Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1895-08-01
APRIMEVALSTORY
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Chug did not know that he belonged
in the post tertiary period Of the world
as he stood beside the taWny waters
of the great inland sea, whose waves
gently washed the warm shores Of the
young earth.
He was in Kansas, although he was
not aware Of 1t, and as he stood there
he looked off into the northwest anx-
iously for the clouds that would bring
rain to break the drought.
The little brook which now winds
through the valley where he stood is
a mere glimmering ghostlet Of it's
mighty post tertiary predecessor, the
sea.
Chug was young and 1.-THE and stall
Wart, like the machairodus OF the
cataclysmic caves His whole body
was hard as wood and covered with
q coat Of thick nut-brown hair that
harmonized with the reddish beard
that flowed over his broad chest as
that of post tertiary PETER.
His heavy name Of weather-beaten
locks hat never felt hat.
About his loins from one shoulder
was draped the skin of cave lion.
A ponderous mace of flint dashed by
leather thongs to the handle lay at his
feet.
Chug, who derived his name from
the sound Of the mighty blow with
which he smote to death the cave lion
whose hide he wore, was not thinking
of the pterodactyl from which he mar
,.o,,,i., tba oirhf bnfOrn
Nor did he notice the cyclopean
crocodileS in the sea.
His thoughts were sad and roamed
afar.
At distance too far for his cOmpu-
tation he had been born amid little
clan of post tertiarians.
A strange impulse, such as brothers
and sisters had never known, came
over him.
The monosyllabic conversation of his
kin made him tired. Chug was wont
to Irvine wild flowers in his hair and
wear sandals Of woolly hippopotamus
hide.
"Spat-Spatp' a young woman who
could skin an Irish elk quicker than
any woman of the clan, and who
scorned the luxury of sandals or robes
of hide, one day pointed her reeking
finger at Chug as she paused in hel
work, and cried CONTEMPORARY
"Dude! Dudep
''You didn't say dude when saved
you from the claws Of the ichthyosau
rusn retorted Chug, and passed on.
Thus Cbug gathered up his weapons
and went forth alone, and wandered
from his own Preside.
Long he had pondered over the mys
terry Of life.
He had repeated in his sleep the re
frain, 'There are others"
If his clan existed, he argued, why
not other clans somewhere?
Was it not possible that in their so
ciety he could lose that tired feeling
which had so oppressed him?
But moons had come and waned, he
had trayersed unknown leagues Of mo
rass and forest, crossed the tide Of
rushing rivers, and still holding moth
ing but packs of great hyenas, trum
De tingmammoths, giant graminiV
orus and carnivorus mammalia anC
monstrous reptiles and amphibla.
Man was nil, and woman existed
not.
If Chug had lived nowadays he
would have known what troubled his
breast.
He would have found love in the
eyes of beauty and become happy.
Poor Chug did not understand love
His soul yearned unconsciOusly.
His thought went back homeward.
It had not been quite so bad there
as in this solitude.
He thought of how he built house
for his mother of the ribs Of a horned
iguanodon that in life was seventy
feet long, with legs thick as the fiuteC
columns of a Corinthian temple.
He recalled how he used to aris'
early and build the fire, and how HI
once had mashed his finger while
chopplng kindling wood with the stonl
ak.
An idea came to him as he stool
there looking across the great sea.
Why not float upon its bosom on
raft and mayhap come upon anothei
people.
Chug worked with feverish fervor
and in two days was launched upol
his hazardous journey.
But, alas, as he was putting to short
a few days thereafter, an air breath
ing, cold-blooded plelosaurus, whicl
was hidden in the reeds, suddenly
shot its horrible head at him, Its lonl
flexible neck seeming like a monstrou
serpent.
Chug pushed away madly, tore him
self loose from the jagged jaws, bu
tainted across his raft, and the tawn!
waters bore it out to sea, the rudt
funeral car Of post tertiary hero.
For days the apparently dead Voy
ager hoated.