Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-08-08
OUR JUVENILES.
What the O,cl K,,ors.

And that is how my wisdom passes
| can see the wind Now who can do that?
| see the dreams that he has in his hat;
I see him snorting them out as he goes
| Out at his stupid old trumpet-nose.
Ten Thousand things that you couldn't think,
| write them down with pen and ink.
You may call 1t learning-I call it wit.
| Who else can watch the lady-moon sit
Matching the boats and the long-legged fowl,
| On her nest, the sea, all night, but the owl?
| When the oysters cape to sing by rote
| She Grams pearl down each stupid throat.
30 you see know-you may pull of your hat;
Whether round and lofty, or square and fiat,
You can never do better than trust to me;
| You may shut your ey es as long as see.
While you live will lead you, and then-Iim the
=: owl
III bury you nicely with my spade and showl
~ A Tigers Ptaything. ~
"-Well, my boy, if you want @ tiger
you've come to the right place, for this
and the bit round Fort Perovsk are
almost the only spots On the whole river
where there are any left; indeed, /
might say the only spots in all Central
Asia, except the great jungle of the Iii,
two days journey north of this"
So spoke Col. Petroff (the Russian
commandant of the little outpost of
Tchinaz, on the Upper Syr-Daria), to
his excited junior officer, Lieut.. Galkin,
| who had made up his mind that the first
duty Of every right-minded officer was
to shoot tiger single-handed, and that
life would be blank to him till he had
done SO.
"And what's the best way to get at
| them?" asked the younger man, with a
fash of excitement on his handsome
face.
"Well, if you're SO anxious to make
their acquaintance" said the veteran,
| smiling at the lads eagerness, "there
are several ways of doing it. First and
foremost, you can just follow the beasts
| trail till you come upon him, and then
| shoot him down; but that's rather
dangerous, and not very certain either,
for the trails apt to get blurred in
| among those big reeds.''
"WeIl?"
"Well, secondly, you can drift along
the bank in boat, and fire at 'em as
| they come down to drink but that's
not always certain, because, if there's
moon, they see you and run away, and
! if there's not, you can't see them at all.
Thirdly, there's the cage"
"The cage?"
eyes !; you shut yourself up in an
| iron cage among the reeds, with big
bit of horse-fesh beside it by way of
| bait, and when the tiger scents the meat,
| and comes after it, you fire at him"
Capital /" shouted Galkin, with a
| loud laugh that's quite a new idea.
The cage be it by all means.
"Well, I wouldn't begin with that, if
were you, my boy" said the Colonel,
gravely, "for it's q risky business at
best. A tiger-hunt's very good fun SO
long as it's you who are hunting the
tiger; but when the tiger takes to
hunting you, it alters the case good
deal"
However, Galkin was not to be moved,
and daybreak next morning found him
in his cage among the huge reeds Gall
enough to overtop q six-foot grenadier
with his cap on), through which, as they
swayed in the morning breeze, he caught
| passing glimpse, every now and then,
Of the broad, shining river, and the little
tumble-down mud novels and clustering
trees On the opposite shore.
The most trying part Of an exciting
| adventure is the waiting for it to begin,
| and SO our hero found it (; but, luckily,
he had not long to wait. The Central
Asian tiger has keen scent for prey of
any kind, and the warning crackle Of the
reeds was speedily followed by the
gliding out Of a huge gaunt yellow body,
straight toward Galkin's ambush.
Despite his perilous position (for the
cage was pretty old one, and its rusty
bars seemed hardly to be trusted against
the rush of full-grown tiger), Gallkin
could scarcely help laughing at this
curious reversal of menagerie rules-the
man in the cage, and the wild beast walk
ing round it to look at him. But he was
not the man to let either the joke or the
danger unsteady his hand. He aimed
carefully at the vital spot behind the
fore-shoulder, and let fly.
The huge beast leaped high into the
air, rolled over OH its back, and, after q
few convulsiye kicks, lay dead before
him. Hu1rah Up sprung Galkin,
quite forgetting the cage in his excite
ment, and hit his head such bump
against the bars that for a moment he
hardly knew where he was.
The shout was answered by a long
snarling cry, and out from the reeds
broke second tiger, evidently young
one, although quite big enough to have
finished our friend with one bite Gal
kin felt for his cartridge pouch, to re-
| 1ool Co., n eoao,l eLo@ Ia No