The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-12-03
CURED OF HUNTING.
a. Girls Narrow Escape After Kill
ing a White Deer.


ing a White Deer.
was born with the instincts of a
true sportsmen. For long time was
mt loss to know from what source had
come my passion forgu and cunning.
My father was any thing but a connois-
seur of deadly weapons, and my
mother never knew the butt from the
muzzle of n gun, and was equally
afraid of each, After careful digging
Mt the roots of the family tree, the
scientific basis for hereditary transmits
sion was vindicated, for / found that
my grandmother was cousin of Kit
Carson, the great American hunter and
trapper.
While I was a child, it amused my
brothers TO hear me discuss the merits
of choke-boro sbot-guns and breech-
loading rifles, but when grew TO wom-
an S estate this highly unfeminine
taste displeased and even alarmed
them. They were very proper Young
men, and did not relish the idea of a
young lady sister who could take a
snipe on the wing, or pierce the bulls
eye with. q revolver at sixty PAGES
Dear boys, they feared, too, that such
propensity might seriously endanger
my being settled in life. They remOn-
strated, they scolded; they brought me
the accounts of all the dreadful acct
dents that resulted from the use of fire.
arms, and tried TO oxtor6 from me a
promise that / would never touch a
gun again. l might have yielded had
not an unfortunate circumstance Ur-
CURED that made me deaf TO all en-
treaties.
An uncle whoh heard Of my skill
and was queer and old-fashiOned enough
60 admire it, sent me, on my eighteenth
birthday, q handsome Winchester rifle,
which he had ordered made for me.
From that day / ceased TO struggle
against farc. Bryant's "Liues to a
Water-FowP' always brought to my
Imagination other thoughts than those
commonly suggested to feminine read
ers; and not only I'm thought, but
in rubber boots and with game-bag,
have hunted that classic bird on lake
shore and river bottom. AT one time
II was a canvas-back, slowly veerinc
TO the south, with neck OUtstretched
and eye of faith; at another, it was q
stately mallard or jaunty teal, a spoon
bill or sprig-tail. But / painted fol
nobler game. 1 longed for the excite.
ment of the chase; 10 be where
''The stag at eve had drunk mis- ms"
to see and be the bclted hunter When
/ should have been devising pattern,
for sofa-cushions and learning TO paint
ON silk and china, my heart was away
ON the bOundlcss plains chasing deer
and antelope. AS Caedmon was
haunted by a vision, in which he was
told 90 sing; as Socrates was pursued
10y q damon, who insisted that he
should make mUsic-so, bv some
strange law of psychology l felt that
my life would never be complete until
/ had hunted the deer or tracked the
grizzly in his mountain home.
The opportunity came. Some friends
invited me TO spend few weeks al
their homo in the Sierra. They had q
llttle house among the pines, i'm one OF
$he most romantic regions of the
range. hunting-partv was formed
for my especial entertainment, and the
night before, rs prelude TO the NOR
row S excitement, we listened around
the fire to the wild stories of the
mountainCers. cold Clubfootn oriZ-
zly who had been known in the region
for fifteen or twenty years, was IA
Norite topic, No one had had the
hardihood to attack him since he had
pursued a hunter a long distance and
Killed him with one stroke of his gigan.
lie paw. An enormous trap had once
been set for him, and he had caught
his foot in it, but, with wonderful in.
lelligence, he had gone to the nearest
rock and beaten it of. He was seer
occasionally in the passing years. and
now and then he helped himself to
sheep OF calf unmolested
There was also q white doc among
the neighboring mountains which
seemed to bear a charmed life. fo
many hunters had shot at it but al
ways missed. A superstition had nat
urally grown up about it, and tn,
mUuutaineers held that some grea
calamity would attend the person VIII,
killed the white deer.
These stories aroused my imagina
ton so that l could scarcely wait 70
the dawn of day. and / lay awake Ions
after the house was still, but was tn
first one stirring i'm the morning.
An old hunter, whom we called
Uncle John. was the leader of tn,
party, and 70 his care l was assigned
lie had always wished to see woman
shoot, he said, and ! should have
grand chance TO show what / could do
Don't Kill the white decrl' SOM
one called after us.
mo, no, - / laughed back: 'swe'l
take the greatest care"
We rode i'm silence tin we reache,
the crown of @ little hill where Their
was an open, grassy spot. 1 was clos
beside Uncle John. when ] saw hin
gaze iiXedly ahead for n moment
Then. without turning his head, h
said in a whisper:
"Get down quick! Here's YOU
chance, As fine a shot as ever see.
/ was down before he had fairly be
gun to speak, but trembling all over
and my teeth chartered in most uu
accountable way.
"Slip up behind that sugar pine an
blaze away. was the whispered order
and huggiug my rife, I obeycd. MI d
timo with that dreadful shaking
was "buck ague, as 1 afterWUd