Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-14

one of these willow patches would not be
higher than ones thigh. yet it nearly al
ways would prove enough to serve the pur-
pose of the game
Hides From His Pursuers.
A big buck would go full speed into one
of these little covers, and one would sup
pose he would cross straight through it.
That is what the dogs always supposed for
a greyhound always thinks in one straight
line, and that is straight ahead of his nose.
1t takes time for him to realize anything
different from that unless he is right at the
heels of his game. The rider, sitting his
horse above the level Of the willow tops,
could sometimes see a curious thing. The
great buck, which a moment before looked
big church. and which topped the
shrubs as easily as though 1t flew in Its
great leaps above the ground would now
seem suddenly shrunken. Its head would
be sunken down a level with its body, its
antiers laid fat back, its ears turned back
low, its legs dropped at the joints, its whole
stature leSSened, and it crouched and skunk
like a rabbit through the cover, low down
and out of sight, not hair showing above
the tops of the brush. While the dogs were
frantically plunging about and leaping high
into the air to get sight of the vanished
game and while all the men were calling
and trying to lay the pack on the game
again, the buck would silently slip out Of
the thicket at right angles to the line on
which he went in, and, taking advantage Of
the first shallow draw or ravine, away he
would go again, leaping high ever and
sailing as jaunliy over the tops Of the lit
tie shrubs that came in his way. If the
dogs got sight of him in time they might
close in on him again. but the resources Of
tie cunning white tail were so various and
his brain so rapid in planning ways and
means that he had far more than an even
chance to escape. When it was a case Of a
long run over an open fiat. straightaWay.
with the pack we'll laid on, then the buck
sometimes had to get down to hard, steady
running at his best speed. He quit his
fancy running then. and got down, belly to
ground, and attended to his knitting in a
way which no still hunter ever saw deer
perform.
In such straightaway chase 1t was not
inside the limits of the COW horses, swift
as they were, to carry their riders I'D into
the chase, and We had to do the best we
could at cutting corners and getting up to
the high points, wnere we could perhaps
soon take advantage of turn in the chase.
Ponies Delight In the Game.
One OF the best sporting features Of these
Wild runs was the keen delight the cow
ponies took in the game. They would run
at speed which would take down purses
at Washington Park and they needed no
urging to do It, They wanted to see the
run, clearly, and they carried the handicap
or mans weight unfiinchingly as only
mat noL-e creature, the horse can do We
may have automobiles, and horse shows
ana rubber tires, and all that sort of thing
IN these progressive days, but the glories of
the day gone by, and of a sport in which
horse and dog took part, will hardly be
surrendered In memory by those who knew
them In exchange for the attachments of
this advanced civilization of ours. which
Strings electric lights in the old COW towns
and corrals the cowpunchers In steam
heated flats