Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-15
WILD GEESE GOING NORTH.
They Are Now on the Wing to Colder
Chimes.

From the Kansas City Star.
Objects which never fail just now to at
tract the attention of travellers over west
ern Kansas are flocks of wild geese feeding
upon the rich fields of wheat, which this
spring seem to spread a carpet of green
over all the broad domain. To rest and
refresh themselves in their annual flight
northward, the. geese alight in these fields.
They select their ground carefully choos-
ing spot remote from human habitation
and so situated that they may see all the
country round about, and thus be warned
of the approach of danger in time to take
flight.
In their mgratiens northward in the
early spring and southwark in the late fall
wild geese fly in families of a dozen or
twenty, arranging themselves in the form
of the letter A, one side of the letter in
variably shorter than the other, and the
father gander and the mother goose a lit
tie in advance of the apex. Sometimes
many families unite for a time and travel
together, but always that Inevitable letter
A is clearly defined in the sky the process
sion led by gander who has travelled
the road before and whose "honk, honk,'
guides the flight.
While feeding every family posts a senti-
mel, who stands in the midst of the feeding
flock, his neck stretched high, fixed and
rigid statue.
Travelling over the Rock Island railroad
from Topeka to Hutchinson one day last
week with Col. George W. Veale of To-
peka. who knows all about wild geese a
representative of the Star witnessed this
spectacle of patience and faithfulness and
saw. too. an attempt by a farmer boy to
steal upon the flock with a gun. The pas
SengerS crowded to the windows or hast
ened to the car platforms, and the engineer
also interested. slowed up the train at a
creek. The boy Crept down draw to a
point nearest the geese and then began to
WOrk hrt- &c,
leeward. so the sentinel could not be warn
eel by scent, and the enemy had not vet
come into view
Slowly the boy toiled his way his body
fiat against the ground. Finally he had
dragged himself to point VIII ere he could
see the geese feeding over radius of
twenty yards from the sentinel. and NOV
ing slowly in the direction of the boy He
had only to be patient, and his reward
would be a brace of wild geese But he
possessed boys curiosity. He raised his
head TO look "Quack, quack.' sounded the
warning OF the sentinel. All was excite
ment In the camp: the sentinel ran know
ing that there was danger. After q dash of
Ihirty yards they rose in the air. but
nylng low. the sentiners guiding "honk"
ahead of them At the quack of the SEN
tinel the boy rose and gave chase but the
geese We're too fleet of foot and too far
away when they took wing, and the bov's
shots fell short of his aim
The geese were in wild disorder whom
they lifted themselves into the air. but
aItel thft NOT sound was heard save
from the sentinel, whose notes soon became
assuring. and before they had flown n
quarter of mile they were high in the
sky, and, behold. there was the neyer-fail-
ing letter A.
Then the spectators from the train. which
was now moving rapidly. Witnessed an
other ,srectacle. The danger past the SEN
tlntl which had been in the lead dropped
PACK ana TOOK mis- position at the end of the
longer arm of the A. while from that no.
sition the father of the family pushed to
the head of the column. and from the
END OF the shorter arm the mother goose
New forward and Joined him. Until that
moment they had been flying in south
westerly direction, but "honk, honk,'
commanded the leader. and they whirled
view N ~