Has Charmed Life

1919

Deer Holds Record of Many Close Escapes From Hunters.

LEWISTOWN, Pennsylvania. — In the Seven Mountain region near here there is a deer that seems to bear a charmed life. This deer, known as old "Barney," has been seen by hunters for many seasons, but they have failed to bag him. A few years ago a hunter managed to cripple him in one leg, but he got away. It left him with a stiff leg.

One day a hunter got close to Barney, but when he went to shoot his gun held fire and Barney got away.

At another time, three hunters were getting warm around a little bonfire when Barney, frightened, ran right into their midst. One of the hunters got a shot at him at close range, but missed.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Two Velvet Babies

1900

An almost forgotten book, save among scholars, is "Lays of the Deer Forest," by two brothers, John Sobieski and Charles Edward Stuart. It was written by men who lived all the year round among the wild animals of the Highlands, and learned to love them as only the familiar can. One of the most beautiful descriptions of these abundant nature-notes is that of a doe, which was seen for several mornings, "restless and anxious, listening and searching the wind, trotting up and down, picking a leaf here and a leaf there." After her short and unsettled meal, she would take a frisk round, leap into the air, dart into her secret bower, and appear no more until the twilight.

One day I stole down the brae among the birches. In the middle of the thicket there was a group of young trees growing out of a carpet of moss which yielded like a down pillow. The prints of the doe's slender, forked feet were thickly traced about the hollow, and in the centre there was a velvety bed, which seemed a little higher than the rest, but so natural that it would not have been noticed by any unaccustomed eye.

I carefully lifted the green cushion, and under its veil, rolled close together, the head of each resting on the flank of the other, nestled two beautiful little kids, their large velvet ears laid smooth on their dappled necks, their spotted sides sleek and shining as satin, and their little delicate legs, as slender as hazel wands, shod with tiny shoes as smooth and as black as ebony, while their large dark eyes looked at me with a full, mild, quiet gaze, which had not yet learned to fear the hand of man.

Still they had a nameless doubt which followed every motion of mine. Their little limbs shrank from my touch, and their velvet fur rose and fell quickly; but as I was about to replace the moss, one turned its head, lifted its sleek ears toward me, and licked my hand as I laid their soft mantle over them.

I often saw them afterward, when they grew strong and came abroad upon the brae, and frequently I called off old Dreadnaught when he crossed their warm track. — Youth's Companion.

How Indians Find Way Through Woods

1920

Stefansson Disputes Old Belief in Sixth Sense

The apparently marvelous way in which Indians, Eskimos and other primitive people make their way through forests, snow-covered areas or other regions that have little to indicate direction to white newcomers, has led to a widespread belief that they possess a mysterious sixth sense of direction.

Stefansson, the Arctic traveler, who has lived much with Eskimos, is very skeptical about the existence of any superiority of sense of direction among primitive peoples of any kind, and gives strong evidence from personal experience that Eskimos have no such superiority.

The ability of Indians and others to find their way he attributes solely to their familiarity with the country through which they are passing. They note many things that they have seen before and that have no significance to the stranger in their land.

White men can and do acquire the same ability to find their way when they have learned to know the country. When the land is equally strange to the white man and the Indian or the Eskimo, the white man, because of his better developed reasoning power, is more likely to have a correct line of direction than the Eskimo.

Tannaumirk Killed a Deer

Stefansson tells how, at a time when his little party was in great need of food, one of his Eskimos, Tannaumirk, came home late at night and caused great rejoicing by relating his success in killing a deer which he had started to pursue early in the morning. He was the hero of the hour and recounted his adventures in great detail.

When he finished his story Stefansson asked him whether it was a long way to the spot where the meat lay and whether he had cached it safely. The Eskimo's answer was that he had covered the meat with snow and set traps by it, and that the place was a long way off. Stefansson volunteered to go with him the next morning, but Tannaumirk said this would not be necessary; if he were to start early in the morning he would, without assistance, be able to get the meat home by night.

Bright and early the next day he was off with sled and dogs, but it had long been pitch dark when he returned. In answer to questions he said that he had been hurried all the time; that he had hastily loaded the meat on the sled, had set two additional traps by the deer killed, making four altogether, and had come right back home.

Covered 20 Miles Making Trip

The next day about noon Tannaumirk had gone off somewhere to set fox traps. Stefansson and his companion, Dr. Anderson, heard some of their dogs howling and whining behind a ridge about half a mile away from the camp. The sounds indicated that the dogs had been caught in the traps. As the weather was about 40 degrees below zero, there was danger that the dogs' paws, if pinched in the traps, would freeze quickly and render the dogs valueless for service. Stefansson and Anderson hastened therefore to the rescue.

They found four of the dogs, as they expected, with their feet caught in traps. But what greatly surprised them was to find these traps around the deer kill, which Tannaumirk had taken so many hours to reach in his trips hack and forth. The explanation was that Tannaumirk, in starting after the deer, had followed it as it took a circuitous course of more than ten miles.

After shooting the deer he had followed the trail over which he had come and in going after its meat he had once more made the circuitous trip, covering more than twenty miles in a round trip to a spot that was less than half a mile away.

A Woman's Odd Victory

1896

At a country fair held near Dedham, Maine, the prize offered for unhitching and hitching up again in the shortest time was won by a woman, and won under circumstances comic as well as curious.

The winner was Mrs. Linus Pond, of Dedham, who, since the death of her husband, two years ago, has carried on the work of the farm alone. She does the plowing and hauling with a Hereford bull, and works the bull just as she would a horse.

When she goes to market she hitches the bull to her wagon with a pair of traces and guides it by ropes running to a ring in its nose. In the harnessing contest she had the Hereford unhitched and hitched again in a twinkling. — New York Sun.


Deer On The Track

Three deer jumped on the railway track a few hundred yards or so ahead of a locomotive near Trout Lake, Michigan, a few days ago, and remained staring in surprise at the headlight until they were struck by the pilot and tossed from the track.

Instances of a single deer being thus attracted by a locomotive headlight and falling victim to its curiosity are not uncommon in Michigan, Maine and other regions where deer abound; but for a trio of the animals to be hypnotized in this way at one time is a novelty. — New York Sun.


Saved By A Cracked Plate

Two hundred barrels of oil, part of the cargo stowed between decks of the steel steamer W. H. Gilbert, shifted during a gale while the vessel was rounding Kenawee Point, on Lake Superior. Ten of the barrels were broken and the oil rolled down into the fire hold and was ignited by the furnace fires.

The crew turned to and fought the fire with but little impression and it was thought the vessel was doomed. The heat of the blazing oil, however, cracked one of the steel plates below the water line, through which the water poured in volumes, and, converted into steam, smothered the fire.

The pumps were started and, finding them adequate to keep the steamer afloat, she continued on her way and reached Duluth, Minn. The vessel was bound from Buffalo with a cargo of general merchandise. — Chicago Times-Herald.

Interlocked Antlers Make Great Trophy

1896

Curious and Valuable Trophy of a Michigan Hunter

In a taxidermist's window in Madison street a pair of antlered deer heads are displayed. The taxidermist says they form the greatest curiosity ever seen in that line. The antlers are interlocked, and, he says, it is the only pair in existence with the heads well preserved. Other pairs of antlers have been found tangled together but he says it was after the animals to which they belonged had long been dead and nothing but the whitened skeletons remained. The theory has always been that the animals had died thus fighting. The deer of which this exhibit originally formed a part were discovered in combat, and with their horns inseparably tangled.

H. L. Brown, of Albion, Mich., was hunting near Bismarck, North Dakota, November 15 last, when he came upon two Virginia deer bucks locked in a mortal tangle. How long they had been thus he could not say, but it must have been some time, because they had plowed up about two acres of ground in their struggle. They could not run away and Mr. Brown ended their struggle by shooting them. He cut off the heads and sent them to this city to have them mounted as he found them. N. Slotkin, the taxidermist who prepared them, say the horns could only be untangled by breaking them or loosening them from the skull, and this was never done, so they remain as the hunter found them.

The deer were young bucks of about the same age, probably two years old. The taxidermist said if they had been mounted full figure they would have been worth more than $3000. As they are now, he says, the pair of heads is worth $500. They belong to the man who killed them, and who will keep them as a trophy of his rare good lack as a sportsman. — Chicago Chronicle.

Fox Hunters Bag Deer

1911

Witty With The News

Three New Jersey "sportsmen" who went out for fox hunting are on trial for killing deer. Possibly New Jersey rabbits wear horns.

The Los Angeles man who was sent to jail for 30 days for smiling at a strange woman evidently does not see the point of the joke.

Automobiles to the number of 460,000 are flitting here and there in this country, but all their flitting does not reduce the cost of mules.

The average life of a statesman is said to be 71 years. This doesn't necessarily conflict with the old theory that the good die young.

Those Chicago crooks who stole a 600 pound safe in the dead of night evidently missed their calling. They should have been piano movers.

Reckless automobile driving is to be eliminated.

And now will not the Pullman company reduce the porter's tips.

Don't mind the pessimistic weather prophet's prediction of a long winter.

Eli Clouse Revives Annual Hunting Story

1909

It is reported in the city papers that Eli Clouse of Friend's Cove, 30 miles northeast from Cumberland, in Bedford County, has again killed a big deer that had been roaming over the Martin Mountain for many years. The deer was called "Old Elick." It is peculiar that the same old Eli Clouse kills the same old deer every year but he does. Next year "Old Elick" will be roaming again and old Clouse will kill him and tell the old story again to the old hunters who come to hunt on the State reservation and the story will get in the city papers as is its custom. Another peculiar feature of this story is that Martin Hill, where Clouse kills his old deer, is only a few miles from each reporter's headquarters. Surely the mountain do move as often as the deer has lives. It is the reporter's faith that moves the mountain every time. — Cumberland Alleganian.


The Man in the Moon

Russian folklore tells that the man in the moon was one who was seeking the isle in which there is no death. At last, after traveling far, he found the longed-for heaven and look up his above in the moon. After a hundred years had passed, death called for him one Christmas eve and a fierce struggle ensued with the moon, who was victorious; and so the man stayed where he was.


Daily Thought

Whoever you are, be noble; Whatever you do, do well; Whenever you speak, speak kindly — Give joy wherever you dwell.

Killing The Mountain Spirit

1874

In illustration of the excessive superstition of the California Indians, a writer in a Sacramento paper relates the following story:

"Two years ago, 'Whistler,' a noted hunter and brave warrior, of the Klamaths, was on the sacred mountain, at the head of Sprague River (a tributary of Williamson's River, and the one referred to so often as the latter stream), when, in the dusk of the evening, he saw a large mule deer, and at once fired, bringing it to the ground.

"In going to cut its throat he was horror-stricken at what he saw before him. There was a deer, a male, weighing over 300 pounds, whose horns were to him a mystery. From one side of the head grew a single spike, ten or twelve inches in length; while from the other side grew a stump horn, with seven short prongs. He had never seen or heard of the like before, and his superstition got the better of him.

"His health for a long time had been bad, and this and the excitement of having, as he supposed, killed the spirit of the mountains, threw him into convulsions. He bled at the mouth and nose, and laid there helpless for hours. At last he managed to crawl to the camp of his party at the foot of the hill, where he told his story and went into a trance. His party were terribly alarmed, and one rode to the agency and told O. C. Applegate that Whistler was dead. Applegate had his coffin made, and it was set out to dry.

"The next morning news came by another rumor that Whistler was alive. It happened the Indian doctor was along with the party, and when Whistler went into a trance he did likewise and kept him company, and brought him back with him, as he expressed it."

Deer Hunter Rides Enraged Buck Nine Miles

Kingston, New York, 1913

NERVY HUNTER RIDES A BUCK NINE MILES

Kingston, Nov. 15—Vernon Rider, of this town had a thrilling adventure while hunting deer yesterday when he rode nine miles through the dense forest on the back of an enraged buck.

After following the animal for several hours Rider got a shot at the buck and missed. The deer was in an open space and charged. Rider did not dare run and stood for the buck, which rushed head down at him.

To keep from being gored Rider seized the enraged animal by the antlers and the deer's head in rising threw the hunter astride the back. Locking his feet under the stomach of the buck Rider held on to the antlers.

The buck plunged into the forest and as Rider could not let go his hold he was carried, as near as he could estimate, about nine miles. The infuriated animal tried to throw the unwelcome rider and brushed against trees and rocks. Rider's clothes were torn to shreds, but he held fast.

Peter B. Markle, an old hunter, saw the deer coming with Rider and he fired a heavy ball through the animal's fore shoulder. The buck fell and Rider landed in the branches of a spruce tree. He was badly bruised.

The buck was old and savage, had four prongs on the antlers and weighed more than 200 pounds.

—Orange County Times-Press, Middletown, New York, November 18, 1913, page 5.

Trappers Prophesy a Long, Hard Winter

Michigan, 1919--

TRAPPERS PROPHESY LONG, HARD WINTER

THEY SAY NATURE HAS GIVEN ANIMALS ESPECIAL PROTECTION AGAINST COLD

Old heads in the trapping game go, each year, to the woods during the fall, to return before Thanksgiving time to tell the populace the character of the approaching weather. Their prophecy is based upon observation of nature's devices to protect her four footed charges from weather. No one doubts these prophets whose testimony is given below:

For weeks the beaver dams have been winter proof with the food supplies in. The dams this year are larger than formerly.

Bruin's coat is as glossy now as in mid-January. This means a cold winter sure, trappers say.

Immense flocks of geese have gone south. The north was deserted by them weeks ago.

Tree "cooties" are scarce and are nearer the ground than usual. Moss is heavier, bark is thicker, buds of trees are warmly encased.

Deer are herding early and all fur-bearing animals are a month nearer "prime."

--Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan, November 20, 1919, page 13.

Boxing News: The Vader White Hope Loses in First Round

Centralia, Washington, 1913
----------
FARMER AND SWAIN BOUT CALLED DRAW

Frank Farmer, of Kapowskin, and Joe Swain, of Portland, fought six rounds to a draw at the local armory before a big crowd of fight fans last night. The decision of Referee Biddy Bishop proved to be popular with the crowd, the fight being one of the most closely contested and the "scrappiest" ever witnessed in Centralia. Farmer led in the earlier part of the fight, while Swain came back for the best of it in the latter rounds. In the curtain raiser Battling Burley disposed of Billy McFadden, the Vader white hope, in one round.

--Daily Chronicle-Examiner, Centralia, Washington, August 30, 1913, page 6.



Chehalis, Washington, 1921
----------
FIND BIG MUSHROOM.

Sidney Jefferts and H. Ailsworth went deer hunting last Sunday. Game was scarce, but the trip was worth while, as they found a 16½ -pound mushroom. They have decided now to go mushroom hunting instead of after deer.

--The Chehalis Bee-Nugget, Chehalis, Washington, October 28, 1921, page 3.