January 27 - Tennessee Civil War Notes

27, Recorder's Court.
…William Smith…and his wife Mollie, got into a dispute, which led to their arrest. From the elder Mrs. Smith, mother of Bill, we learn that Bill found Mollie at Emilia Street's, fell in love with her, and after a short courtship, and an explicit understanding that the frail Mollie would never again visit "Smoky," Bill determined to make "a decent woman of her," and married her. Matters progressed smoothly for a time, when Mollie decamped; Bill found her at Martha Carson's, persuaded her to return home, and she complied. The following day she took away some of her clothes, and was about carrying off a second lot, when Bill "smelled a mice," and down Gay street after her, and with more physique than prudence, he brought her back to the paternal roof, where a considerable fuss ensued, which was o­nly stopped by the arrest of both parties. Bill was fined $10 and costs—Mollie $1 and costs. In justice to Mollie we should say that she acted like a dutiful wife in Court, in trying to get her Billy off as light as possible.
Nashville Dispatch, January 27, 1863.

 

27, "A Salt and Battery"
A grocer, on Front row, had a pet joke, which he has been in the habit of getting off at least once a week for some months past. He offers to give a two hundred pounds of salt to a man who will carry it the length of his store, without setting it down. He always wins the wager, for the man who carries the salt will have to set it down at last. It was a mere catch in the words of the proposition. A darkey [sic] came up with him yesterday, however. He went into the store, looking unusually green, and soon was picked out for a victim of his joke. Coffee [sic] shouldered the "Salina," and after carrying it down through the store, hung it up on a hook [sic], thereby winning the sack fairly, as he never "set it down" at all. The merchant paid the forfeit, and then offered to give a monstrous cheese to the darkey [sic] if he could butt it off the top of a barrel with his head, when it was set up edgewise. The negro [sic] did not wait a second invitation, but ran a tilt at the "Western reserve" immediately. The cheese was spoilt [sic], the centre of it being soft and decayed. The human battering ram went clear through it, and was the most damaged looking customer afterward you ever saw. He withdrew his forces in dismay.
Memphis Bulletin, January 27, 1864