It was here I first heard of " tooth-jumping." Let one of my old neighbors tell it in his own way:
" You take a cut nail (not one o' those round wire nails) and place its squar p'int agin the ridge of the tooth, jest under the edge of the gum. Then jump the tooth out with a hammer. A man who knows how can jump a tooth without it hurtin' half as bad as pullin'. But old Uncle Neddy Cyarter went to jump one of his own teeth out, one time, and missed the nail and mashed his nose with the hammer. He had the weak trembles."
" I have heard of tooth-jumping," said I, " and reported it to dentists back home, but they laughed at me."
" Well, they needn't laugh; for it's so. Some men git to be as experienced at it as toothdentists are at pullin'. They cut around the gum, and then put the nail at jest sich an angle, slantin' downward for an upper tooth, or upwards for a lower one, and hit one lick."
"Will the tooth come at the first lick?"
" Ginerally. If it didn't, you might as well stick your head in a swarm o' bees and fergit who you are."
"Are back teeth extracted in that way?"
"Yes, sir; any kind of a tooth. I've burnt my holler teeth out with a red-hot wire."
"Good God!"
"Hit's so. The wire'd sizzle like
" Kill the nerve? "
" No; but it'd sear the mar so it wouldn't be so sensitive."
"Didn't hurt, eh?"
" Hurt like hell for a moment. I held wire one time for Jim Bob Jim wright, who'v couldn't reach the spot for hisself. I
told him to hold his tongue back; but when I touched
the holler he jumped and wropped his tongue agin the wire. The words that man used ain't fitty to tell."
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