The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-03-30
OLD TRAPPERS.
BY JAMES BUCKHAM.

BY JAMES BUCkHAM.
There is refreshing fund OF wisdom
in old trappers. Being as rule, soil
tary men, compelled to meditation by
the conditions of their remote life,
they naturally accumulate, during
long subjective existence, much quaint
philosophy which is more delightful
and often more instructive than any
thing you will find in books I have
known several such homemade philos-
ophers, and have found them by far
the most stimulating and companiona-
BILE men of my acquaintance. Their
observations are so serenely oracular,
so pungently original, and at times so
deliciously whimsical, and I sincerely
regret not having kept verbatim re-
cord Of such as have heard, that l
might share with others the pleasures
l have received from them. But, after
all, every man ought to have his own
trapper to resort to, for the charm of
personality and manner, the quaint,
keen turn of expression and infection
of voice, are qualities which cannot be
transferred to any record.
When I am surfeited with the con-
ventionality and interminable sameness
Of the life of the town, love to get in
to my oldest suit of clothes, turn the
key of the house behind me, and tramp
eff twenty miles in the hills to the ca
bin Of my most accessible old trapper.
He is always glad to see me-almost
as glad as l am to see him-and that
is no small part of the refreshment of
the trip. There is no house within
five miles, so we have the woods all to
ourselves and may talk as much and as
freely as we please, without danger of
being overheard and reported. My
friend, the old trapper, has been medi-
tating in solitude for six months, per-
haps, and his retentive mind is dis
tended with philosophy to the point
where sharing it with another, espe-
cially thirsty and absorptive mind,
becomes source ofimmense and CRATE
full relief
What memorable night is always
that first one in the little, dim cabin,
with dusty lamp twinkling on the
shelf above, and the rusty stove glar-
ing at our feet, which are perched CON-
panionably in front of the draught!
There are the pipes, with abundant
store of tobacco, and the jug of fresh
spring water in the corner, should we
grow thirsty. And so we spent the
greater part of the night, talking in
low tones, while the hound snores by
the wood-box, and the owl boots from
the depths of the woods. We have no
wish to go to bed-or rather to bunk
for the fascination of true human inter
course holds us fast-3uch spell as
men have never felt in clubs or draw
ing room. Not until the Pickering
lamp burns itself out, and the east be-
gins to grow gray, do we knock the
last ashes from our pipes and stumble
to the hunks, satisfied for time with
the unspeakable joy Of spontaneous
conversation-thoughts that are ex-
changed as naturally and fexibly as
the bowling together of trees in the
wind.
And what do we talk about, this
old trapper and |? Everything. |
suppose that there is no subject under
the sun that lonely man in the woods
does not come into some sort Of prim-
tive contact with; nothing which his
mind does not play about in the fluent,
childlike way not permissible to the
workings of the scientific mind.
And it is out of this free, imaginative
play of the mind that the delightful
originality of old trappers proceeds.
We talked for instance, of the stars
rs they are seen in very clear nights,
lust at the darkest hour before the
dawn. And the old trapper said that
he had seen them visibly pale brighten,
in alternative waves, so that their sud-
den kindling seemed like flashes of the
northern lights; only these stars were
beyond the zenith to the south, and
quite out of the range Of tue aurora
borealis, w!i;cl he had many times
seen darting below the stars, during
their own strange paling and brighten
ing. To account for the phenomenon
he had theory that the ether contin-
ually rushes back and forth through
space in great waves, and that every
ethereal wave carries with it minute
particles of floating matter, which tenn
porarily obscure the stars-but only to
an extent which can be observed in
the darkest hour of clear night.
And then he passed Immediately
from talking of the stars to talking of
tobacco, upon which subject the old