Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-02-29


by all who know me, casting great big
gloom over our quiet little community
and generally mourned on account of
my charming qualities both of mind
and heart Eastern papers please copy"
Then the conversation gradually drift
ed into other channels, and man who
handles trusses for the northwest got to
talking about hunting. He could shoot
with unerring accuracy, he said, and
loved dearly to shoot all kinds of large
game. He preferred elephants, judged
from his talk, and when he scared up
covey of these little feathered songsters
it was very seldom that any of them got
away.
He was shooting the Rocky mountain
sheep last year in Montana, he said, and
had bagged two or three at about 3 in
the afternoon. He was just eating his
frugal lunch of hot terrapin. cooked over
an alcohol stove which he always car
ried with him, when a bighorn weigh
ing at least 600 pounds sprang past him
and stood about 900 yards from him on
a ledge across deep gorge in less time
| than it requires to calculate the word
SCAT
Selling his trlsty rife and placing it
| to his shoulder t was but the work of
moment to aim FOR the magnificent beast,
as he had one eye already closed by
| gentleman whom he had thoughtlessly
charged with falsehood while east.
He had not time to pull the trigger,
however before the alert animal had
| L. - Of& h. L,
was at an angle of 40 dogs ut least, and
stood entirely protected by an immense
overhanging rock.
Here was a problem. He could not
cross the gorge. The animal was no
doubt safely there. He could calculate
exactly where lie stood beneath the big
and beetling cliff, though entirely out of
! his range of vision.
Making few rapid geometrical calcu-
lations-for he admits that he is a fine
mathematician and billiard player-he
aimed for certain point on the angle
| of the rock and then fired.
| For moment the report seemed to
deafen him, then there fell on the slop-
| ing rock at least a half bushel of warm
yitals and mutton tallow, and he knew
| that his aim had been true.
| 1t took two days to get the animal by
roundabout wcy, and then he found
| that the fattened bullet, with an edge
like a razor, had completely disem-
boweled the animal, these organs hay
ing been neatly cut out and dropped
down the gorge. The heart and liver
had been carefully preserved, while the
bullet had in its flight also cat off the
| limb of n sageDush and inserted it in
the rift of the carcass so as to prop it
open and cool of the mutton III the pure,
crisp air of the mountain.
ran across Eugene Field once more
the other day il Chicago. The gather
ing years have dealt very generously
with Gene, and he is growing to resem-
BILE me-
yes" lie sad, in that rich, deep,
melodious voice of his, voice that
would win the chick-a-dee-dees down
from the bushes-''yes,' he said, color
! ing up with boyish delight, several peo-
| pie have spoken of it. You do not mind
it, do your
"Oh, no." | said Anything that
gives you pleas Ire pleaSeS ana delights
me almost to death"
1t was quite a good many years ago
| that Field and ] met in Denver. | had
| some pelts to market one spring, the
winter having been very severe on my
| stock, killing two out of my herd of
| three cattle by its severity. Fearing to
| trust the arduous task to other hands, l
took the pelts myself, together with an
article on ''How to Write on an Empty
Stomach Without Pain"
went to The Tribune, which has
since been swallowed up by The Repub-
lican. 1t was edited by 0. H. Roth
acker, since dead, and had Charlie Ray
mond at the counter, Field where he
could be drawn ON at moments notice
for anything from poem on Thought"