KinSource - Tale of the Week - Romaine and Weisfuss

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, April 30, 1892, page 3

ROMAINE AND WEISFUSS.

The Tragic Tragedy That Occurred at Edina Mills.

John Romaine, a heavy headed and long-whiskered old man, was in the municipal court yesterday afternoon, charged with assault in the second degree. The complainant was Henry Weisfuss, backed up by his fat little spouse. All the parties live at Edina Mills and from the developements in the case yesterday, that little suburban town has been in a turbulent condition for some time past. Weisfuss told the court yesterday that Romaine was an old villain and that besides attempting to debauch his wife, he had attempted to shoot him (Weisfuss) with a revolver as big as a blunder buss.

Weisfuss said that his wife, in a moment of mental aberration, had borrowed a dollar from Romaine, who was a supposed friend of the family. One day while he was away from home Romaine came to the house and made improper proposals to his wife, demanding certain favors of her in payment of the dollar. When Weinfuss returned his insulted wife told him what Romaine had said and done. Naturally Weinfuss was indignant, for, according to himself, he objects to the wearing of horns. He repaired to Romaine's blacksmith shop, and, in a tragic manner, offered to fight him a duel with sledge hammers for weapons. It seems, however, that Romaine was averse to having his head knocked into smithereens with a sledge hammer, and emphatically declined to fight at all.

Weinfuss thereupon presented his wife with a huge blacksnake, and, armed with that and her wifely dignity , she went to call upon Romaine at his shop. She began belaboring the old man over the head and shoulders with it, when he took the deadly weapon away from her and chopped it into pieces with an axe. But Mrs. Weinfuss had her dander up to the highest notch and would not be baffled. She broke the windows in the shop, and frightened Romaine's horse until it broke from its moorings and sailed away down street with tail extended. Then she piled on to Romaine with nature's weapons -- her finger nails -- and, besides scratching him in the face, pulled his gray whiskers. The next day the husband went after Romaine again, and this time he had a couple of granite boulders in his hand. When Romaine saw him he pulled out his formidable-looking revolver and fired, the bullet going into the ground near Weinfuss' feet. It is needless to say that Weinfuss did not stop to parley the matter; in fact, it is said that had he not run into his own home, he would have been going now. It was for this shock to his nerves that he brought suit against Romaine.

The latter denied everything of a sensational line in court, and the judge came to the conclusion that the whole matter was a neighborhood squabble and dismissed the case.

Note: A blacksnake is a long, tapering, braided rawhide or leather whip with a snapper on the end. (The American Heritage Dictionary)