The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1900-12-08
HERE had been heavy rains to
81 the northeast and the south forA
of the Flambeau was in. half
flood. Down Barnaby Rapids
the iron tinted waters were pour.

=
waves two feet high and of the color Of
lark molasses candy. Each white fringed
and ebon at bottom, they danced in rout.
Fergy the guide shot the boat into a
stiller place made by a small indentation
IF the shore, drove the butt of hickory
pole into a. crevice of the stony bottom
and so held the craft, standing half
crouched in the stern, the upper part of
the pole under his arm. 50 -. 4
Red eyes in here he said briefly, feel
Ing in his trousers pocket for a hunk of
black tobacco, and the other man made
his cast. -
81 brung a. teller here onst," Fergy
said, an he We're a preacher f'om POS
ting. Had on $4,000 with O. clothes an
a rod wat must a cost a millyun. Hooked
a 'arf-poun' red-eye. tainted rom cystic
ment an fell out. Rolled IS yard 8 inches
downstream, fas.' You never see no
W eel go roun' like wat that Teller went
roun' I let tn boat drift an feeshed him
out; packed him four mile to camp on
my back; stuck him ag'inst tn fire an
dried him. He had 'nough Flambeau
wattuh in him to float a raj o'<twenty-
five millyun feet an 1t took him a long
time to dry. Wen he come to he arSked
me eff I couldn't go back an fin his rod.
II said" 49,, +
"What did you say?' the other man
inquired with some show Of interest.
But that amt wat makes me reckleo'
TIL place. Five year ago, ur thereabouts
they useter be roun' here tn mos strang-
es' mink wat ever hunted fresh. He
weren't so might big FIR Flambeau
I,,,4 +,
were colored funny Mnks is black, III
mighty near black in gin'rul, an that's
all tn color they got, but this here mink
were striped. He had yeller rings roun
him, rings bout tn color O. walnut leaves
, Wen tn fros' has hit 'em hard, an hi
were purity to- look at. He were better
outside n he were inside, hoWsomeever
Like yuther minks, he lived on feesh
but he weren't content with eatin' hi
belly full an goin' Z sleep. Fuss off, HI
killed all he wanted to an let tn bodie
float way, an Wen he got tired O. kill
| in then he went to eatin'.
His range were FIR a arf mile up I
down tn river an he ruint five good hole:
;f'r me. I'd bring tn fellers out an tel
EN- here was, W ere they ketch bass f.,
sure, an they don ketch no bass, an
they say I'm liar, an i know it ain
ruffin onst by lynn with my belly on tn
: hank an my chin on tn aideg o. a rotl
?f'r three hours. I see him swimnin
slow. He'd been KILN an eatin' an
couldn' :a-swum fas' eff he'd wanted to.
, counted tn rings. They was ten O. 'em
tn broades' in tn middle, an 1 says tt
. M e'f, says I: Shore you ain human!
I ain never been run out'n no countr,
by no mink yit, hoWsomever, an I lai<
FIR him.
Now, I knows minks f'om way up t
way down. They has one hole to 20 il
at an nuther hole t. come out at, same
rabbit. Sometimes they has TO- ur fv,
holes, an they ain no sense in tryin' t
git 'em thataway. Nachully you cain
fin EN- waikiki roun' huntin' FIR you so'
you kin kill EN-. Like ev'ry yuther an
'mul, though, they's, got places they like
bes', wat you, call runways.t You fin tn
runway an sets your traps, an if tn
mink's human you'll git him. Thus read
Flheld (Wis.) letter to the New Yorl
Sum.
Il been trappin', off'n on, FIR ffteer
year, an mos times I JUS lever have
a bin traps bat trap. A bin trar
is a trap sunk a 1eetle un'er tn ice, u,
snow. Minks 1iur nothin' cain smell
!. through ice ur snow. Well, tried both
/, on MIN. 1 baited with feesh un'er wat.
tub an long tn bank; baited with eel
L ba1ted with mushrat, an a, mink'll Jus
lie down an cry hisse'f sick with ioy
/: et you offer him musnrat. Lynn Out
rom un'er klver in these here damned
winters lookin' at them traps I ketch
lumbiggy an pnemony, an con,umshun
an bronkitty, an neuralagy, an out
CROWN toenails, an broken heart, an
ev'ry thing this side o. Hudson Bay,
'cep' mink. wore out six ,,anthooks
an forty peavies an a spade borrered
fom knut knutson's shack, intendin' It
return 1T some day, diggin' holes f'r bin
traps, an I don git no mink I says
to m'se'f says I: You ain humans!
"Finerly, I says to m'se'f: EFF you
got more sense n wat got, I got more
strenk n wat you got. You know trap:
an you know tn bottom O. tn Flam.
beau like wat I know tn trail 'f'ou
tn Chip wa res'vation back t. a wife
mans home, says T. but you dom know
dynermdte.' -
They We're a shack down near tn Biz
Drive on tn Chp'Wa river Were some
fellers been blastin' in tn summer an
fall. They had went away an lef' thi.
shack filled with bout s'leven hundert
poun' % dynermite hopin' it'd be strucl
by lightnfn', s'pose. Nobody in all tina
kentry couldn' be hired to 60 near it
Now, slep' with dynermite I mad,
pliers out'n sticks O. it. / druther hay,
1t aroun' n fool wat smokes cig'reet
an blows his breath in your face. E.
Il gotter die, I wanter die sudden an
painless an scattered, so hikes.
Il hikes sixty miles in five hours, u
mebbe five an a arr hours, an then
hits the neighborhood were this shael
were. The hull pop lation o. sixteen, u
mebbe eiEhteenrsouls had skipped .fr fea
o that dynermite. foun' tn shack al
right an broke upen tn door with
rock, an there were tn. stun piled up a
high as mans breas' in 2Ox20 room
lifted out forty poun' o. It, near 8
{ could guess. an packed It in a sack ar
flung It over m shoulder, an then hike
back. Gdttin' through tn woods in I'll
plumb dark with a bag o. sudden deaf
thumpin' you on tn backbone would sort
er make creepy things lodge in mos. mem
hatds, but 1t didn' bother me none. Alec
McWhirter, tn lumber telephone. neve
sWinged long no more careless an, fas' :
what swinged. / git back to these her
rapids JUS as day were gittin' ready
( break, an It don't come in Janwerry tel
near z o'clock.
Il got out on M skates an put tn d,
nernite catterges jus, un'ev tn, ice mex /
tn bank fr art mile, leavin' tn fuse
stickin out, as matter o. course. The,
81 lighted balsam to.ch an. touched Of
{ tn fuse one. an started back up til
stream. Them fuses was cut t burn fiy
seconds each. TIL fus' one lighted wen
{ off Wen 7 were putin tn FIRE t TIL las