we're on it! Call at Cook & Golding's great corner brick!"
These are fair specimens of what appeared everywhere. How one man could
have done so much in one night remains a mystery. Some people swore,
some threatened to prosecute, but finally everybody went to the corner
brick to trade. Jimtown became famous on account of Big Medicine and the
corner brick store.
The sun rose through the morning gate beyond the quagmires east of
Jimtown and set through the evening gate past the ponds and maple swamps
to the west. The winds blew and there were days of calm. The weather ran
through its mutations of heat and cold. The herons flew over, the blue
birds twittered and went away and came again, and the peewees
disappeared and returned. A whole year had rolled round and it was June
again, with the air full of rumors about the building of a railroad
through Jimtown.
During this flow of time Big Medicine had feasted his eyes on the bright
curls and brighter eyes of Carrie Golding, till his heart had become
tender and happy as a child's. They rarely conversed more than for him
to say, "Miss Carrie, look there," or for her to call out, "Please, Mr.
Cook, hand me down this bolt of muslin." But Big Medicine was content.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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