The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-25
A STRANGE EXPERIENCE
in THE MAINE WOODS.

Aehl.t nNlN AlOIE lNAl mas ever come
out of the Maine hunting woods-and
/ know considerable about the stories
of the Maine woods II It were not
vouched for so eminently / would not
tell It. Il would be too much for cred
ulity and wouldn't be worth the tell
ing I believe it, for know the men
VINO tell IL to me, even Though they
cannot explain it. They believe lt
and do not try to explain It, for they
feel they cannot Here It Is. II the
thing seems too much to believe, then
don't believe it. But the facts are just
the same.
On the north side Of Boarstone
mountain, in the town of Elliotsyllle,
in Piscatauquis county, Maine, lives
Trustrum II. Brown, who calls himself
"The Mediator" He entertains the
harmless vagary that he is the media
tor between man and God. For some
10 years since his retirement to the
wilderness of northern Maine he has
been writing what he calls new BIZ
Bile, and he has q mass Of manuscript
piled a foot high. BY the way, have
examined the "Mediator's' manu-
script considerably, and it is far from
being balderdash Much of his writ
ing indicates real thought and consid
cradle ability The Mediator" is in
no sense of the word a crazy man, je-
spite his hallucination on the subject
Of religion.
Brown has a bit Of a farm and
raises potatoes and vegetables enough
to last him through the winter. He
traps a little and hunts a bit and
never goes hungry.
Early in December, just after the
FIRST snow of the season, he discovered
one morning the fresh tracks of q
moose near his house. By the man
ner in which the creatures great feet
had splayed into the snow, Brown
saw that the moose was a big one.
In his capacity of Mediator" ne as
serts that there are 10000 spirits
about him all the time He alleges
that he asked one of these spirits to
tell him how big the moose was and
that the spirit skipped along ahead
AMI then came back and rendered him
the information that the moose was
none other than the Ambajejus Giant
that had defed the rifles of hunters
for years. The spirit further de-
clared, so Brown AYERS, that the
moose didn't have much of a start.
So the Mediator" tied on his snow
shoes, grabbed his rife and bit of
a snack, and started away on tle
Iope into the forest This was early
in the morning. Well, the Mediator
scuffed along till noon without com
ing up with the moose. But the
tracks still continued fresh and his
spirit guide, so he says, kept breath
ing into his ear that the animal was
almost in reach. He ate his lunch of
cold venison as ne walked, for in a
stern chase of a moose no time is to
be wasted. His keen woodsman's eye
noted that the clouds hung low and
were massing darker and darker. Had
he not been so confident that the
moose was just ahead of him and
would yard" at the coming of night
fall, he would have abandoned the
chase
At o'clock it was dusk, and still
the splay tracks were stretching or
ahead of him. Then ne could see then
no longer, and regretfully he brought
to in a ravine and abandoned the
chase for the night.
He had not reckoned on the Ions
pursuit and therefore he had not pro
vided himself in the usual cautious
manner. Above all, he had no
brought his woods axe.
Only a man accustomed to thu
woods realizes how serious an omis
sion this is. The Mediator" was abb
to collect some dry kye or limbs tina
had dropped from the trees and HI
hewed off some low branches with hi
hunting knife. He kiniled bit of
fire at the foot of a tree. He did no
dare to go to asleep, for the cold wa
raw and piercing. So he stood an
turned himself before the fire Xix
an animated spit, moving constantl
to keep awake.
In the morning there was nothin
left of his provender except one fla
chested biscuit. Had he not been III
duly fired with zeal to catch tina
moose he would have retraced hi
steps. But he felt that probably tn
animal had yarled little way aheaC
and so on he went. He did com
across the trampled place where tn
moose had spent the night, and wit
its great teeth had ripped off tn
twigs and bark. BY the mighty reac