The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-16

And the soil that clings to his trousers-k
Is the soil of several lands 49,
To which may be added that his Ian
guage is painful, and frequent, and Free"
as that with which the ferver-stricken
gentleman of poverty fiat vexed the gentle
soul Of truthful James. I scare think
that either Bob Burdette. or Bret Harte,
ever met up with my good friend
Charles G. Oberly, of the big paper mill
at Grand Rapids; but all the same Bob
| drew an accurate pen picture of his ap-
Lake and fishing trip recently, and
Bret gave a very mild idea of his Ian
guage.
| There is no better man in the trade than
| Oberly, SO far, as running paper mill is
concerned, and he is a mighty hunter and
fisherman, but his jalnts after fin, fur and
feather so far have come off in Wisconsin,
and he never went up against the real
! thing in the way Of bad roads till he
struck Itasca county. Here we modestly
consider that we can give anything in
! that line in the country a good run for it's
money, and beating at the end of the race,
which latter proposition Mr.. Oberly is
! willing to bet on.
But / will tell the story in his own
/ language-as nearly as the conventions
will allow.
II always thought that was more or
less of bowling ass when the moon was
FULL" said Oberly; "But now, since l
accepted Mr.. Wheaton's dictum. and went
blind on it to my own undoing, I am sure
of it. Roy told me that it was only
| TWENTY-FIVE miles to his Internal lake,
and that the road was all right. That
no man need be stuck on 1t II he was
sober clear through and a whole lot more
of the Joys coming to the man who made
the trip, including the certainty of get
ting a fash-light picture of a feeding
moose, which latter I've been after for
years, but never succeeded in getting.
Dtsresarded the Warning.
| "And I swallowed all his talk, and If
wasn't SO sore now ia hire some strong
lumberjack to kick me all over town for
doing it. I was warned too. Old John
Grasshopper told me the Prairie River
country was hoodooed, in that 1t was the
! hunting ground of some kind of Indian
devil that he called Wendigo, whose
4 legs he said were of the size of twenty
+ foot saw log, and who swallowed meI
whole-and I'm blessed if l don't thlnH
the old Indian came nearer to the trutf
than Wheaton did. ,
Harry, and 1, and calculated to get tnere
Saturday night fish then, and Sunuay
, and get home before dark on the saooati
! evening. And this is the plain, unvar
| nished tale of, what we did do. we go
! ! past Deer lake all right, and there TN
: road, as a road Of common oecency
> ceased, and determined. FOR .nlee ~,
:, hours we cut windfalls out or II; theu
!. after we had struck a clear piece at last
: and were trying to make up for lost time
!, we got into a Doggy place, and, stralnin
to pull through 1t, the horses broke IN
; eyener, and Jesse and Smith had to max
another before we could get any 1artne
q on our way. ro,
! through by hand, after which we let IN
> team craze bit while caught frogs 10
: haiti. and the other boys made tne neN
evener After that piece of constructlol
y was finished, we discovered that the tean
: was missing, and we had to chase tnen
two miles or more, they naving neI ea
sense than we, and having started 10
$ town, before he could catch them
r r"Well, that wasn't enough GRIEF eVe1
q vet We got to a lumbermen's deserte1
= camp. put the horses in the barn to feed
Q while we got kind of hashed up Dime
r for ourselves, and by some strange pee
d of lunacy, forgot to halter them. IN 1acl
q we clear forgot about the blamed horse
e tin we'd eaten, smoked and rested well
q and then they were not to be found: I'M
b | time ] sat down and let Smith ana jess
: chase them. BY the Great Horn Spoo
e thew didn't get them till they got clea
S back to Deer Lake, five miles at leas'
|
we oct under way, and our hoodoo didn'
F. do a thing but break the king bolt let tn
p team haul the front wheels and Jess
apart from the rest OF the rig ana le
e Smith and I, with all the luggage, 40"
,, on our hacks into the mud.
|, : "Well, there's no use spending breat
s over the rest Of it. We expected to reac
It the lake about or in the Afternoon
g and it was nearer when we did arrive
L But we were there at last, and got lou
7, nice bass for breakfast and began to thin
It there. was balm in Gilead after all befor
. night fell. --. .'.t'-..
:, .,@ Snapshot of a Moose.
=. GAS soon as darkness fell, Jesse took m
r out on the lake, through 'thoroughfare
q and into pond-lilly begrown 'pug-hole
! and after mile or two OF quiet paddhn
8 brought me within kodak-range Of a feec
IS ing moose. At least he said that was Whs
g it was. / could hear something splashin
IL about In the water, but it might have bee
n