live
in a little town of three thousand inhabitants, and wear _store
clothes_. It was this and these which made a Georgia major.

Judge Dooly, upon one occasion, when attempting to usurp the seat of
honor, was unceremoniously informed by Big Billy that it was Major
Walker's seat.

Custom since has familiarized the retention of special seats for
special persons, and now such a remark from a host astonishes no one.
But in those days of unadulterated democracy, to assume a right to an
unoccupied seat, startled every one. Dooly, amid the astonished gaze
of the assembled guests, unmurmuringly retired to an unoccupied seat
of more humble pretensions near the foot of the extended table. The
occurrence was canvassed at night with full house in the democratic
dormitory. When the jests incidental were hushed, and one after
another had retired to bed, Judge Dooly, then on the Bench, went
slowly to the only unappropriated bed, and undressing, folded down the
bed-clothes. Suddenly, as if he had forgotten something, he slipped to
the landing of the stairway and called anxiously for the landlord.
"Come up, if you please," he said to the answering host. Springer
commenced the ascent with slow and heavy tread; at length, after a
most exhausting effort, and breathing like a wounded bellows, he
lifted his mighty burden of flesh into the room.

"What is your will, Judge Dooly?" he asked, with a painful effort at
speech.

Dooly, standing in his shirt by the bedside and pointing to it, asked,
with much apparent solicitude, if that "was Major Walker's bed."

Springer felt the sarcasm keenly, and, amid the boisterous outburst of
laughter from every bed, turned and went down.

A thousand anecdotes might be related of the peculiar wit, sarcasm,
and drollery of this remarkable man. One more must suffice. When
Newton County was first organized, it was made the duty of Dooly to
hold the first court. There then lived and kept the only tavern in the
new town of Covington, a man of huge proportions, named Ned Williams,
usually called Uncle Ned--he, as well as Dooly, have long slept with
their fathers. The location of the village and court-house had been of
recent selection, and Uncle Ned's tavern was one of those peculiar
buildings improvised for temporary purposes--a log cabin, designated,
in some parts of Georgia at that time, as a two-storied house, with
both stories on the ground; in other words, a double-penned cabin with
passage between.