American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-12-06
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A BUFFALO FIGHT.

he had gone back into the herd and stared
at his descendants, end paved and groan-
ed, as much as fifty times. The long hair
upon his huge neck was tangled and
pulled until tufts of it hung loose and I'M
kempE The outer fibers of his huge black
horns Aung in filaments and splinters
His wicked little eyes had a reddish glare,
and his beard was limp and froth-wet be
meath his chin. Nor was this all. Sundry
long. oblique. hairless, lines appeared on
his flank, and he pat-5l bis left forefoot
down tenderiy, sxsfy lkNy remembering,
at the same time, square 1ounce he had
got yesterday on the shoulder from some
strong ched'younRster that had taken il
upon himself to whip his father.
He stood little upon the outskirts now,
his bead toward me, pretending to eat
grass II was as nice heritage as bull.
whose teeth were probably none of the
very best, could wish-the first tender
growth of the early spring But still he
did not seem to enjAy it. At intervals OF
a minute or SO he would look round
quickly over his shoulder and groan, and
stand thinking, and then pretend to eat
again. To this distressful pantomine the
ten thousand shaggy grazers paid not the
least attention. They were busy. Icould
hear them cropping the grass, as lay
there, with a continuous rasping sound.
1t was only too evident thai of all those
cows whom he had so often combed into
curliness with his long tongue of sunny
mornings, and led and herded and fought
for; of. all the little, stupid, hump backed,
stump tailed calves, his own offspring,
there was not one who did not wish him
disposed of according to buffalo destiny,
or who cared how soon his last fight with
the coyotes was over, and his monumental
skull left standing upon its Jagged base
on the bleak hilltop, with scarce SO much
as a thigh-bone or a tuft of brown hair by
way of obituary.
But this old one was still buffalo, and
he kept surreptitiously getting nearer and
nearer to the ragged border of the herd.
Presently calf came toward him slow
ly and in an investigatory sort of way, its
little black nose wet and wrinkled, its lit
tie brown TANKS distended with fullness,
and the white milk froth depending in
long threads from its mouth. Gradually
and slowly he went up to his father, and
the two had just touched noses amicably,
when the mother took it into her head to
be friendly, and came too. Then came
another COW, and another, and presently
quite little wing of the herd had gath
cred there, and the battered old warrior
looked around him complacently. This
kind of thing had doubtless happened so
often that Il wonder he did not seem to
think OF the result, but he did not. He
might have known that he had arrived at
that age when the young bloods of the
herd would not look complacently upon
his aged gallantries. He was simply lay
ing the plans for another fight, and the
trouble began in the very midst of his
content. ,......-
A fellow as big as the old one must
have seen this social gathering from some
distance, and threw out certain intima-
tions of his approach by little puffs of
dust which flew high in the air above the
crowd, and by ominous snortings and
lugubrious groans. The old one stopped
chewing with . green nouthftll between
his lips, and listened. The cows looked
round with the complacent expression
which seemed to say that the fight was
none Of theirs, and crowded off upon
either side, and very soon the antagonists
stood facing each other. The old boy
Strengthened out his wisp of tail to a
line with his back, gathered his four
black hoofS together, arched his spine
and placed his nose close to the sod, shak-
ing his huge head as though he wished
to satisfy himself finally of its freedom
from any ENHANCEMENT which would him
der him from just tossing that ambitious
yeungster over his back and breaking
him in two. The other came slowly,
twisting his tail from side to side in semi
aiDaeasyhaEhx we1D -veryrdcfberxfez and'
grand for so small an organ. He took
pains to make il distinctly appear that
every hair he wore was angry. His eyes
rolled in constantly increasing redness.
His black, sharp horns were encrusted
with earth gathered while he had been
tearing the sod in ecstasy of valor His
nostrils were distended, and he halted in
his slow advance to toss the broken sod
high over his shoulders with his paving.
He was, in natural way, tactician- He
made flank movements, and turned his
shaggy sides, first one and then the other,
toward his huge antagonist.
But this by-play of battle only hindered
the final onset-they by no means intend
ed to take it out in vaporing. The chal-
getting angrier and angrier as he came
Suddenly there was crash which had in
it something HOmeric. One rafting
onset of that kind leaves one In no doubt
as to why the short, strong horns of the
buffalOes have a splintered appearance at
the apices. Then there was long
steady push, in which every tendon of the
huge bodies was strained to the uttermost
Then there was strategic easing off, then
a sudden, gladiatorial thrust, which
pressed the huge heads to the ground in
an even balance of strength. Neither
beast dared relax a muscle or retreat an
inch, for fear of that fatal charge upon
the flank or that dangerous twist of
the neck, which means defeat
And now the cows returned and looked
complacently on, and the very calves be-
gan to shake their heads in the first vague
instinct of combativeness inspired
by the battle of the bulls. And the
young lordlings of the herd distended
their nostrils and elevated their tails, but
forbore any interference. 1t was duel a
Poutrance. A momentary relaxation of
the tremendous strain only resulted in
the shaggy heads coming together again
with dull thump, and renewal of the
logged pushing which might have moved
a freight train. 1t was matter of lungs
and endurance, and the white froth began
to drop in long, tenacious strings from
their lips, and the red eyes to glare dimIy
through what seemed clots of blood. I
could hear the labored breathing where |
lay, and see the tendons stand out across
the thi CHS and along the thick necks
But this dead set of strength could not
last always. Every moment of time was
telling disastrously upon the shorter wind
and decayin strength of the old crusader,
who still fought for the loves of his
youth. His foot slipped, and the intelli-
gence of this slight disaster seemed to
reach his antagonist quicker than a flash
of light No gladiator ever urged his ad-
vantage more suddenly. There was a
huge lunge, sound Of horns slipping
upon each other, plunge forward,
and the horn of the younger bull had
made raking upward stroke through his
antagonists flank. The fight now be-
came brisk. Again and again the old one
turned and tried to make the old stand Of
head to head, and as often his more active
a ~ ca1tnhf Il i'm behind ha chnp