PATRON + GOOD OLE DAYS – What Hitting a Mule Over the Head Had to Do With Making a Lawyer in 1900

A START IN THE LAW

Illustrating what a trifling incident can influence a man’s whole career, it is told of Judge William Lindsay, who is now United States senator from Kentucky, that when a young man still in his teens he was plowing in his father’s field, which was near a cross roads store where a dozen or more men usually congregated.

Young Lindsay and the mule he was working to the plow did not “gee” well, and finally in trying to turn the mule around at the far side of the filed a worse misunderstanding than usual occurred. The mule turned square around and started back over the plow right at Lindsay, who grabbed a piece of fence rail and hit his big-eared servant a terrific jolt above the eye. The mule fell dead.

Lindsay looked at the dead mule and then at the crowd across the field at the store. He saw the men had witnessed his killing of the mule and he started at full run to the store. When he reached there, almost out of breath, the exclaimed: “Gentlemen, I killed the mule, but I did it in self-defense.”

“By jingo, Bill, you ought to be a lawyer,” said one of the men, “for anybody who can think of a plea of that sort on the spur of the moment would make a good one.”

That suggestion stuck in young Lindsay’s mind – he did study law, became chief justice of Kentucky and one of the greatest lawyers they ever had.

In 1896, when Lindsay, as senator, deserted his party on the silver issue, one of his old friends who knew of the mule incident, and who was angry at Lindsay for his course, said: “Say, boys, ain’t it a pity that Linsay killed that mule?”

SOURCE: The Centreville Press, Centreville, Alabama, May 31, 1900

Tapestry of Love: Three Books In One

REVIEWS

The exhilarating action & subplots keep the reader in constant anticipation. It is almost impossible to put the book down until completion,

Dr. Don P. Brandon, Retired Professor, Anderson University, Anderson, Indiana

This is the first book I have read that puts a personal touch to some seemingly real people in factual events.

Ladyhawk

Love books with strong women…this has one. Love early American history about ordinary people…even though they were not ‘ordinary’…it took courage to populate our country. This book is well researched and well written.

Julia Smith

A picture of love and history rolled into one. A step back in time that pulls you in and makes you a part of the family and their world.

Ken Flessas

Each book’s writing gets stronger, characters become real, the struggles and sorrows that laid the foundation for this country.

Addictedtobooks

Not only is the story entertaining, it opens the eastern shore of the early Virginia Colony to the reader as a picture book….I know this story will touch many peoples’ hearts.

B. Thomas

At the age of sixteen, Mary and her husband, whom she barely knows, are forced to escape the only home they’ve ever known and settle in the primitive 17th-century world of America where they shape their family’s destiny for generations.

Inspired by actual people and historical events of colonial America, “The Kingdom of Accawmacke” is revealed and secrets about America’s history are discovered in this well-researched series. The story begins in 17th century England during the reign of Charles I and continues a family’s journey to the eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland.

About Donna R Causey

Donna R. Causey, resident of Alabama, was a teacher in the public school system for twenty years. When she retired, Donna found time to focus on her lifetime passion for historical writing. She developed the websites www.alabamapioneers and www.daysgoneby.me All her books can be purchased at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. She has authored numerous genealogy books. RIBBON OF LOVE: A Novel Of Colonial America (TAPESTRY OF LOVE) is her first novel in the Tapestry of Love about her family where she uses actual characters, facts, dates and places to create a story about life as it might have happened in colonial Virginia. Faith and Courage: Tapestry of Love (Volume 2) is the second book and the third FreeHearts: A Novel of Colonial America (Book 3 in the Tapestry of Love Series) Discordance: The Cottinghams (Volume 1) is the continuation of the story. . For a complete list of books, visit Donna R Causey