He waz konverted 150 years ago, and thinks the hard-shell iz the tuffist religion thare iz for every day wear. He sez that one hard shell baptiss ken do more hard work on the same vittles during a hot day than 15 episkopalites. He haz alwus used plug tobbako from a child, and sez he lernt how teu cheu bi watching a cow cheu her cud. He haz never drunk enny intoxicating licker but whiskey, and sez that no other licker is helthy. He thinks 3 horns a day iz enuff for helth. He haz alwus voted the dimokratik ticket for the last 170 years, and walked, last fall, in sloppy weather, 18 miles to vote for Jim Buchanan. He haint never seen a rale-road yet, nor a wimmin’s rite convenshun. His gratest desire, he tells me, iz teu see Gen. Jackson, and sez that he shall go next year down teu Tennesee teu see him. [Illustration: JOHN BASCOMB.] He fatted a hog last year, with hiz own hands, that weighed 636 pounds after it waz drest and well dried out. He iz very cheerful, and sez he won 7 dollars on the weight ov this hog, out ov one ov the deakons ov the hard-shell church. He deklares this teu be one ov the proudest acksidents ov hiz life, for the deakon waz known far and near az a tite kuss. He tells me that for 90 years he haz went teu bed at just 17 minnits after 9, and haz arozen at precisely 5 o’clock the next day. The fust thing he duz in the morning iz teu take a short drink, about 2 inches, and then for an hour before brekfasst he reads the allmanax. (_I will here state that it iz “Josh Billings’ Farmers’ Almanax” that he reads._) I asked him hiz opinyun ov gin and milk az a fertilizer. He pronounsed it bogus, and sed that the good old hard-shell drink, _whiskey unadorned_, waz the only speerits that never went bak on a man. Hiz habits are simple. For brekfast he generally et four slices ov psalt pork, 3 biled pertatoze, a couple ov sassagis, 5 hot bisskit, a dozen ov hard biled eggs, 2 kups ov rhye coffe, a small plate ov slapjax, sum phew pickles, and cold cabbage and vinegar, if thare waz enny left from yesterday’s dinner. Hiz dinner waz alwus a lite one, and he seldum et ennything but sum biled mutton, sum korned beef, sum kold ham, and sum injun puddin tew top oph with. Hiz suppers were mere nothing, and konsisted simply ov kold psalt pork, kold korned beef, kold biled mutton, and, once in a grate while, a phew slices ov kold ham, with mustard and hoss reddish. I examined hiz hed and found that he had all the usual bumps in a remarkable state ov preservashun. He haz a good ear for musik, and whisselled me Yankee Doodle, with variashuns. He waz born a shumaker, but hasn’t done ennything at the trade for the last 125 years. He enjoys the best ov health, but just now he iz teething, which he tells me iz hiz 7th sett. He iz a firm beleaver in the Darwin theory, and sez he used teu hear hiz grate-grandfather tell ov a race ov men sumwhare down on the coast ov Florida, who had sum little ov the kaudle appendix still remaining.