The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1899-10-26

Copyright 1850 by Louis Klopschl
David, who must some time have seen
. deer hunt. points US here to a hunted
stag making for the water. The fas-
cinating animal, called in my text the
hart, is the same animal that in sacred
and profane literature is called the
stag, the roebuck, the hind. the gazelle,
the reindeer. In central Syria, in Bible
times. there were whole pasture fields
Of them, as Solomon suggests when he
says: Il charge you by the kinds Of
the field" Their antlers jutted from
the long grass as they lay down. No
hunter who has been long in John
Browns track" will wonder that in
the Bible they were classed as clean
animals, for the dews, the showers, the
lakes, washed them as clean as the
sky. When Isaac, the patriarch, longed
for venison, Esau shot and brought
home roebuck. Isaiah compares the
sprightliness of the restored cripple of
millennial times to the long and quick
jump of the stag, saying: THE lame
| Is
pressed his disgust at a hunter, who,
having shot deer. is too lazy to cook
it, saying: "The slothful man roasteth
not that which he took in hunting"
But one day David, while far from
the home from which he had been
driven, and sitting near the mouth OF
| a lonely cave where he had lodged,
and on the banks of pond or river.
| hears a pack of hounds in swift pur-
suit. Because of the previous silence
in the forest the clangor startles him.
| and he says to himself: Il wonder
what those dogs are after! Then there
is cracking in the brushwood, and
the loud breathing of some rushing
| wonder of the woods, and the antlers
of deer rend the leaves of the thicket
| and by an instinct which all hunters
recognize, plunges into pond or lake
or river to cool its thirst. and at the
same time by its capacity for swifter
and longer swimming, to get away
from the foaming barriers.
David says to himself: aha, that is
myself! Saul after me, Absalom after
me, enemies without number after me:
I am chased, their bloody muzzles at
my heels, barking at my good name,
barking after my body, barking after
my soul. Oh, the hounds, the hounds!
But look there" says David, that
hunted deer has splashed into the
water. 1t puts it's hot lips and nostrils
into the cool wave that lasnes the
lathered TANKS, and it swims away
from the fiery CANNES, and it Is free
at last. Oh, that I might find in the
deep, wide lake of Gods mercy and
consolation, escape from my pursuers!
Oh, for the waters Of life and rescue!
AS the hart panteth after the water
brooks. so panteth my soul after thee,
o Cod"
Some Of you have just come from the
Adirondacks, and the breath of the
balsam and spruce and pine is still on
you. The Adirondacks are now popu-
lous with hunters. and the deer are be-
ing slain by the score. Once while
there talking with hunter, I thought
would like to see whether my text
was accurate in its allusion and as
heard the dogs baying little way OF,
and supposed they were on the track of
deer l said to the hunter In rough
corduroy: do the deer always make
for the water when they are pursued?"
He said: "Oh, yes. mister: you see
they are hot and thirsty animal, and
they know where the water is, and
when they hear danger in the distance,
they lift their antlers and snuff the
breeze and start for Racquet or Loon
or Saranac: and we get into our cedar
with rifle loaded ready to blaze away"
My friends, that is one reason why
I like the Bible SO much-its illusions
are SO true to nature. Its cartridges
are real cartridges, its ostriches real
ostriches, and its reindeer real REIN |
Tered glory of the text makes the hunt
er,s eye sparkle, and his cheek glow,
and his respiration quicken. To say
nothing of its usefulness. although it |
is the most useful of all game, its flesh |
delicious, its skin turned into human |
apparel, its sinews fashioned into bow
strings. its antlers putting handles on
cutlery, and the shavings of its horns
used as a restorative, its name taken
from the hart and called hartshorn-
by putting aside its usefulness, this
enchanting creature seems made out
of gracefulness and elasticity. What
an eye, as if gathered up from a hun
dred lakes at sunset! The horns, a
coronal branching into every possible
curve, and after it seems done. ascend
ing into other projections of exquisite
ness, a tree of polished bone. uplifted
in pride, or swung down for awful COM
bat It is velocity embodied. Timid-
ity impersonated. The enchantment OF
the woods. Eye lustrous iE life and
pathetic in death. The splendid ami
NAL q complete rhythm Of muscle and
bone and color and attitude and loco
l