The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-06-12
SOL TOMLINSON'S FALCONRY
story Of 4 lazy Pike County Farmer.
BT EDWIN ]. WEBSTER.

sol Tomlinson says il was a sund1v
| school book that causes him TO b. nurs-
ing an injured spirit and mourning the
loss OF the finest collection Of fancy
breeds Of chickens ever seen in PIKE
county. observed Deacon Todgers TO the
crowd at the corner grocery. But I tell
him 1t was all his own fooIishness in tr,--
ing middle-age notions in this closing
year OF the nineteenth century and aIeo
in trusting too far TO the loving kindness
and forgiving nature Of hawks.
"One Sunday afternoon Sol went out 20
the woodshed and found his boy. Tom.
reading book he had drawn from tie
Sunday-school library. Sol cracked .he
boy over the head for reading novels on
sunday, gave him some chores 10 do. ana
then sat down to read the book himself
IL was all about knights and how they
rode ABOUT the country, fighting for the
color OF their ladies' eyesbrows and how
they went hawking and all such foolish
ness. But it seemed to impress Sol
nightly.
And are you. with your blue jeans
and bald pate and white whlskers going
| 10 ride around Pike County on a "pranc-
ing palfrey," and fight for the honor Of
your lady love / asked him. 'Or wnat
particular kind of foolishness has that
book inspired you to-
Sol looked hurt
Fudge, deacon, he said 10 me- I'm a
respectable married man, without any
lady loves as you call them. and my
| rheumatism wouldn't allow me TO ride
| 'prancing palfreys.' anyway The plan I
| am thinking of is practical one, and one
| that will bring money to a worthy old
| man without his working for it, Did you
| read what that book said about falconry
and how all those old coves used to catch
| heron, and ducks. and other kinds of birds
by the use Of falcons? Well that's what
I'm going to do he says earnestly
But you haven't any falcons, / OBJ
jected.
Tush. Deacon Sol retorted, sort Of
impatiently. OF course, l amt got any
falcons. But what's a falcon except a
hawk, anyway, and il will be easy enough
for me TO get a few young hawks and
train them to catch ducks and other birds
which sell well, but are a good deal of
trouble for a tired old man 10 shoot
You can catch the hawks and the
hawks may catch the ducks" l said. sort
of sarcasticalIy, for 1 thought he was
talking nonsense. But will the hawks
bring you birds? Unrefecting and foolish
generosity isn't one of the failings of
hawks. Any photographs you can get of
hawks bringing ducks TO Sol Tomlinson
will be rare and valuable
If those old fellows in the Middle
Ages, who never saw newspaper or a
reaping machine. could train hawks to
hunt for them, replied Sol obstinstely |
'an-up-to-date nineteenth century farmer |
COR do II no lot of
but it will pay in the end
''Wen. the first thing Sol did was to set |
his boys to work gathering in young |
hawks That was considerable of a con-
tract for the boys. as neither the young |
hawks nor the old birds took kindly 10 |
having their nests robbed. but after being |
scratched up a good deal the boys gather |
ed in about a dozen young birds. Sol pat |
ted his boys on the head, told them he |
was proud of them, and promised each |
silver dollar when his scheme got 10 |
working. The boys looked as if they |
would rather have IG cents in present coin /
Of the realm. but they had another guess |
coming as far as that was concerned. |
Then Sol began training his birds.
Sol had lot Of chickens of his own |
and every time he killed one he would |
feed the young hawks bit of liver Then
he would buy up the livers whenever any
of the neighbOrs killed chickens and feed |
them to the hawks. Of course. he fed |
the hawks other things, but pretty soon
those birds had as well developed taste
for liver as some men have for patty de
foy grass or whatever it is called Then
Sol began the second part of the training.
He would put dead duck on the ground |
and carry one of his hawks over TO il, go
81. I
that he wanted the dead duck brought to
him. Hawks are pretty intelligent birds,
and it wasn't long before they appreciated
the fact that every time one Of them
brought Sol duck there was a big piece
of liver coming.
- If you were getting IN a trained bird
show l says TO Sol. I could see where
you would come in; but what profit YOU
are going 10 get out of paying out good
money for liver to give your hawks for
bringing you dead ducks is a problem be-
yOnd me-
Sol looked at me- as if il panied him to
see any one so ignorant 4 amt making
any money out of 1t yet deacon, he saws
in a sort of plying way. I'm only train
ing these intelligent birds When the duck
season opens 1t will be live ducks. not
dead ones, they will have 10 hunt. Then I
will show the admirers of those knights
that American hawks, trained by an
American farmer, can lay over anything
in the way Of falcons ever produced by an
effete civilization
by the time the duck season opened
all but six of SOFs hawks had died. bur
he certainly did have that half dozen
trained down TO a fine point. Their appe-
tite for liver had gotten to be like that
of mans for drink, and they understood
that ducks and only ducks Were what Sol
wanted. so they never interfered with his
chickens. By and by he ducks began fly
ing south. Then Sol started out TO gather
in His harvest
a. For months he said to me these
ducks of mine have enjoyed fatherly care
and lived en- the fat Of the land ana the
lKers of several hundred chickens Now ts
the time for them to repay my devotion.
And, by gum, they will do it or get into
trouble
THAT afternoon Sol got n couple of
long sticks, and carrying them over his
shoulders, with the hawks percned On |
them, started after ducks Pretty soon
along came mock of ducks flying down
pretty low. Sol united his hawks and
pointed al the ducks IL wasn't half
minute before these trained hawks under
stood what was wanted Of them and off
they went al full tilt after the ducks
Each hawk grabbed a duck, started back
with II toward Sol, and dropped il at his
feet. Then came the first Of Soils actions
winch turned aside the hearts OF mis- faith
full duck hunters
When the hawks delivered up their
ducks TO Sol they began to look for
some liver as reward. But Sol didn't
see il that way.
Ihose ducks are still in sight ne
says 10 the hawks, as if they could IN
1erstand him. And duty calls on YOU 10
90 after them. Now is your chance to re-
pay little Of my care and affection
mis- Is no time 10 be looking for liver
Sol Kept pointing al the rapidly dis
appearing flock OF ducks, and as his
hawks didn't seem 10 understand what
lie meant, he grabEed stick and began