The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-20

a brass band you know that when the
| leader gets ratified 1t becomes conta-
| glous, the rattle does. Then the cap
| tain signaled to the pilot to signal to
1 the engineer to shut off the blow-off, and
| he did. That made the engineer mad
| and he came up on tSe hurricane deck
| and demonstrated with Caps Throck-
| morton, who ordered him below.
'The geese kept on coming. They
weighted the Genoa, and lssometfmes
when the most Of them focked to one
place or tried to, the little boat careen-
| ed In the water. The wind was blow
| ing around the bend and coming down
upon us like a pack Of wolves The air
was thick with a galloping snow, which
morton pulled the whistle wide open and
| the first mate was ordered to ring the
bell. I never heard such an Internal
racket in my life. The geese rose, cir
cled, and came down again upon the
! boat. There were no women or child
| rem aboard, and 1t was lucky there
| were none. Why, we men We're ratified,
and some of us had been ins the Mext-
can war.
1.-THE command to put on full speed
| was given, and the trim little steamer
shot ahead through the slush ice like
an arrow. But the geese were good
stayers, and those that had not lit fol-
lowed close in the wake. I looked back
at the bar, and 1t seemed to me there
were more geese on the sands than when
we came In sight Of it. looked up, and
there were as many geese In the air, 1t
seemed to me, as there were snowfiakes.
Still Capt Throckmorton said 1t would
not do to hurt one, and then he told me
about an ancient mariner who killed an
albatross, and how the sea was filled
with dead things afterward, and how
the sky was copper, and lot or other
calamities that followed. l have
learned since that the Ancinet Mariner
is nothing but poetry; but none Of us
knew that when the Genoa had her
fight with the Wild geese Of the Mis-
souri, The Ancient Mariner was sur
rounded by water, but was perishing
for a drink. We were surrounded with
game, game everywhere, but dassent
shoot.
"At last Capt. Throckmorton ordered
the bar open and invited everybody to
take something, especially the band.
When the band was filled up 1t was
persuaded to go aloft and play.
never knew what the band played, and
it never did, I am sure. But after it
had played, or tried to, for awhile the
geese began leaving the boat. They
went back to the sand bar. The band
kept play'~g, and the Genoa, under full
HedQ VI. Stedlll, llHdlly Tie
bend and proceeded on her way. 1t
was dark by that time, and I reckon
that had something to do with the
exodus of the geese from the Genoa.
When the boat got to Miami the next
day the band mutinied and Capt.
Throckmorton paid it off and put it
ashore. 1 never heard whether it got
back to st. Louis or not.
I'VE saw plenty of geese on the bars
r,H1 l.
our ammunition for the great bar near
Leavenworth. Capt. Throckmorton
said that more geese f1ocked on that
bar than on any in the river. There
was nothing but sand for miles and
miles, up the river and down, at that
point. Leavenworth, at the time of
this goose hunt, was the metropolis Of
that section. The fort made it, When
the Genoa touched there she tied up
for a day for repairs and commissary
goods. The commanding officer Of Fort
Leavenworth came to the boat with
his staff. and we gave them a blow
out. OF course the Glasgow experience
was retold and colored up, and the
commander and his staff enjoyed it.
Then the commander asked Capt.
Throckmorton what he was going to
do, and after the captain told him that
we were going to tackle the sand bar
III IiOHI VI iLC1NCilWO VI III duu lIle IOTC,
the commander Of the fort replied that
in such an event he should be COM
PEELED to train the guns of the fort on
the boat. He explained that the sand
bars belonged to the government, and
that geese on the bars were govern
ment game, and that his orders were to
allow no hunting on the reservation.
"Old Capt. Throckmorton was In rage.
You see he had given the dinner to the Of
hcer and his staff for the purpose OF getting
Whatever privileges he might want.
How do you locate sand bar IN the
Missouri river?' he asked. How do you
make these sand bars government property
Wnen they were not here last year. and may
not be here next year?'
The commander said it was not his busi-
ness to decide such matters. These sand bars
he said belong to the government this year,
and | must obey my orders
That was all. The commander withdrew
In creditable manner and his staff followed
AS the Genoa proceeded on her way old Capt
Throckmorton ordered the flag ha,f-masted
as we passed beneath the guns of the fort
and the commander of the post showed his
quick appreciation of Capt. Throckmorton's
evidence of displeasure by firing a salute
We were all SO damned mad at this act
disappointment that we stayed in the cabin
and hunted other game until the boat reached
St Joseph, or, as we call 1t out. here, Sent
Joe. The weather was turning colder every
minute, and the ice in the river was run
ming heavier.
1.-THE Genoa was revictualled and repaired
at Sent Joe We remained in port two days,
and in that time we got Armstrong Beatfie
jeff Thompson. Bill Ridenbaugh, and Van
Riley on the boat. Beattie was mayor of the
town, Redenbaugh was clerk of the circuit
court, Riley of the county, court and Jeff
Thompson was surveyor. He made himself
famous IS a general in the Confederate army
He was the man who Issued a proclamation
for volunteers, in which he said: Come on,
for the cattle on a thousand hills are ours
when he hadn't a mess Of beans and sow-belly
in his army.
'It was decided to turn the nose of the
Genoa down stream after her two days and
nights in port at Sent Joe. If we hadn't
there wouldn't have been enough of her left
to float down. That Sent Joe crowd simply
took everything in sight Talk about high
stakes and fast playing. What a merciless
crowd it was. and they were so damned nice
about it, too.
1.-THE Genoa made no stops on her return
trip except to wood UP. We had game all the
way down. We kept tab ON the |. o. us on
a stateroom door. The ice chased us into
ST. Louis Capt. Throckmorton had credit in
the Lucas market and he went out there and
bought wagon load Of wild geese and dis
tributed them around to his friends We
were all sworn TO secrecy. They thought
we killed 'em. And l don't think the story
of the hunt Of the Genoa for wild geese was
ever told before in detail"
A Matter of Pride.
Mrs Crnener-Mercvi What ora 1-ou dofnr7