The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-01-07

rifle. They know tnat Jhey are no ac-
count. No ody bankers after crow-meat,
and no hunter wastes powder and shot
them. Why, I've been hunting and had
the crows follow me and point out the
game. They were willing to take their
Share of the work too, and were satisfied
with the leavings. If a man only knows
how to take MIN, crows just as good as
dog. When Fge been jumping a bear or
deer, rve ma the crows light on the
srees above 'em and sing out: Here he is,
old man, down below here Go for hiru ?
And if shot and missed, those crows
would actually get disguised. | could
hear them talking To one another and say
ing: oh, he's an old hombre he don't
know how to shoot But if | brought
down the game, they'd scream and bounce
from the trees and sail in for their diyvy.
" But the greatest case of sagacitv in
crow that ever saw" continued Moore,
twas on the ocean beach, just across the
lower end of the lake. Last year me and a
fellow named CrOwell were down there
catching turtle. We used to clean 'em on
big beam of mahogany that had drifted
ashore. There were thousands of crows
on hand a picking up the entrails and SCOOP
ing out the shells. They were so noisy
that we had to holler to understand one
crows. They were pretty shy along in
the beginning, but they kept getting
holder, and by and by they walked right
up to the mahogany beam, and stole the
choice steaks that we were saving for our
selves. Well, when Crowell see that, he
began to get mad. He swore he couldn't
stand it, and he hauled up and gave the
crows two barrels of duck-shot. He had
in thunderin' charge-a pailful of shot in
each barrel. You never see such a sight.
| If it had been raining crows, the beach
couldn't have been blacker. You see, this
was in the morning. Well, for several
hours the crows were mighty shy again,
| nut along in the afternoon they took their
Chances once more and were around thick
er than ever. They fought among them
selves for the shells and the entrails, but
they gave the steaks wide berth. They
were smart enough to know what the
shooting was for.
well, among the flock we noticed a
lame crow, with sickly kind of cav.
He had come out from under Crowelrs
battery with one leg gone. He was hard
sight. When we first saw him his wing
was dropping, and he was limping
along ana skirmishing around for some
thing to eat, with the rest of them. We
felt sorry for him. If you'd seen him,
you couldn't help but feel sorry too. You
see, the other crows didn't give him liv-
ing show. He would have starved to
death if we hadn't sympathized with him,
and seen that he got his share. we fed
| him the incest chunks of turtle, and he
got so tame that he'd limp up within two
| or three feet, and almost eat out OF our
hands. We used to call him Santa Anna,
because, you see, he had lost his leg.
| "Well," continued Moore, "tor some
time Santa Anna turned up regularly for
his rations. He seemed to be growing
weak in spite of all the building up we
gave him. One day we missed him.
/ Crowell felt mighty bad. He almost
cried. Poor Santa. Anna says he,
couldn't roOst any place but on the
ground. Some snake has got him, and
that's the last of him. You see the bird
had got 10 be great favorite. L felt as
bad about it as Crowell, and no mistake.
Down here in the wilderness, where you
don't see a white man once in years, fel-
low gets nightly attached to a crow when
he's social like and puts confidence in
you. Well, all that day the crows kept a
coming in and a ripping away at the
lights and livers, but poor Santa never
turned up. reckon if we talked about
him once we talked about him a hundred
| times.
1.-THE next forenoon, while we were
dressing big turtle, we heard feeble
kind of a cav, and CrOwell sung out,
| Here's Santa Anna again, as sure as
you're born y and sure enough there was
the little black cuss hopping along on
one foot over the sand. He cooked his
head on enc side, and seemed laundering
glad to see us. We were hypercane. We
picked out the richest part of the turtle
and fed him. Well, good Lord, you'd
ought to have seen that crow eat. Tic
stuffed himself so full that he cOuldn't
holler. You could see him swell out like
a rubber ball. The other crows stood of
about 20 feet watching him. The little
hOmbre got all he wanted, and then started
off. He limped awfully for about 10 feet
and heard Crowell say, Poor little devil
I'm afraid he'll never get WELL just ther
the crow stopped and kind shook up hi;
wing. Then-as I'm alive and sinner
he dropped another little black foot, anC
walked off on two legs as sound as {
dollar. The other crows set up mighty
cawing, and all of them flew away togeth
err
"Well," inquired Hammond, show die
he get his leg fiXed?"
''Itwasn't Santa Anna at all" Moore
replied. ''Some other crow had played
Santa Anna on us. Our crow had beer
eaten up by 'pOssum. We found the
feathers .afterward. And" continued
Moore, turning to me. "you won't be
leve me, but that story's just as true as the
GOspel-every word Off