The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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By S. C. Turnbo
Among the accounts of incidents of roving and drinking at Dubugne on White River in what is now Boone County, Ark., is the following which was told me by Mort Herrean. "One day" say he "while I was in Bob Trimbles Grocery Store at Dubugne a big gawky overbearing young fellow was in there boasting of his bravery and wanted to fight somebody. The fellow had red complexion and was sandy or red headed. The man would dance back and forth across the floor. There were several men in there at the time but no one payed any attention to him for it seemed that he was not considered worthy of notice. I was standing against the counter and leaning against it. Directly the fellow danced up in a foot of where I was and all at once he stopped and blew and spit a mouth full of tobacco and amber into my face and eyes which blinded me in a moment. The fellow burst out into a merry laugh at my discomfiture for he supposed he done a brave act and I heard some of his friends join in with him in the laugh. It was useless for me to attempt to say anything for I was blind and helpless. I took my old cotton handkerchief from my pocket and rubbed the amber and bits of tobacco out of my eyes until I was able to discern objects. My eyes pained me severely and I pulled my hat over my face and twisted and squirmed, then I continued to rub them with the handkerchief until I could see how to go out of the house and went down to the river and washed and bathed my eyes until I had got them cleansed from the tobacco and I could see my way well, but they still hurt me some. While I was at the river some of my friends come to me and said that the young gentleman was still in the store room boasting dancing and whistling very gay over the manner he had treated me. I says boys ‘That fellow has treated me very rough as well as under mining for a high minded and brave man would not treat another fellow being as he has treated me and I am going to have revenge for it’, and they all said ‘Mort if you want to fix him we will keep the dogs off.’ I looked about and picked up two smooth stones at the edge of the water. These rocks were the size of goose eggs and were oval in shape and I and the boys went back to the grocery store and went in. The fellow was still dancing and seemed to ignore my presence and I struck him on the side of the head with one of the stones and the brave young man fell to the floor in a lump. The men collected around him but no one seemed to want to take it up for him. I and my friends stayed there an hour before we left and he was still unconscious. I did not go back to Dubugne for several weeks after this but I learned that the fellow lay four days at Dubugne before he was able to be removed to his home by his friends."
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