Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-11-12
WENT A-HUN7|NG.
Sad but True Tale Of Party Of
Augusta Sports.
They Went, They Saw the Woods and
They Came Home.
1anne Still Roams the Forests Without
Fear of Them.

Ever since 1t became the proper! thing
10 go into the woods at the season of
the year when the leaves upon the
trees are turning to crimson and gold,
anu the night air is tempered with the
hrst suggestions of frost, it has been
tiie custom of Augusta hunters to sally
i"tth, slngly, or in force, armed with
oeath-dealing firearms, and intent to
stay the lordly moose Or the mild eyed
| deer
! VI course, this custom goes back to
the days before the city was incorpo-
rated, and even before the logs from
"hlch the walls of Fort Western We're
Quilt We're cut from their stumps in the
primeval forest, but in all that time,
from the days when the gentle Abe
hakis harassed the antlered game with
BOWS and arrows, down through the
misty years to the advent of the old
Queens arm, the heavy musket, the
patch and ball rifle, and finally to the
modern arm, the 1920, the "45x70," and
| others, the prowess of the Augusta
| hunter has always been secure.
Never until now has his reputation
been furnished, even though a deer has
been brought into town from the Indian
pond region with bullet hole down
| through the back, showing that it must
have been shot from a tree. That was
unsportsmanlike, perhaps, but the re-
suit was the same as it would have been
had the hunter and the hunted met,
face to face-perhaps.
But now though regret accompanies
the statement, by the actions of four
Would-he hunters, who exercise the
rights of citizenship within and about
Augusta, there is on the northwest cor
ner of the hunters shield, a stain,
which even the brightness of the noon
day sun cannot efface.
1t is not because they came back
empty handed, for many hunters do the
same. All are not successful, for guar
antees to shoot at least one deer are
not yet for sale, and the hunter who
comes home without his game, in a
manly way, gets just as many listeners
to his campfire yarns as the man who
brings home two.
Had they done so, all would have
been forgiven but they did not. IN
stead of that, they stole into the city
under cover of darkness, and then, lest
some of their friends should see them,
made a rush for a certain hardware
store like crowd of wandering Will
lies charging a free lunch counter. This
action produced the stain on the shield.
Now, about the party. 1t will not be
necessary to call any names for they
are already published in the directory,
so suffice it to say that about 10 days
ago, four young men from the hard
ware store mentioned above took the
train. bound for Madrid. 1t was not
the Madrid mentioned in the Old song
which began: Long years ago. etc,
but Madrid, Maine.
They We're armed with rifles of vari
Gus calihers, the bullets for which
ranged in size from Telephone pea to
q chocolate drop, and as the hunters
marched over to the station their
friends envied them, and at night
dreamed dreams of the carnage that
would follow their advent into the
wilderness.
Nothing was heard from them after
their departure. and though the express
cars of west-bound trains We're watched
from day to day, and many deer passed
through in them, not one was put off
on the baggage trucks, bearing a card
w
nothing was thought of this, as one of
the hunters was said to have carried
with him a license to handle deer skins,
and it was thought that he would bring
them home in n bale.
At last came the day for their return.
Last Monday, a private Wire said that
the party would return on the Pullman,
which is officially known as train 2, and
a reporter was at the train to meet
them. and incidentally, while accord |
ing to them the freedom of the city, |
get q short story of their trip.
He expected to meet a quartet of
bronzed-faced heroes, with rifles in
hand. and redolent with the odor of
broiled venison, but he didn't do any
thing of the kind. In fact he didn't see
any hunters. but one thing he did See |
though he didn't think anything of it |
at the time.
AS he wendell his way up the plat
form, he noticed four shadowy forms |
drop from the rear car, and make Il |
break for Water street. Naturally he |
wondered a bit, but soon forgot the in
cident. and would not have thought of |
it again, had he not dropped into the |
hardware store, last night, to inquire
when the boys would be home. He was
told that they came Monday night, and |
then the memory of those shadoWy
forms came back, and the rest was
easy.
p. Sand they did not get a deer.
Miss Gertrude Savage entertained i