Newspaper Page Text
Uie Kino Beasts?
______ gp LL big game hunters are divid
|f ' TI d| e a j n their opinions as to
UH which is the most dangerous
JF H animal to hunt in Africa.
Some select the lion, others
the buffalo, others again the
rhinoceros, while the greater
majority natae the elephant.
It is purely a matter of which
animal/ in the hunter’s own
experience, has been the most
dangerous.
Personally, as the result of
many/ years’ experience with
big game in Africa, I chose the
elepkant as the most danger
ous/ Perhaps I have been un-
duly fortunate In e*tounters wit* the lion, and
that alone makes him appear anything but the
“king of beasts” that he is so pqbuiarly supposed
to be.
I have invariably experienced the greatest dan
ger in hunting where elephants were concerned.
With Hons I have never had any serious trouble.
In fact J have rather a sneaking contempt for
them, for they are harmless except when they
are wounded and followed into the long grass, or
in the case of a lioness with cubs. So great a
contempt have the men in East Africa for them
that they have now taken to hunting them on
horseback, riding them down and shooting them
with revolvers. , .
J shall endeavor to show why the hunters of
Africa look so lightly upon these tawny beasts
of the jungle. I must confess, unless I be mis
understood, that lions may be as dangerous and
even more so than other animals of the plains oi
forests, under certain circumstances, but it has
never ben my lot ter experience any great dan
ger from them. This is primarily due to an in
born caution begot as the result of seven years’
hunting in the wilderness of tropical Africa.
At times there are man-eaters at large, but for
the most part they are lions that have tasted
blood or that are too old to hunt their natural
prey, the zebras.
Man-eaters are a rarity rather than otherwise
in East Africa and Uganda. In fact I know of
only one case where a white man has been eat
en by a lion during the whole seven years of my
residence in East Africa. The story of this is
dreadful enough in its pitiless detail, but there
is a touch of humor in the story, notwithstand
ing.
I was stationed at a small outlying government
post early in 1904, when a native came in one
day and reported that a white man, who had
been prospecting for land, had disappeared and
left his caravan of porters’ almost starving some
days ’march away from my post. I hastened out
to search for the mail and to .relieve the porters
from their predicament.
On my arrival at the camp I fount that the
porters had no idea what had becom<i of their
master. At first I suspected foul play, but later
came to the conclusion that the man hid fallen
victim to a prowling beast of the juggles. I
,’kstituted a close search and eventuall.- found
tL head and shoulders of the poor fellow.
’ ijp hart bee*' eaten by a lion, of thawbere
could be no mistake, judging by the remains.
The remnants of the body were in a bad slate
of decompositioon and I had them placed In a
packing-case for burial. On my way to the grave
to perform the burial service I was almost over
come with laughter, despite the sad occasion,
by observing on the packing-case coffin the sten
ciled words, “Keep in a cool place,” “Stow away
from the boilers.” The packing-case had keen’S
used, to ship cans of butter to East Africa, hence
the painted signs.
The natives occasionally fall victims to the
depredations of lions, but the white man rarely
does for some unknown reason. Even then the
deaths are more often due to gangrene setting
in where men have been mauled and rarely from
actual direct killing.
’ 1^ remember well my first meeting with a lion.
I was coming home from a dinner party late at
night in Nairobi, the capital of East Africa, and
had decided to inspect one of my military guards
on the government railway buildings. When I
had approached near enough to the sentry to
hear what was going on, I was surprised to hear
him banging the corrugated iron wall of the
building with the butt end of his Martini-Henri
rifle. He was shouting “Shoo! shoo!” at the top
of his voice.
I ran toward him to discover what was the
matter.
“Why are you making this noise, you fool?”
I cried.
“I lion, sir, very near, eating a zebra,” be re
plied.
I ran forward and there, sure enough, was a
big black-maned Hon, in the bright moonlight,
eating a zebra within fifty yards of the sentry.
He had evidently chased the zebra into the
township, killed it and was now happily taking
his supper. He paid not the slightest attention
to the sentry’s noise, but kept on tearing great
masses of flesh from the zebra’s carcass, purring
; loudly all the time like a huge cat.
My sympathy was with the sentry, for he dare
not leave his post and he dare not Are at the
Hoon, for he was uncertain as to the accuracy of
his old weapon, which had been condemned for
many years by the government and was now
totally unfit for use.
• Telling the sentry to take advantage of the
safety offered him at the top of a near-by lamp
post, I hastened to my house to get my sporting
rifle. In order to do this I had to pass within
one hundred yards of the lion, who paid no atten
tion to me at all. I hurried back to the spot
with my trusty rifle and fired at the lion, badly
wounding it. He dashed off into the plains be
hind the town, emitting angry roars as he went.
I decided to follow him for a time at least, but
after a tiring chase he outdistanced me and I
was forced to return to bed.
Next morning I rode out into the plains and
searched for him. I soon picked up his spoor
. and in two hours had killed my first lion within
h few miles of Nairobi township. He was a very
fine specimen and well worthy of my initial ef
fort in lion-hunting. I was justly proud of my
aeni’evement, but had to submit to a consider
able amount of good-natured chaff from my
brother officials for being so keen as to hunt my
first Hon by moonlight in the streets of the town.
On another occasion a young Hon cub was
found by a party of us under the raised floor of
the • corrugated-iron postoflice building in the
main street of Nairobi. It had apparently come
lute town with its mother to view it by night
and feed probably been frightened by something
and taken refuge un
der the postoffice. Any
way, whatever the
cause if its arrival,
the fact remains that
it was very’ easily
caught and adopted by
the postmaster. It
grew into a fine-sized
lion before it took
some silly, childish,
x Hon complaint and
went the way of all of
us. The game warden
of the country had
twQ young lion cubs
in his garden and
used them as pets.
They were the Two
most playful young
sters imaginable and
spent their spare mo
ments stalking any
one who might be call
ing on the owner. I
remember taking a lit
tle girl to see them on
one occasion. The two
cubs immediately be
gan to stalk her in a
most realistic manner,
much to her embar
rassment. They died
after a short time in captivity. It often happens
this way.
A party of us went out one Sunday after lions
and adopted the novel method of riding them
down on pony-back. We had not been out long
before we “put up” a big tawny fellow and imme
diately gave chase. There were four of us in
the party and we soon rounded the lion up in
fine shape. While one of us fired at him in the
open plain with a revolver, wounding him badly,
he came to bay, clawing up the earth in huge
patches with his claws and emitting terrifying
roars.
We closed In upon him from all sides, having
much ado in getting our ponie^ to face the un
usual situation. One man rode in close and fired
at him with a revolver. The lion was wounded
mortally for tho secund time, but sprang sav
agely at him and seized him by the leg. We
were horrified to see the lion drag him off his
pony to the ground and rode forward to the res
cue. We killed the lion over his body and so
saved his life, but unfortunately our efforts were
unavailing, for, after living through an agony
' of torture for a week or more, he died from gan
grene poisoning.
$ That it the first and only case where the hunt
ers have suffered from this new and invigorating
form of sport. It beats pig-sticking as an excit
ing form of sport and is infinitely more enervat
ing than shooting lions by approved methods of
hunting. There is something in the wild ride
and the attendant risk which is altogether fasci
nating and irresistible for most men who have
once tried this method of lion-hunting.
Quite a number of lions have fallen victims
in the field as the result of this new plan of at
tack. In fact, the game warden has no less than
four lions to his credit from this method of kill
ing alone, to say nothing of the numbers which
have fallen to his rifle by the accepted form of
slaying.
I was in the Sotlk country one day, trailing
out to Inspect a detachment of my force, who
were on outpost duty. I was alone, about an
hour's march ahead of my porters and escort and.
it being very hot, I decided to sit and rest until
my caravan came up with me. I saw a large and
shady bush a short distance from my trail and
decided that this would be a very suitable spot
to rest. I went over to it and threw myself un
der its welcome shade. Then I took a satisfy
ing drink from my water-bottle and filled my
pipe. I must have sat there for over an hour,
smoking and thinking of what I should do when
I reached London for my six months' holiday,
which was within measurable distance. , •
I thought of no danger and smoked and built
castles in the air. In due course my porters
hove in sight and as they approached they began
to sing lustily. Suddenly from behind me some
thing big moved. There was an instantis swish
ing of the grass and the pracking of twigs and
then, lo and behold, a big black-maned lion bound
ed away from the other side of the bush! I was
too astonished to fire and could oply stare after
it, open-mouthed with astonishment.
I do not know to this day what had really
happened, but I suspect that the lion had been
asleep in the shade on the other side of the bush,
as unaware of my presence as I was of his. It
was certainly a remarkable experience and a
laughable one, although, in all . conscience, it
might have ended very differently. My native
porters and servants were firmly convinced that
I had the evil eye and therefore the lion would not
attack me. Nothing could shake their faith in my
power over the “king of beasts.” If I had known
of the proximity of this wonderfully fine speci
men. I should certainly not have sat down and
smoked so unconcernedly beside the thorn-bush.
At Muhoronl station in the Nyando valley,
near Lake Victoria, in the latter part of 1904 I
was taking a stroll out from the camp when the
sun had cooled off in the evening. I knew that
no lions were ever seen in this vicinity and so
did not bother to take a gun with me. My sport
ing little fox-terrier, “Micky Doolan,” kept me
company .
I turned my footsteps toward a small stream
about a mile and a half from the camp. On ar
rival at the banks of the almost drled-up river,
I stood for a while watching a young reed buck
gamboling with its mother. Micky Doolan chased
imaginary rats with deep content. Suddenly the
^4 Hunter 's Tale of
the Lion a? he Finds
him -Dangerous and
Contemptible. ty
W. Robert fbran
COPYRIGHT W PICGWCf co.
long grass on the opposite bank moved apart and
a graceful young lioness stepped out into the
open! I was considerably taken aback, for I had
no means of offense or defense; moreover, she
was less than a stone’s throw away from me.
I looked at her and she looked at me. Then
as quietly as she had come, she departed. My
dog had run toward me meanwhile and caught
^/glimpse of the lioness disappearing in the long
grass, lie dashed after lifer, and I had much ado
to recall him. The lioness crashed off at a gal
lop into the plains and that w,as the last I saw
of her. It was certainly a little upsetting and
quite spoiled my afternoon’s stroll. Needless to
say I returned to my camp and next time I took
a stroll I carried my gun with me. It is strange
that the lioness should have been in these parts,
for never before had one been ssen in that neigh
borhood.
However, a few days later I left Muhoroni to
run into Kisumu —forty miles away. I traveled
by a hand-propelled trolley on the railway. The
tri-weekly passenger train from the coast to the
lake had preceded me by a bare fifteen minutes.
Less than three miles out of Muhoroni station,
as we were descending a dip in the railway, I
noticed something on the track. We were ap
proaching it at a high rate of speed and I could
not at first make out what it was. Suddenly,
when only about sixty yards away, two young
lionesses got up slowly from the track, where
they were lazily stretching themselves, and
climbed the bank beside the track!
I had only’ a shotgun and did not dare fire at
them, for I had only small bird-shot with me and
only two shells in all. I shouted to my native
trolley boys to make the machine travel at its
highest speed and they stuck to their work like
heroes. We dashed past the two lionesses and
began our ascent of the rise. Luckily the two
cats did not attempt to follow or attack us.
As far as I know, these are the only two occa
sions on which lions have been seen in this sec
tion of the country.
But all my many encounters have not been so
easy as these. On some occasions they have
shown fight in a most determined manner. One
in particular gave me some very anxious mo
ments. I was out hunting meat and picked up
the fresh trai^ of a Hon. I decided to follow and
in due course came up with him. He was a
fine, unmaned specimen and a full-grown one.
I cast envious eyes upon his hide and decided,
come w'hat might, to add him to my trophies.
Then began a hard stalk. The lion would dash
off at a great speed and then- disappear in the
long grass. I would follow as fast as I could, and
on reaching the spot where I had last seen him,
would advance with great caution. Then he
would spring out and dash off again. This was
repeated several times and it tired me and so I
lost patience. I esayed a long shot and hit him.,
He disappeared in the long grass with a roar of
pain and anger.
I advanced carefully, keeping a watchful eye
for possible developments. I could see and hear
where he was, but could not get him to come out
Into the open. I knew that it was supreme folly
to follow him into the long grass—in fact it was
courting certain death. I decided to burn him
out.- My porters and myself set fire to- the long
grass and then I stood ready to kill as the big
beast dashed for safety.
Suddenly with a mighty roar he came bound
ing in huge leaps toward me. I fired straight at
his chest and raked him through the entire
length of his body. I fired a second shot and still
he came on, although he was mortally wounded.
My gun bearer handed me my second gun and I
fired again quickly, this time killing him. His
huge body fell with a crash almost at my feet
and I was able to breathe again freely, it had
been a very exciting few jninutes and at one time
> it looked as if the lion might win. The skin
was ruined as far as being a good specimen was
1 ‘concerned, for my shots had seriously damaged
it. However, he made a bully trophy and I was
> quite pleased with the results of my shoot. If
I had followed him into the long grass I should
i most Certainly have been badly mauled so that
I must have died either from shock or from gan
, grene poisoning. Nearly every man who has
died at the hands of a lion has done so as the
[ result of following a wounded lion into cover
> foolishly-
RM
tew
MAKING YOUR OWN BROODER
Direction* and Illustrations Given of
Suitable Shelter for the
Little Chickens.
In describing a brooder that she had
constructed herself and used success
fully, Mrs. Belle Stiles says in the
Missouri Valley Farmer:
A box 2% feet wide by 3% or 4 feet
long is made of matched lumber, eight
inches deep inside measure. A box
cover six Inches deep is hinged to
J
S “notch y
s <<
X Q__
DOOR
END VJEW OFBOX COMPLETE
CYLINDER /WATER PLUG
Home-Made Brooder.
one side, and is hinged again in the
center. A notch Is made in each end
of the box one-third of the way across
from the hinged side, with correspond
ing notches in the cover, and in these
notches rests a cylindrical *tank for
heating the brooder. Windows should
be put in the front, and a door in one
end. Small holes should be bored in
the ends of the cover for ventilation.
The cylinder tank is made of gal
w.
LAMP
With Tank in Place.
vanized tin, with a hollow tube
through the center of such a size that
heat from a lamp can be turned in
with an elbow. On the top of the cyl
inder there should be a sajew plug for
putting in water. The tank 1 when filled
with water is heated by the hot air in
the hollow tube. This center tube
should be long enough to extend
through the brooder box and to the
lamp set outside. The box should be
carpeted with paper or litter, the tank
put in place and filled with boiling
water, the lamp put In position and
the brooder allowed to warm up be
fore the chicks are put in. When in
position the cylinder should be two
inches from the bottom. After the
heat is up the lamp may be turned
very low. If the chicks are too warm
the cover may be raised and a stick
slipped under the edge to give more
air. Don’t overcrowd. Give planty of
warm water in cold weather. Don’t
overheat. Give plenty of grit. Keep
clean. It’s a joy to raise chickens by
this method, and these brooders if
properly cared for will last for years.
MARGIN OF PROFIT AND LOSS
Record of the Cost of Production and
Sales Will Determine Whether
Hens Are Paying.
A flock of hens should be made to
pay a good dividend on the invest
ment. If they do not do this there is
something radically wrong some
where along the line.
If you have kept a record of the
cost of production and the sales you
will be able to tell whether or not
your hens are paying. Hens that are
laying an average of 50 or 60 per cent,
are doing well and will make a good
showing on the right side of the cash
book. Any averages above that will
be so much more gain and will more
than justify keeping the birds.
It. they fall way below this mark
you better. Investigate and find out
the cause of the trouble. It may be
that you have a poor strain of birds,
that you are not feeding the right
kinds of foods or in sufficient quan
tities, or that you are not giving them
the .proper attention that they must
have la order to be great producers.
Studying Needs of One Breed.
It is poor policy for a beginner to
endeavor to keep several breeds of
poultry. The probabilities are that he
will give them all like attention and
food when they need to be treated
according to their natural dispositions
and peculiar needs.
The results are that he will favor a
certain breed because they do better
for him, when In reality the others
would have done just as well If they
had received the treatment which was
due them. Do not attempt too much,,
but select a breed and then a variety
and stick to them.
Discard Mongrels.
Mongrel fowls should not be kept
for egg production because the eggs
will be uniform neither in color nor
size. This factor of Itself is of enough
importance to induce one to -select a
pure breed, even though the mongrels
might possibly lay as well aS the re
bred fowls, but this is very dotrt^ul
MACON, DUBLIN AND SAVANNAH
RAILROAD COMPANY
i^CAL TIM® TABLE.
- t
Effective July 2, 1911.
No.lß N 0.20 Stations? ”Naiy - No4T
A.M. P.M. Lv. Ar. A.M. TUBE
"tTw 3-25 Macon 11:15
7:22 3:37 Swiftcreek 11:03 4:20
7:30 3:45 Drybranch 10:55 4t12
7:34 3:49 Atlantic 10:51 4;09
7:38 3:53 Pike’s Peak 10:48 4^06
7:45 4:00 Fitzpatrick 10:42 4:00
7:50 4:04 Ripley 10:37 3:5|
8:00 4:14 Jeff’sonvllle 10:27 3:4S
8:10 4:23 Gallemore 10:15 3:30
8:20 4:33 Danvilel 10:07 3:2®
8:25 4:38 Allentown 10:02 3:11
8:34 4:47 Montrose 9:53 3:OS
8:44 4:57 Dudley 9:42 2:5®
8:50 5:03 Shewmake 9:36 2:5®
8:55 5:09 Moore 9:29 2:41
8:10 5:25 ar lv 9:15 2:3®
Dublin
1:15 5:30 lv ar 9:10 2:2®
9:17 5:32 SouMD&SJct 9:08 2:2®
9:21 5:36 NorMD&SJct 9:04 2:l®
9:31 5:45 Catlin 8:54 2:09|
9:40 5.54 Mintor 8:47 2:011
9:50 6:05 Rockledge 8:36 1:501
9:55 6:10 Orland 8:31 1:45
10:08 6:23 Soporton 8:19 1:33’
10:19 6:34 Tarrytown 8:07 1:211
10:26 6:41 Kibbee 8:00 1:15
10:40 6:55 Vidalia 7:45 1:00
r CONNECTIONS.
At Dublin with the Wrightsville and
Tennille and the Dublin, and South
western for Eastman and Tennille
and Intermediate points.
A-t Macon iwth Southern railway
from and to Cincinnati, Chattanooga,
Rome, Birmingham, Atlanta and in
termediate points. Also the Central
of Georgia, G., S. & F. railway, Mar
son and Birmingham railway and th*
Georgia railroad.
At Rockledge with the Millen and
Southwestern for Wadley and Inter
mediate points.
At Vidalia with the Seaboard Air
Line for Savannah and intermediate
points, and with the Millen and South
western for Millen, Stillmore and in
termediate points.
J. A. STREYER, G. P. A.,
Macon, Ga.
Foley’s
□RIND
Laxative
I* Pleasant and KffooUve
CURES
Constipation, Stomach sued
Liver Trouble.
by stimulating these organs and
restoring their natural action.
Xs best for women and chil
dren as ORINO does not gripe
or nauseate.
Pertain* and Stationary
ME
AND BOILERS.
•sot Lath and Shtagto Min* Inj*et*rß|
Pwip* and lItWD, Wom B*wa. SpUbi
CShaMs, Pulbya,
Ragiaaa.
LARQ® STOCK AV
LOMBARD
Paoadry, larthi and Bollrr VwW
Supply Store.
AUGUSTA, BA.
RKETSKnmcm
Shritaa KMaey* and Bladdw Right
LS Your
Printing
CZZJ CZ3
If it is worth
doing at all,
it’s worth do
ing well
□
/ Fust class work
at all times is
I
our motto.
□
Let us figure
} with you on
। your next job.
’ r —
I I . ■ IIIIWI— a ’■■■■ ■■ ss
