Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1901-11-28
Numbering a Deer.


Nole of them have ever been deer
shooting and after they had taken the
tirss drink he said to them:
Boys, some time the feeling may
cone over you that you would like to
81 and hunt deer, and il it does, try
and argue with yourself against it.
There is not money enough in the
world to induce me to go again. |
Ike the woods and if | could 60 up
there sometime when the shooting
season is not on, with a camera and a
shotgun to kin a few partridges,
would like to 90, with my wife and
some girls and boys, but to go off
again with gang of men who walk
al day and play poker all night, you
must excuse me. Say, we might just
as well have been in the Philippines.
as far as danger was concerned, for
there was constant firing and Skin
mishine and more than a dozen bull
let's went through the lumber shack
We We're occupying. When we ar
rived at the station we had drive of
twenty miles in a lumber wagon and
do you think those murderers would
wait till morning before starting?
Not on your life. They hooked up at
1880 in the morning and drove over
logging road till o'clock with moth
ing to eat but can of beans. Work!
We worked harder than / ever did in
my life, and the second day the law
was off, and we were ready to shoot,
but before we were ready fifteen or
twenty fellows from Ohio and Indiana,
camped mile or two up the river.
began banging right and left, into the
woods and bullets whistled around us
so only two of our fellows went out at
all ! did not shoot gun the whole
ten days and as | couldn't play poker
/ had lovely time. A mans life was
not safe for minute. Those fellows
shoot if they see leaf move, and run
TO see if they have killed deer. And
il they find they have shot man they
and try to save his life. but 90 off and
leave him to die alone, for fear they
will be arrested. o, the horror of it
all is something | cannot describe.
Two corpses came down on the train
! did of men killed for deer. Porcu-
pines ate my boots and something ate
one leg off my trousers. There were
two pirates in our party who wanted
blood, and one day we heard them
shoot down near camp and finally they
yelled for me to come down with a
lantern. 1t was just dusk and said
my prayers and took a lantern and
started. When got there they had
& ust found wounded doe they had
Shot and one of the butchers was
about to cut her throat. | wanted TO
90 away as she tried to raise up and
she bleated so pitifully that the tears
came to my eyes but l did not want
to be considered baby so | stayed to
see it out, but if God will spare me
from witnessing another such scene
/ will be happy. The doe seemed to
think | was the only one in the party
that had any heart and she looked up
at me with the most beautiful eyes |
ever saw except the eyes of the girl !
love, and there were tears in her ewes,
If | know tears when | see them. One
of my friends, damn him, put his
H.. 81
creature and held it down and took
knife aud placed the point or her
throat as a murderer might on the
throat of the most beautiful woman
YOU could ever see. and there was a
cut ia the flesh, the blue blood came
out in torrents, the body heaved, the
deer cried, and the life blood went out
and felt as though ! had stood at the
deathbed of "A beautiful child and
watched the last heaving of the bosom
as the last breath came with a sigh al
most human. ] wanted to go away
and cry but those heather never
would have let me hear the last of it,
50 | stayed, bat so help me heaven
> did nothing but carry the lantern,
and Ihated those fellows who dragged
that beautiful dead creature up to the
camp. They were covered with
blood and seemed to glory in it like
men you have read about who have
killed somebody. The boys worked
al! the evening SHINING that beauty
and talking of how they plugged her
in the fore leg and in the stomach and
how she fell down and bleated and
got up again and tried to get away
until my brain reeled and ! went to
bed and never slept wink all night.
Even now in my dreams | see that
dark place in the woods, dimly lighted
by the lantern, and the tragedy enact
I'd there. | can see the appealing look
Of those beautiful brown eyes and it
- y wonder I did nor stand batvaan