Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1903-08-21
HUNTERS HAD GREAT SPORT
Rugged Up "FaIxe" Deer and Had
Comrade Shoot At 1t.

WoIOAS VI buo MCh0uIle, WneT6 WIFI
a party Of friends, he enjoyed a
splendid outing, feasting on venisor
and trout and having a good time
generally. An Oregonian reporter
was a member of the party, and in
Mondays paper he tells Of prank
that was played on one of the boys,
in which the jovial Colonel and
"Slim" McManus took prominent
part. No one loves a joke better
than the Colonel, even when the
joke is on himself, and while the
reporter doubtless drew on his fer
tile imagination for part of the
story, the Colonel admits that the
facts are, in the main, correct. The
story of the "fakc" deer is as
follows:
"a practical joke played near
the junction of Horse Greek and
the Mckenzie one night last week,
was not really in violation Of the
law, but pretended to be and it re-
coiled on one of the perpetrators in
a way that made him think for a
short time that there was some
thing doing in that neck Of woods
In that isolated section Of Lane
County it has been the custom of
campers to occasionally stalk deer
in the dark Of the moon, using
bicycle lamp to blind the animal
and also to aid in aiming the rifle.
"A few nights ago Nate Solomon,
of Portland, and G. H. McManus
and G. w. Matthews, Of Dallas,
plotted to have w. L. Bentley, of
Portland, go stalking and shoot at
fake deer. In the afternoon Nc
Manus and Matthews slipped down
to a deer lick in the dense forest
and rugged up a tomato can, many
of which they found lying around,
to represent a deer. This was done
by boring two holes in the can and
placing lighted candle in it, so
it would look like the eyes of a deer
shining in the dark. 1t was arranged
that Solomon should bring Bentley
down to the deer lick at dusk and
have him shoot at the supposed
deer, Matthews and McManus
were to be behind logs out of range
and were to move the can by means
Of long string to represent the
swaying Of deer's head. At the
third shot they were to pull the can
down to the ground to convince
Bentley that he had killed the
deer. A general laugh on Bentley
was the last thing on the pro-
gramme.
CAT dusk McManus and Matthews
went down to the licks to light the
candle and arrange the plot. Half
an hour later Bentley, armed with
a 30;30 rife, went, guided by Sol
omon, to stalk a deer in the licks.
Less than a minute before they
reached the scene McManus had
posted himself behind a four-foot fir
tree and Matthews, after vainly
endeavoring to disentangle the line
attached to the can, had jumped
behind a log, but not the one he
had so carefully selected in the
afternoon for cover.
Bentley saw the fake deer. He
said it looked like lantern to him,
as the eyes were too large. Solomon
said it looked like a deer to him,
and Bentley blazed. away. The
bullet missed the mark by mile,
but Matthews thought he had a
'dum'dum' somewhere in his car
cass.
/" Pull the string he yelled.
4" There amt no string shouted
back McManus.
"'Hi, there, don't shoot came
from where Matthews lay behind a
log. Don't shoot any more, for
Gods sake. Is that you, Solomon?'
Solomon said that was he and
promised that there would be
no more shooting. Thus assured
Matthews came forth and straight
ened himself out. Then he started
for home. He was bathed in
perspiration when he reached camp,
but his legs would have taken him
a few PAGES further if necessary to
get him out of the range of 30:30I
rife. Everybody gathered around
him and asked him for particulars
and told how they would feed it to