Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1886 — Arkansaw Etiquette. [ARTICLE]

Arkansaw Etiquette.

A traveling man happened in an out-of-the-way neighborhood in Arkansas last winter, and being obliged by a swolled stream to remain a night or two at a country tavern, accepted an invitation to attend a country dance or ball with the landlord, who was an original of the old-time “Arkansaw Traveler” school. . __ The ball-room was about twenty feet square, and the floor laid of puncheons split from large trees, some of which were rough and others smoother. As the “ball” or “hbe-down” went on, the smoother puncheons were in demand, and a stout, burly fellow, leading his inamorata out Tor a dance as the music began, said: “Now stick to your puncheon, Sal.” The traveler observing that owing, perhaps, to the scarcity of seats, each man when not dancing held one of the girls seated on his lap, and he also being desirous of dancing, asked his host, the tavern-keeper, for an introduction to one Of the girls. “Don’t need any, stranger. Jist pick out yer gal, grab ’er by ’er hand, and go to dancin’ with ’er,” was the answer. Selecting one, the traveler followed instructions, but was paralyzed when the burly Arkansan, on whose lap she had been sitting, drew a Colt’s revolver, and, cocking it, aimed at the newcomer, saying: “Sot ’er back thar, stranger, sot ’er back.”— Detroit Free Press.