Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by Georgia HomePLACE, a project of the Georgia Public Library Service.
About The Henry County weekly. (McDonough, GA.) 18??-1934 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 1908)
way lead through the lono And thy way lead o’er the hills, I reel and I know That we both but go * To the tryst which a long love wills. For after the gloom of the forest And after the gleam on the crest It cannot but be That for thee and for me olTl b^st,^ e which we both love My first overland journey to Califor nia was made in 1850 with a strong party, consisting of thirty-two well armed men—all, except the guide, un der twenty-seven years of age. We neded to be strong and active, for sometimes for weeks together we lit erally fought our way through swarms of Indians greedy for scalps and plun der. Our eight well-stored wagons, little army of draft mules and twelve saddle horses formed a constant temptation to the red riders of the plain, yet, ow ing to eternal vigilance and superior arms, we reached the Sierra Nevada mountains without losing a man or a beast, although two or three of us had received rather serious arrow wounds. Among our horses was a beautiful . mare, the property of a young Ken tuckian, Tqm Raeburn, who prized the creature all the more highly be cause she had produced on the jour ney a promising foal. This colt, tenderly carried for a few days in one of the wagons, was soon able to keep by its mother’s side on the march. Tom loved it with that of fection which a horseman naturally would give to a little creature whose dam was thoroughbred and whose sire was a famous Kentucky racer. We had been for some days descend ing the Pacific slope ui the Sierras, when one evening we made camp near a gushing spring. In the near neigh borhood of this spring, between our corraled wagons and a- range of rocky spurs, dotted with clumps of mesquit bushes and thorny aloes, lay a level, green oasis of perhaps ten acres of luxuriant pasturage. Having now only the thieving Dig ger Indians to guard against, we some what x’elaxed our accustomed vigilance. Instead of bringing the horses and mules into the corral at nine o’clock as usual, we decided to hopple all but the colt and let them remain on the rich grass until near daybreak in the morning. Then Jim Carroll, a young Vermonter, was to go cut and drive the whole herd to camp, as it is at this hour that wild Indians almost invari ably make their raids. All the rest of us were asleep when the boy left, but shortly afterward were aroused by hearing six pistol shots fired in rapid succession, and Jim’s loud “Hello! Hello' Hello!” the latter sounding more like a hailing cry than a signal of alaun. In a very short time every man of us, dressed or undressed, had tumbled out and grasped his loaded arms, and was rushing toward the pasture. We had barely reached its edge when the whole drove of hoppled animals, pushing each other in frenzied efforts to get away, came clattering and limp ing campward as if in deadly terror. Seeing nothing of the foal, we nat urally supposed that it was jammed in close to its mother’s side among the other horses, and it was not until young Carroll, running from the farth er side of the grass-plot, shouted, “Boys, the colt’s gone!” that we sus pected that anything was wrong. Then Raeburn dashed forward and furiously exclaimed, "Jimmy Carroll; if you’ve let the sneaking Indians steal that colt, I’ll kill you, sure!” “Hold yourself in for a while, Tom,” coolly replied Jim. “I haven’t seen an Indian of any kind, hut I have seen a 1 grizzly bear bigger than a down-east three-year-old steer!” “ Agrizzly! It’s all up, then!” cried Tom. “It happened this way,” said Jim. “I was coming along mighty quiet in the dusk, going off to one side, so as to get behind the horses and mules. They were lying down in a bunch, all but Bay Bess and the colt—they were near er to the mountain than the others. The colt was lying close beside Its mother, and both of them seemed to be asleep. “Then, all of a sudden, a big brind ly gray thing seemed to come right up out of the ground by the colt, and killed it with a single blow of its paw. You should have seen the poor mare! Twice she tried to rear up, so as to strike the bear with her forefeet, but as one of them was hoppled to a hind foot, she couldn’t. Then she gave such a sorrowful kind of whinny that it al most made, me cry, and staggered off after the other horses. “The bear had settled down beside the dead colt. As soon as I’d got with in thirty yards I saw that it was a grizzly, bigger than any we’ve ever seen, and I fired every chamber of my revolver off at it as fast as I could. * Outwitting 1 a Grizzly. By W. THOMSON. OUR WAYS. I strive not to reason or reckon — To parallel paths that divide. But threading the maze Of the tortuous ways We shall yet journey side by side. “Good-night,” let it be, till “Good-mor row"; In love and in faith I shall wait, The veil on thy brow And the syllabeled vow Cannot alter the purpose of Fate. —Waverley Magazine. Some of the balls hit it, I’m sure, but it never stirred till I began to yell. Then it picked up the colt just as easy as a dog does a rabbit, and lumbered off into the mouth of that black-look ing gully among the rocks yonder.” “Well, Jimmy, you’re a tenderfoot and no mistake!” said Dave Ingram, our guide. “Why, boy, don’t you know that you might shoot revolver bullets at thirty yards into an old grizzly’s body all day without hurting him much? It’s a mighty lucky thing he didn’t make a breakfast of you! I’m awful sorry about the colt, though. We ought to have corraled the stock last night, as usual.” “Look here, men,” said Tom Rae burn, "I won’t leave this cafnping ground until I see the skin of that bear spread out on it! If you don’t like to stand by me, I’ll stay here alone till I kill the brute or he kills me.” “Oh, we’ll stand by you,” replied In gram. “I don’t believe we’ll lose much time. The bear will be so full direct ly that he won’t go far, and maybe we can come across him right off. Let us have breakfast first, though.” Vengefully impatient as Tom was, he could not object to breakfast, so we returned to the wagons and had a hearty meal; then the guide selected pine of us, including, of course, Rae burn and Carroll to go with him on the hunt. As we went slowly toward the ravine into which the grizzly had borne his prey, Tom said, “Now, boys, all I ask is this; Let me have the first crack at the bear, if it can be done without risk ing your own lives.” All cheerfully agreed to this, and we then stole along in perfect silence to the mouth of the defile, which was nearly blocked up by masses of fallen rock and shut in on each side by ver tical walls. We saw that the great bear had forced himself and the foal through a three-foot space between tw r o boulders. We saw something else, too, more im portant, namely, that the ravine ex tended into the mountainside no more than a hundred yards; that its bottom , was overgrown by thick scrub, through which ran a narrow, well-beaten trail, and that its farther end was bounded by a confused jumble of detached rocks lying at the base of a perpendicular cliff fully a hundred feet high. “Old Eph’s caged hard and fast, boys!” exclaimed Tom. “There’s only one way for him to get out of here, and all we’ve got to do is to find him.” “Yes, that’s all,” said Ingram dry ly. “But that simple-looking jc'b’s pretty dangerous. Among these stones and bushes we can’t see the grizzly till we run on top of him—and the man who does that will never run again.” “All right, Dave. This is my funer al,” replied Tom. “Let me go ahead, and you fellows follow in single file. If you see me go down, why, you’ll have the satisfaction of finding the bear anyhow.” “Go mighty slow, then, and keep your eyes peeled,” cautioned the guide. “It’s just possible you may catch sight of the beast before he sees you. So long as you see the marks of the colt’s trailing carcass it’s all right; but when those end, don’t you go one step farth er, unless you know to an inch where the bear is, which I guess you won’t do, even if he’s within five yards and has his eye on you at the time. A real old grizzly's as cunning as Satan and quicker than lightning.” The path which we now entered up on looked as if it had been trodden by wild beasts for ages, and was so narrow, so tortuous and so hedged in by thorny scrub and broken rock that two men could hardly have walked on it abreast. Therefore, holding his heavy rifle as does a sportsman his gun while each moment expecting a bird to rise at his feet, Raeburn went first, the rest of us following in a line, and as close together as the effective handling of our firearms would permit. For perhaps eighty yards we thus advanced, the track of the colt’s drag ged body being all the way plainly vis- j ible, as were also, occasionally, the im- ! prints of the bear’s monstrous feet. ' Then our leader stepped, and, half- I turning, said: “This tangled brushwood is at the foot of the precipice, boys. The bear has gone into a sort of black hole in its face, and he’s somewhat among the rocks, but we’ve no more chance ot getting at him there tnan of seeing the middle of last week, though I can I smell him plainly enough. AH you fellows pitch stones into the covert, so as to scare him out, and I’ll stand ready to shoot.” “All right, Tom,” said the guide, “but the old rascal won’t show up if we pelt his lair all day. He scents us a good deal better than you smell him, and now he’s not hungry enough to face the music.” “Looks as if we were beat, boys,” he said, “but I’m not going to give it up so. I’ll have the \ld beast’s hide if I have to camp on his trail for a week.” "I hope you get It,” said Ingram. “Come, men, let's get back to camp. We couldn’t starve that grizzly out in two weeks. He's got a hundred pounds or so of horseflesh left, and you may safe ly bet that there’s a spring of water somewhere among the rocks, else the bushes and spiky aloes wouldn’t be so green.” The nine of us were about to follow Dave’s advice, when Jim Carroll, who stood midway in the line was suddenly inspired to say, “I'll tell you of a plan, boys! There are the fireworks left over from Fourth of July—rockets, crackers, Roman candles, serpents, fireballs and such, that we’ve been keeping for signals or something. I'll go back to the wagons, get an armful of the stuff, climb up around the spur and come out on top of old grizzly’s parlor. Then we’ll have some fun! If I don’t scare him out in short order, I never want to see Vermont again.” “Jimmy, you’re a genius!” cried Tom. The corral was barely a half mile distant. Jimmy sped away at once, and in rather more than an hour there after we heard his jubilant shout from the top of the cliff, and saw his form clearly outlined against the sky. “Here she goes! Look out for your selves, boys!” he shouted, as a giant cracker with lighted fuse descended through the air and exploded with a report like that of a young cannon back in bruin’s stronghold. No result. Probably the old fellow took it for a random shot. Then, fast and furious, falling in a dozen different places, came fireballs, torpedoes, crackers ana Roman can dless, while, as each one left his hands Jimmy danced and cheered and yelled. “He’s up! I can hear him rustling around.” shouted Tom. “Hello, Jim my! Give him the rockets now! He’s straight in a line between you and us. Remember, boys, you promised to give me the first shot! He It be on us in a minute now.” Raeburn stood about fifteen feet from the mouth of the tunnel-like pas sageway, and the others of us, hav ing managed to deploy through the matted bushes, were ranged on each side of him. “I don’t know how rockets’ll act go ing downward,” said Dave Ingram. “The pesky things are built to go up, but we’ll see directly." And we did; for, after a warning cry, Jimmy touched off a big one, which came screeching down to the tops of the bushes, tnen curved up ward and passed dangerously close to our heads before exploding. “Tie stones to their heads and send down two together next time, Jim!” shouted Tom. “All right!” And twenty seconds afterward the yoked pair of screaming missiles hurtled down into the exact spot where we supposed the bear to be, exploded on touching the ground, and sent a tremendous shower of flam ing sparks through «very part of the dense scrub-wood. This was more than Uncle Ephraim could stand. With an appalling cry, j something between the trumpeting of j a maddened elephant and the fierce ! challenge of a charging wild boar, he came rushing cut, his small, wicked eyes glowing like of fire, his great mouth wide open, and the hair on his enormous neck standing staight up like living wire. At this crisis I curiously watched Tom Raeburn. He stood with levied rifle, steady as a rock, without a trem or of a muscle; and when the raging brute had wholly emerged from the opening, he fired pointblank at his head. But although he had purposely aimed rather low, to allow for the creature’s speed, it was coming so much faster than he thought that his bullet struck too high up, glanced off the sloping skull, and stopped the monster’s onward rush for a bare half second. But that was enough. “Together, boys, straight for the brain! Fire!” shouled Ingram. The eight rifles rang out like one re port. No glancing now. Standing partly sidewise to the bear, we had a perfeet crossfire on him; every bul \et crashed through his brain, and, carried somewhat forward by the im petus of his charge, he>dropped dead at Tom’s feet. Only then were we able to realize how enormous the beast really was. We had no means of weighing the mighty carcass, but the guide, who had killed many grizzlies, estimated it at fully one thousand pounds. Removing the immense, heavy pelt—unanimously voted to Tom —was a fearful job. Long before it was completed Jimmy Carroll justly, proud of his exploit, rejoined us. “I guess that bear was a Mexican,” he sagely remarked. “Why, a ten vear-old girl down in Vermont doesn’t scare at fireworks as he did!”—Youth’s Companion. NO DIFFERENCE. The great crusade for righteousness Has ruined business, shattered stocks; The smallest berries, still we note, Are at the bottom of the box. A ROYAL JOKE. “Who waits without?" asked his nibs. “A creditor with a bill, your majesty.” "Tell him to go without.”—Cleve land Leader. PERIL. “Yes,” said the mild-mannered man; “I have been where the bullets fell thickest.” “A war veteran?” “No. Guide in the Maine woods.” —"Washington Star. EASY. “I see a premiere danseuse is ad vertised to dance with five snakes twined about her.” “Should think she would. If a snake got on me I’ll bet I’d dance."— Philadelphia Ledger. HE KNEW. Teacher—“ You have named all the domestic animals save one. It has bristly hair, it is grimy, likes dirt and is fond of mud. Well, Tom?” Tom (shamefacedly) “That's me."—Philadelphia Inquirer. NEW USE OF THE MOTOR. He—“ Alice, you’ve been eating onions again?" She—" Yes, dear.” He—“ Well, come out with me in my motor car and see if I can’t take your breath away.”—Tit-Bits. HE TRAVELED LIGHT. “That hallroom boarder moved to day. ” "I didn’t see any trunk go out.” “There was none. I guess he placed his effects in an envelope and mailed ’em to the new address.”—Kansas City Journal. HIS FIRST CIGAR. “Ah, my lad,” sighed the benevo lent old gentleman, “it certainly makes me feel bad to see you smok ing that vile cigar!” "Den we can shake, mister,” re sponded Tommy, making a wry face. “It makes me feel bad, too." —Chi- cago News. THE CAPTAIN. Small Boy (reciting “Casablanca”) —“The boy stood on the burning deck, whence ‘Sawbuty’ had fled—” Smaller Brother (showing inteli gent interest) —“Who was ‘Saw buty?’ ” Small Eoy—-“I s’pose he must have been the captain.”—Philadelphia In quirer. A CAUSE OF JOY. Jamie was begging his father for a second helping of preserves. “When I was a boy,” said his papa, "my father only allowed me to have one helping.” Jamie was silent for a minute, and then asked: “Aren’t you glad you live with us now, daddy?”—Denver Republican. A WOMAN’S REASONS. Wife—“ Geoffrey, I believe you are leading a double life.” Indignant Husband—“ Have I ever given you the slightest ground for any suspicion of that kind?” Wife —“Yes; you eat twice as much as I do, you travel twice as much as I do, and your clothes cost twice as much as mine do.”—Chicago Tribune. NO WORK FOR HIM. “But,” said the good old lady, “why don’t you go to work?” “Why, ma’am,” began the disrepu table old loafer, “yer see, I got a wife an’ five children to support—” “But how can you support them if you don’t go to work?” “As I was a-sayin’, lady, I got a wife an’ five children to support me.” —Catholic Standard and Times. A SUCCESSFUL AUTHOR. "I understand that Mr. Pennink Is making a tremendous success sell ing short stories to the magazines,” remarks the man with the frayed collar. “Yes, he’s a smooth one,” replies the man with the leaky fountain pen. "He must be, to sell his stories. I don’t see anything about them to make the magazine editors crazy to buy them.” “Well, he has a gift of rhyming, you know, and when he sends a short story to a magazine he throws in a poem of the right brevity to fill the bottom of the page on which the story will end ’’ —Judge, - LATE HEWS NOTES. General. Ascending in an airship In order to be able to scatter money among the people with more quality is the ex perience of E. E. Oscar Hart, a min ing man cf Skiddoo, Caff. At an amusment park in Los Angeles, Cal., Hart ascended for twenty minutes in an airship while he threw handsful cf money to a crowd of two thousand people below. He is said to have dis posed of a considerable sum. With two hundred and sixty seal skins taken nearer the south pole than any sealers have been before, tlw sealing schooner Agnes G. Dona hue has arrived at Dunban, South Af rica. The Agnes G. Donahue left Halibax, N. S., September 1 on what is to be the longest sealing cruise ever taken. Arrangements have been made looking to the establishment In Pe kin, China, of an American branch of the International Banking corpora tion. This is the first American bank in the east to join the group of Brit ish, French, German and Japanese in stitutions which has been in exis tence here since 1902. The purposa of the Pekin branch is to test the op portunities for American capital, es pecially in connection with the devel opment of Manchuria. “Insanity grows three times as fast in proportion as the increase in population in the United States.” Dr. David Paulson, president of the anti cigareet league, made this statement in Chicago recently. “China,” he con tinued, "used twenty-six grains of op ium last year for every man, woman and child. The United States used fifty-six grains. There are at least one million opium users in this coun try.” The people of Chicago are suffering from melancholia because they have too few amusements and too much se verity in life. They ought to get all the wholesome fun possible out of life. This was the view expressed by the Rev. Johnston Myers, in an address to Baptist ministers of that city. The speaker made a plea for the theater, the dance and a moro tolerant application of religion. Tho city council of Bessemer, Ala., has included an itom in the annual license schedule of that city Imposing a tax of ssl) a year on bachelors over the age of thirty. Wc»hington Under authority of the recent Riv ers and Harbors Congress convention. Representative Randsoll of Louisiana, has announced the appointment of a committee to prepare measures to be introduced in congress providing for an issue of $500,000,000 bonds for financing .the national waterway pro jects and to create a commission to investigate the waterways here and abroad. It is not feasible and desirable at the present time for the government to purchase, to install or to operate pneumatic tubes. This is one of the most important conclusions reached by a commission appointed by the postmaster general to inquire into the question of the feasibility and desir ability of the government purchasing and operating pneumatic tubes iu the cities where the service is now in stalled, which was transmitted to congress by Postmaster General Mey er. the conclusions of which he ap proves. , I 1 Secretary Strauss has referred to a special committee in the department of commerce and labor the advisabili ty of calling together important la bor leaders, publicists and directors of big industries to consider several questions of importance throughout the country. He suggested that the meeting be held at the department of commerce and labor about January 2. An order has been signed by Post master General Meyer advancing two hundred fourth class postofilces to the presidential class, effective January 1. Postmasters of the presidential class are allowed salary of from SI,OOO to $1,500 in place of the fourth-clas3 stamp commission. The president has sent to the sen aate the following nominations: Mem ber of the Isthmian canal commis sion, Lieutenant-Colonel Harry F. Hodges, corps of engineers. Captains to be rear admirals: William P. Pot ter, Newton E. Mason. Register of land office: Harry H. Myers, at Lit tle Rock, Ark. In his report to General Marshall, the chief of engineers of the army, Captain G. It. Lukesh, who was sent to Pine Bluff, Ark., to ascertain whether additional funds are neces sary for the work at that placo on the Arkansas river, says the balance of the $19,000 fund available at the be ginning of the present emergency is insufficient for the protection work needed for the safety of Pine Bluff against the high waters of the com ing winter. Portraying Augustus Saint Gaud <»ns as a great scuiptor, whose works will stand in the very forefront among the masterpieces of the great est periods and the greatest people, President Roosevelt at an exhibition of St. Gaudens’ works at the Coroco ran Gallerp of Art. under the auspi ces of the American Institute of Arch tects, paid eulogium to that artist’s mastery of his craft. In announcing that the new 10-cent special delivery stamp would be placed on sale in Washington, the postoffice department called attention to its opposition to discontinuing its use of that stamp. This is despite the authorized practice of affixing the words “special delivery” written or printed on the envelope, in addi tion to the ordinary postage '}
