Tully R. Cornick, Sr., was a Knoxville, Tennessee, attorney in the second half of the 19th century. At mid-century he lived in Lincoln county, Missouri, and represented the county in the Missouri House of Representatives for one term. The following encounter must have taken place during the Civil War.
Colonel Cornick, who though a secessionist did not relish criticism of the country by a foreigner, was traveling over a Swiss mountain in a diligence with an English lord, who told him that his country had all gone to pieces. "And," said the colonel, "I had a great mind to slap him in the face, but thunder! he weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, and I thought it would not pay!"This story is worthy of a Georgette Heyer dandy.
It is told of him that once, sallying out on the street after a retirement of several hours, he enquired the time, and being told it was four o'clock, laid his finger aside his nose with the words, "Query? Morning or evening?"Both items are taken from the book (Google digitization project) The Green Bag, a Monthly Illustrated Magazine Covering the Higher and the Lighter Literature Pertaining to the Law, 1904, p. 670-671.