God Save the South - Visit our members - Join the Southern Circuit - Dixieland Ring - Heartbeat of the Southland
Browse the South through the Dixieland Ring . .
. 
This Dixieland Ring page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page
|
Badeye
|
|
|
Bad Eye Bulloch Before Judgment A story from the Dark Corner of South Carolina by Steve Batson The prologue - During the great Nullification Crisis of 1832, the message of John C. Calhoun went out like a bright light across South Carolina and the south. However, just a few miles up the road from his home lay the dark-blue ridge that slashed like a knife across the center of the south. In that blue ridge lived men so independent and dedicated to remaining that way that they rose as one to say that they would never trade the great eagle of America for a withered Palmetto. Men like Joel Poinsett led a crusade of ragged mountaineers who could have cared less about states rights and had no war with no man . . . As long as he stayed out of their mountains. These self-assured men were the sons of the men who would not join the patriot cause of 76 until that day when a redcoat in Charleston sent a post to the outlying regions. He said he would urinate on their graves if they dared resist their king . . . history tells us that they took exception to this and gathered together and found this man at a place called King's Mountain. Historians tell us that when the battle was over they lined up to a man to urinate on his body. Bold, independent, desiring no government and no taxation and no law but the law they recognize and enforce among themselves . . . these were the men of the southern highlands. These are also the men who pushed Calhoun so hard that he cried out in his anguish and pain that the bright light of nullification will never shine in that dark corner of South Carolina. Many of my stories will deal with these men and that dark corner of South Carolina. Understand these are the sons of Scotland and Ireland, no lovers of the British when they came here. They are poor men, ragged highlanders, men who made whiskey and preached damnation that still scorches the ear from a distance of one hundred years. Perhaps the best way to begin is to tell you about them may be to tell you about Bad Eye Bulloch and the trial of his life. Bad Eye Bulloch - Bad Eye woke up and blinked as a small shaft of light pierced the dark gloom of the one room log jail of Athens. It was not his first trip to these accommodations, nor would it be his last. Bad Eye was nothing more or less than another in a long line of scofflaws that inhabit these high neither regions close to the clouds. If you have read Faulkner, you would know him as a Snopes at first glance. The constable came and pulled him out into the sunlight and it stung his eyes and his mouth was like cotton but still he staggered on. Bad Eye knew he was due to appear before his father-in-law the local magistrate but he had not a thought, idea, or care at to what for. Bad Eye also knew that the community held his father-in-law in high regard and this would not be good for him. Drawn up before the table set out by the livery stable Bad Eye approached justice. The smell of horses filled the air as Uncle Dave looked down on his sorry son-in-law. Uncle Dave was a good man with a good heart, even if he was one tough horse trader. He had always felt blessed by God but he knew there was some truth to what was said about him by the small town. Uncle Dave had three daughters and everyone said, Satan paid Uncle Dave off in son-in-laws and of the three . . . Bad Eye was by far the worst. Not even good enough to be an outlaw, Bad Eye was little more than a drunken brawler who lived at the edge of a society that was itself on the edge of society and here he was again. Uncle Dave was a kind man and he wanted to believe Bad Eye could be made into something useful and it was too that purpose that he turned his hand on this bright morning. "Bad Eye, Jim West accuses you of being drunk in his store yesterday and that you refused to leave when he asked you to go about your business. Were You?" Bad Eye blinked and gave no sign that he even remotely recognized anyone much less the facts being cited for his benefit. Uncle Dave continued, "Mr. West also says that when his clerk tried to get you to leave that you grabbed him by the collar and threw the clerk out into the street where you went on to jump on him and hit him and finally got him down on the ground where you picked up sand and gouged it in his eye trying to blind him." "Did you do this?" Again Bad Eye only blinked at the sun and Uncle Dave continued, "Bad Eye everyone has 'bout had their fill of you but I think you are just a good man gone wrong." "Weren't it the devil what made you get that whiskey and go into the store and throw that boy out in the street? It was the devil weren't it?" For the first time Bad Eye glanced up. Uncle Dave continued, "And I reckon it was the devil that made you hit that boy and throw him down and caused you to put sand in his eye and grind it in, weren't it ? Bad Eye tell me it was the devil that made you do all this." After a moments consideration Bad Eye finally spoke, "Uncle Dave," he said, "I reckon the devil did make me drink that whiskey and talk ugly like that and I reckon he did make me throw that boy in the street and hit him . . . I reckon all that is so. But the sand Uncle Dave, "Well . . . the sand was my idea and ain't no devil gonna take credit for it." The sun shown down bright and warm on the face of Bad Eye Bullock as he rode in the
back of the open wagon on the bed of hay. It was half a days trip to Greenville and 90
days of peace from them damn in-laws and all of it . . . every minute still in front of
him. Three squares and a warm bed for 90 days and not a single damn Burns to bother him
about no devils. Yes sir, life was good and that just about all there was to it. Contributed September 28, 1997 |
|
God Save the South - Visit our members - Join the Southern Circuit - Dixieland Ring - Heartbeat of the Southland Browse the South through the Dixieland Ring . .
. This Dixieland Ring page hosted by |