The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-08-06

teaching over yonder and school teach
ing over here-sho! We don't know
anything about it! Here you've got to
peg and peg and there just amt any let
upland what you learn here. you've got
to knO,p, ,lontchuknow--or clso you'll
have one Of these go ---- spawned,
specialized. ring-bonctl, knock-kneed old
professors in your hair. I've been here
long enough, and I'm getting blessed
tired of It, mind tcN you. The old man
wrote me that he wis coming over in
June, and said he'd take me home in
August, whether l was done with my
education or not, butdurn him, he didn't
com @; never said why; just sent me n
hamper of Sunday school books, and
told me to he good, anu hold on awhile.
| don't take to Sunday school books,
dontchuknow--I don't banker after them
when can get pie--but l rcad them,
anyway, because whatever the old man
tells me to do, that's the thing that I'm
a-going to tto, or tear something, you
know. ! buckled in and read illl those
books, because he wanted me to; but
that kind of thing don't excite me. like
something Hearty. But I'm awful home
sick. I'm homesick from car-socket to
cruppcr, and from cruppcr to hook Joint;
but il amt any usc. I've got to stay
here till the old man drops the rag and
gives the word, yes, sir, right here III
this - = country I've got to
linger till the old nun says Comet and
you bet your bottom dollar, johnny, it
amt Just as easy as it is for cut to
Jump rope"
At the end of this profanc and cordial
explosion he fetched prodigious
WhOOsh!" to relieve his lungs and
make recognition of the heat, and then
straightway dived into his narrative
again for "Johnny's" benefit, beginning,
"Well, il amt any use
talking, some of those old American
words dO have kind of II bully swing to
them; II man cnn cypress himself with
'em--a man can get ut what he wants to
sag, dontchuknow."
When we reached the hotel, and it
seemed that he was about to lose the
rcverends, he showed 80 much sorrow,
and begged no hard and 30 earnestly that
the reverend q heart was not hard enough
t. hold out against the plcadings-so he
went away with the paremt-honoripg
student, like II right Christian, and took
supper with him i'll his lodgings and sat
in the snrf-beat of his slang and pro-
family until near midnight, and then left
him-left him pretty well talked out,
but grateful "clear down to his frogs"
as he expressed it. The reverend con-
sidered him rather rough gem, but n
gem. nevertheless.
vi.
We left the train for Switzerland, and
reached Lucerne about ten o'clock Mt
night. The first discovery / made was
that the beauty of the luke had not been
exaggerated. Within day or two !
made another discovery. This was that
the lauded chamois is not wild goat;
that it is not horned animal; that it is
not shy; that it does not avoid human
society; and that there IL no peril in
hunting it. The channels is black or
brown creature, no bigger than mus
tard seed. You do not have to go after
it; it comes after you. 1t arrives in vast
herds, and skips and scampers all over
your body, inside your clothes. Thus it
is not shy, but extremely socinblc. 1t is
not afraid Of man; on the contrary it
will attack him. It's bite 10 not danger
ous, but neither is it pleasant. Its ac-
tivity has not been overstated. 1T You
try to put your finger on it, it will skip
thousand times it's own length ut one
jump, and no eye is sharp enough to see
where it lights. Agreat deal of roman
tic nonsense has been written about the
Swiss channels and the perils of hunt
ing it, whereas the truth is that even
women and children hunt 1t, and fear
lessly. Indeed, everybody hunts it.
The hunting is going on all the time,
day and night, in bed and out of it.
1t is poetic foolishness to hunt it with Il
gun. Very few people do that. There
is not one man in million who can
hit it with gun. 1t is much easier to
catch it than it il to shoot it, and only
the experienced channels hunter can do
either. Another common piece of ex-
aSgeration is that about the scarcity of
the chamois. 1t is the reverse of scarce.
unusual in the Swiss hotels. Indeed,
they are 30 numerous us to be n great
pest. The romancers always dress up
the chamois hunter in fanciful and
picturesque costume, whereas the best
way to hunt this game is to do it with.
out any costume Mt all.
The article Of commerce called chamois
skin is another fraud. Nobody could
skin channels. 1t il too small. The
creature is hImbug in every way, and
everything which has been written about
it is sentimental eXaggeration. 1t was nc
pleasure to me to find the chamOis out,
for he had been one of my pet illusions.
All my life it had been my dream to sec
him III his native Willis some day, and
engage in the adventurous sport of chas.
ing him from cliff to cliff. 1t is nc
pleasure to me to expose him now, and
destroy the readers delight in him and
respect for him, but still it must be done
for when IN honest writer discovers M
imposition it is his simple duty to stri,
it bare and hurl it down from its place t.
honor, no matter who suffers by it. Any
other course would render him unworthy
Of the public confidence.
VII.
In climbing the Alps we came upon
half dozen sheep nibbling grass in the
spray of a stream of clear water that
sprang from rock wall hundred feet
high, and all at once our ears were star.
tied with a melodious "Lul. i. i. .lul
lul-iaheo-o-o-o-" pealing joyously from
a near but invisible source, and recogniz
ed that we were hearing for the first time
the famous Alpine .iOdet in its own native
wilds. And we recognized, also, that il
was that sort of quaint commingling OF
baritone and falsetto which at home W.
call "Tyrolese warbling."
The jodeling pronounced yodling-
emphasis on the o) continued, and wal
very pleasant and inspiriting to hear
Now the iodeler appeared-a shepherd
boy Of 1G--and in our gladness and graf
! itude we gave him franc to jodel some
more. So he jodelcd and we listened
We moved ON presently, and he gencr
ously jOdeled III out of sight. Aftel
about fifteen minutes we came acros,
another shepherd boy who was jodeling
and gave him half franc to keep it up
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