Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-12-13
JAcK-RABBrT JUMPING.

JACk-RABBiT JUMPING.
"A Glorious Sport Pursued on the Prairie.
of the Lone Star State.
There are good many kinds of pav
sport in the Lone Star state, said an
old ranchman. There are jumping jack
rabbits, for instance. Just mention
jumping jack rabbits to an old Texan
and see how his eyes glisten at the
iRere recollection.
just imagine a fair, cloudless morn
ing in that prairie land, and stretching
far away on all sides waving sea of
green, green grass. Here and there
are dark spots like islands, where an
occasional mesquite fiutters its fern-like
boughs in the breeze. Scattered punches
of brown tell where the cattle are
feeding, and high overhead sails one
wide-winged, lonely hawk. On such
day and in such a grand reach of grass
lands will assemble a merry band of
riders Men and women are there but
all young, for the tricks and tumbles
OF rabbit run are not for the stiff
joints of old age. The small, wiry
bronchos dance and fret to be away.
They are veteran cattle ponies, each of
them able to round the f1eetest beeves
on the range, to turn around in a space
OF two feet square, and to dodge the
maddest of mad bulls with consum-
mate ease. A pack of thin, sleek
coated greyhounds hang about the
horses heels, sharp-nosed rascals,
slender of build, and with legs that
can outstrip their own shadows.
Off they go. 1t is simple enough to
jump the rabbits. The work is only
begun at that point. The whole prai-
RE is alive with them, and they are
fairly dying for good run. There is
no prairie in Brer Rabbits mind when
he hears the hounds in the grass. He
flaps one long ear over his eye and sits
up to mediate and look around him.
Once he locates the pack, and finds that
they are not to be drawn off on some
other scent, he is off like a flash of
light. Both velvety ears are laid along
the low-stretched back, and, with his
foreelgs straight out and one
hind leg doubled up for a spring, he
is fairly sliding through the fodder.
When one hind leg gets tired he will
drop the other down for work and put
the weary leg up under his belly to
rest. If he is hard pressed he will use
touch him. How the dogs snap and
snarl and the ponies snort and STUN
BILE, refined in to their hauches, and
how those cowboys and cowgirls yell
and scream when Brer Jack takes
short turn on his tracks and the i'm
petus of his pursuers carries them far
ahead before they can stop. Now, as
they all turn and plunge away on the
new trail, stirrups are forsaken, hats
dropped. and spur and whip laid on.
Above all rings out over the peaceful
prairie that fiendish cowboy yell.
vBrer Rabbit has now discovered that
this is no FOOLS play, this chase, and he
is settled down to work. His forepaws
and snowy tail CLEAN like white line
along the grass. The old hounds are
firing. The young ones redouble their
yelps, and they see even before the
riders do that dim, black, circling line
that hens in the horizon. 1t is a barbed
wire fence lone of the cussedest inno-
vations of the latter day., and, once
under it and in the tangle beyond, and
Brer Rabbit will be safe. The young
est pup is long of head, and. unnoticed
by the pack, he sinks to one side and
takes a short cut. AS the old dogs
gradually forge ahead and turn the
long-eared refugee, this pup is stead
lily drawing nearer unseen be-
meath the high grass. One rider
is down. thrown by his pony,
which stumbles into burrow, and
the best dog in the pack catches his
foot and turns somersault in the air.
Decentralization takes possession of the
hunt, and the chase is well-nigh aban-
doned. All at once the shrill yelp of a
baby hound rings out, there is a con-
fused whirl of small dog and big rab-
bit against the sky, and the cry goes
up: young Dan. Good boy, Dan"
Sure enough, the youngster has head
ed off and captured the quarry. Then
it's all to the saddle, dead jack siung
on behind, and away once more. When
half dozen Jacks have been run land
most of them will escape) horses, riders,
and dogs are played out. But it's a
glorious chase.
tell you. concluded the old rancher
laying down his corn-cob pipe, it makes
my blood leap even when get to tell
ing ofrold times, a jumping jack rab-
bits down in Texas.-Chicago Times.