Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1886 — Revenge in the Backwoods. [ARTICLE]

Revenge in the Backwoods.

Thomas I\. Beecher used to visit his hermit brother occasionally; he was concerned over James’ decision to bold himself aloof from the world, and added to the ambition to try to tempt James back to the pupit again; Thomas K. found other pleasing labors; nowhere in all the world do the fish bite better or fight more gallantly; nowhere is the hunting superior in all the Catskills. It was only the Hardenberg native that the Elmira clergyman did not dote on. Once he let the Beecher in him ooze out at his pen point, and a letter was printed by a New York City journal making fun of James’ neighbors. Not long after he visited the Beecher Lake heritage. By some mischance a copy of that New York paper, Thomas K.’s letter and all, got into the neighborhood. The natives reveled in it, and Thomas K. became thenceforth a marked man. It was his intention to stay out one day and night on this last visit, and he had ventured up into the backwoods without baggage. The clothes he wore were all he brought. It was summer, and when the Bev. I homas K. retired for the night he tossed his clothes across the window-sill. The natives had learned of his visit. When he woke up next morning he was minus coat, trousers, and vest. There was but one thing to do—to borrow attire from his brother. It wasn’t a fashionable suit that be was obliged to don. The cut wasn’t modern, and the fit was wofullv startling. Three different kinds of cloth, three different colors of cloth, were in tlieir make-up, and each article of the suit was considerably the worse for wear, while the trousers were radiant in big broad patches fore and aft. Thomas K.’s pride had a fall. His fun at the expense of the aboriginal Catskillian was expensive. And he visited Beecher Lake no more. —New York Times.