Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1898-10-27
THE DRIFT OF A DAY,
BY "RAMBLER. "

ulo 10 dOOQb tuO tiihO Va S"A
when coon hunting in the back
country reaches its
The Coon zenith. A few good
Hunt. frosts have come, and
the leaves are falling
throughout the timbered regions
with a steady rustic and patter,
and soon the bottoms and timbered
hillsides will be carpeted with
covering of gold, brown, green and
red leaves. There is no more
royal sport known TO the Nimrod
of country or city than hunting
the ring-tailed, black-nosed, sharp
and cunning rascals that pass up
and down the creeks nightly in
search of prey along the waters
edge. A well grown coon of two
years or more OF age will "put up
a stiff fight" and il takes ''no
slouch" of a dog to 'chaw" one
up. l have seen a single coon
whip three or four young dogs and
get away entirely. A out
hound--one that has seen service
with the pack after foxes and
wolves and has begun to wane in
speeds generally the best kind
of a coon dog, and after a little
training will work out the "cold-
est" sort of trail and ''tree" the
animal if let alone. The boy &C
customed TO coon hunting will
soon learn to detect the peculiar
bark of a dog when he has 'treed"
coon. Few boys who have
grown to manhood in the country,
away from the towns, who have
not spent the greater portion OF
many a night walking through the
woods with an axe or gun on his
shoulder, listening for the bark of
the dogs when a coon is "treed, ?"
and not unfrequently-cutting down
a large tree by fire light in order
to witness a coon fight.
On a quiet October Sabbath af-
ternoon. when one feels like walk
ing in order to get
The Silent rest from a lazy day
City. of indoor activity, it
is far from being
dreary or uninteresting to take a
stroll through the cemetery north
of town. This ''city of the dead"
is fast becoming both historic and
sacred to many families in our
city. For twenty-five years we
have buried our dead, both young
and old, on the sunny slope OF
that beautiful prairie hill. AS /
passed along the grass-grown
drive-ways the other day | saw
the chiseled names of many whom
l had known and loved in life,
and somehow their faces came
back to me through the mists oi
time and tears, and l longed
"For the touch of 4 vanished hand.
And the sound of a voice that is STILL
Year after year, other loved
ones are laid there, and even now
some whole families seem TO be
sleeping side by side in the little
cultivated plat of ground allotted
them as their pro rata share Of
good old mother earth, upor
whose bosom every tired child o
the human race shall eventually
find a resting place. Down on thu
southeastern slope, away from tht
general burying ground, there is 1
little neglected group of graves no
often visited, save by the morbidly
curious. Some of the mound
have sunken away till a hole il
the earth marks the spot. In tn
earlier history of this beautiful
country an incredible number o
outlaws, thieves, robbers and all
round "bad men," have beel
hauled into town-men who hav
"died with their boots on" havin
been hunted down and killed b,
the United States marshals il
their efforts to arrest them. i
large number of these have beel
buried in this group and they are
some of them, in fair way to b
lost from the eye of man In a fey
more years if their graves are no
marked with something more en-
during than pine shingle.
*s*
! 1t was Carlyle who said that, 4"
mans religion is the chief fac
with regard to him.
Paganism AS an old friend @
Still Exists. mine, seen on th
streets here ever
day, is in the habit Of saying
1--WE all have more or less of tn
pagan in US" If we didn't have
We could not tolerate the jungle {
delusions, confusions and illusion
that cover the whole field of re
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