Of course now, I believe in Christian burial.
Mr. Wade, every decent man believes in a Christian burial. I don’t see how them paper men can look theirself in the face to print all that stuff, just on this man’s say-so.
I hope Christ may kill me if I told ’em all that stuff they put in. They done made a whole lot of it up.
And the county feeding you four year! It’s just like Mr. Lerch says, you had ought to be ashamed of yourself.
And there ain’t nobody down there been treated no better than he is. Same as if he was in his own house, only better.
I never knowed they was paper men. They come up to me and made out like they was just looking around.
Well, what did you tell ’em?
I didn’t tell ’em nothing scarcely, excepting what I hear tell, one thing another. Nothing excepting what a whole lot of them was talking around.
What about that there jawbone?
Yes, how about that there jawbone? How did they put it in about that there jawbone if you didn’t show them no jawbone?
Mr. Wade, you hit it right on the head. That there is just what I want to know. How did they put it in about that there jawbone if he didn’t show them no jawbone?
I ain’t saying I didn’t tell them nothing about no jawbone. What I say is they done made up a whole lot of lies and put it in.
You ain’t no more seen a jawbone down there than you seen a whale. How come you to tell them men any such lie as that?
I hope Christ may kill me if I didn’t find a jawbone down here. I got that jawbone, right here in my coat pocket.
[He fumbles in his pocket and produces what is unquestionably a human mandible, the teeth still sticking in it.]
That there just goes to show what kind of man he is, Mr. Wade. He done showed them paper men that jawbone, just like they said he done.
A fellow could of told he was lying, all along.
Where did you get that jawbone?
Found it in the ashes when I was hauling ’em away from the furnace. I pulled it right out of the bucket. Thought it was a clinker, first off, and pulled it right out of the bucket.
Who told you to pick the clinkers out of the bucket? You was to haul the ashes away from the furnace, and not pay no attention to them clinkers.
And the county has been feeding him four year! Seems like the court had ought to take back the commitment of a fellow like that.
Them men never said they was paper men. They just made out like they was looking around, one thing another, and then all them pieces come out in the paper.
How do you know that there is a jawbone?
Them men said it was a jawbone. It looks like a jawbone.
That there might be a dog’s jawbone.
What else did you tell them paper men?
I didn’t tell them nothing. I didn’t tell them ary other thing. They done made up all the rest of them things they put in.
How about this here piece about you seeing Mr. Lerch and Mr. Mukens throwing a stiff in the furnace?
Mr. Wade, you hit it. That there is just what I want to know. I just been waiting for you to ask him.
Me too. I just been waiting.
I don’t remember saying nothing about that. I don’t remember good what I did tell them, account of them not saying they was paper men, one thing another. We just kind of talked along, like of that.
Then that there was another lie, wasn’t it? You didn’t see no stiff throwed on the furnace no more than I did, did you?
I hope Christ may kill me if I didn’t see Mr. Lerch and Mr. Mukens throw a stiff right in the furnace.
Then you did tell the paper men all this here stuff they put in, didn’t you?
I don’t just recollect. But they done made a whole lot of it up.
How do you know it was a stiff?
I knowed it was a stiff by the smell. I smell it soon as the fire hit it. Didn’t smell like no other meat. Had a kind of funny smell to it.
I never heared the beat of that.
That there just goes to show how much truth there is in all this stuff you read in the papers.
How come you to see all this here?
I hid out on them. I heared a lot of talk, one thing another, and then one day I heared a fellow died in there, and I hid out on them, right down in the cellar.
And the county has been feeding you four year!
I hope Christ may kill me if I didn’t see them throw a stiff right in the furnace. I hid out on them, and first thing you know, I hear the door upstairs open easy like, and here come Mr. Lerch and Mr. Mukens, carrying a stiff on a stretcher, one to his head and one to his feet. Then, when they got to the furnace, Mr. Mukens throwed the door open, he did, and then him and Mr. Lerch shoved him in on the fire.
And then you hollered for the paper men?
I didn’t holler for no paper men, no sir! I run, I did, after Mr. Lerch and Mr. Mukens went away. And I never knowed they was paper men. They made out like they was just looking around.
What else did you tell the paper men?
I never told them nothing else. That there is all I told them, only they made up a whole lot theirself and put it in.
So that there is all you seen, or think you seen?
That there is all I seen, but I heared a plenty of talk going around.
We don’t want to know what you heared. We want to know what you seen.
That there is all I seen, but I heared a plenty.
Don’t that beat all, Mr. Wade? Here this fellow finds a jawbone somewheres around, maybe he digs it up out of the graveyard, and thinks he seen a stiff throwed in the furnace, and that’s all there is to this talk and stuff you see in the newspapers.
And come to find out he don’t know if it was a stiff or not.
Seems to me them fellows would get tired of printing all the lies they print. They could of come to me or you and none of this stuff would of come out. Now we got the people down in the lower end of the county all stirred up and the commissioners is got to act on it. You know how them people in the lower end of the county is.