Iron County register., 1898-12-08
Honey Dew, Four Hounds and the
Grapevine Telegraph.
(From Forest and stream.)

.
in the tent. After supper pipes were
putting, the little stove was roaring
hot, and it was either raining or snow
ing outside, nobody cared which. The
visitors from the saw mill settlement
down the valley were discussing pet
deer some one down there had raised
from fawn once upon time.
s'She were as delicate an gentle as
little girl, n no man ever got ac-
quainted with pet deer like that that
be didn't feel kind of mean every time
he went a-huntin' an killed one like
her. OF course he'd kill just as many
as ever, but then he couldn't help feel
in as if he hadn't ought to. She was
sure like one of the children, in the
house, out in the yard and wanderin'
off on the ridge. She had bell. and
nobody would get to shootin' at her;
but the dogs would run her down off
the ridge every day or so and she'd
put fer the house and never stop till
she was in the room n the door shut.
She stayed out one night way after
dark, and after while Thompson's wife
heerd the dogs a-runnin', and she
walked Thompson up, and he listened
n he says: That's Jennie, sure;
they're a-headin' right down the val
lovfi And oo ha cot nm IN. opopod the
door crack, and here she come a-run-
MIN, n when she sailed over the fence
he opened the door n she hustled in
N lay down en- front of the stove N
Thompson shet it and went back to
bed. What did she eat? Oh, twigs
n garden sass m things, N she was
glutton fer milk. She had a fawn
once. She must "a been a tame deer
down in the valley and wild one up
on the ridge, just the same as the rest
of them. Went a-gaddin' around all
the time. The little one grew upl
pretty near to yearlin'. and a feller
back on the ridge shot her one day by
mistake before he ever seen her moth
er."
We townspeople asked what had be-
come of Jennie.
''She died. Some thought it was
from eatin' honey dew"
"Honey dewP"
..Yes. They say it'll kill deer if
it eats it,
land what is honey dewP"
And that is what the writer would |
like to know of the reader. According |
to these men, it is sticky, honey-iike
deposit, which comes on the upper |
surface of all the leaves of some par !
ticular tree, the variety most affected |
being, think, the hickory and one
other which | have forgotten. The |
deposit is made in a night, and the sun |
gradually dries it up, leaving a thin,
silvery film on the leaf. Honey dew!
None of us had ever heard of it before. |
bled the leaves of a honey dew tree? |
Did any reader ever make chewing |
gum out of it when he was boy? Does |
any one cure snake bites with 1t?
When | went to school why was not |
my almost pathetic thirst for knowl- |
edge assauged by some news about
honey dew? Other things might well |
have waited. One was most liable to
"meet up'' with honey dew most any
where, whereas l have not bumped up
against Sir Isaac Newton's binomial
theorem in twenty-five years!
I learned about the grapevine tele- |
graph while on that same trip. had |
the dim impression that the term was
merely one of derision, applied TO the
imperfect news-gathering equipment
of rival journals. 1t is, however, a
distinct system OF rural telegraphy.
And how necessary such thing as
a rural telegraph must be! What
would life in the sparsely settled
mountains be without it? The first
thought of newcomer in such To-
cality is that the people must be very
lonesome and that life, being devoid of
newspapers, is devoid ofinterest. That
nothing new ever happens; that the
country paper is a week old before it
is brought in from the settlement, and
that its contents were week old when |
they were printed. True, but for the
grapevine telegraph.
For instance, when the hounds got
out of hearing after jumping the big
buck that week, what information
could we have gotten of them from the
county paper? What could the people |
at the saw mill tell US when the hounds |
did not run in their hearing; but for
the grapevine telegraph, what would
any of US ever have known about that
deer chase?
We heard the hounds trailing, then
we heard them jump the deer. and the
deep-Yoiced melody swing around |
through HIS stand, where there was
an unsuccessful shot. Then the NOV
ing chorus swinging around the ridge