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BATTLE CREEK BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
No young, rustic Demosthenes ever stepped on the boards of debate in a country school-house with more eagerness for the contest, than did Kewney to engage in argument with a neighbor or with any friend he chanced to meet. In politics he was an old line Democrat. In the matter of religion he had no established views. Occasionally you would see him at church on Sunday, in the log school-house, a quiet listener. He was well versed in Scripture, and loved to descant on the sermon with his friends.
One of the settlers whom he disliked he called "Peel Garlick. " Sitting behind him at church one Sabbath, and smelling the perfumed oil on his hair, he said to a neighbor after service, "Peel Garlick smells so much like a musk rat, he is enough to break up a meeting; I believe the cuss ates 'em. "
Usually in discussing a subject, whatever loose facts and truths he found lying about, he would turn to his use, always improving and embellishing them to suit his views. Thus stories, facts, and incidents came mended from old Kewney's tongue. He was highly social and loved to saunter out from his log house through the woods to a neighbor's, and, pulling the latch-string, go in, and taking a seat by the fireside, while away an hour or two in announcing the items of news, discussing the neighborhood topics expatiating on public affairs and things generally. He was a man of much more than average natural ability and had gathered a great deal of knowledge from men and other sources. Sometimes he seemed to delight in playing the Munchausen, when he would tell the most wonderful stories and remarkable incidents. He would do this with such imperturbable coolness that his fictions staggered the unsuspecting with all the force of startling truths.
Michigan
Page 58
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