The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-04
A HAWK STORY WITH A PHILIP.
 PINE MORAL.

Years ago. when was a good deal younger than am now, was visiting in South HadIey; and while there I walked up Mount Tom and back. On
 my return, when about half way down, l happened to see in field some rods l from the road hawk hopping around on the ground. evidently unable to fly. Now had seen hawks all my life, but had never shot or captured one Here was an opportunity put in my way to get one actually in my possession.
 Following an eager, boyish, impulse, hurried to the spot, and found the hawk full enough of life, but with a
 broken wing. As I approached him he glared at me with his flashing demon- like eyes. which were almost enough to deter an intruder; but I was not daunted, and soon had the bird by the throat. Immediately, however, he had
 me by the leg, having planted his strong, sharp claws in it. had to hold down his sound wing with one arm, while with the other pulled the claws, one after the other, out of my leg.
 But as I had to guard against his four W oCdhJ JlS WlIlS
 and his two feet-and. had only my two
 arms to operate with, the contest was
 not so unequal as it at first seemed;
 and the hawk got his claws into me two or three times before I finally mas-
 tered him. holding his throat with my left hand, his sound wing with my
 left arm, and his two legs with my right hand. My victory was complete, and with my conquered enemy I re-
 turned to the road, and went on my
 way. On and on I walked, carefully holding the hawk fast, lest in an un-
 guarded moment he might get partly free and give me another struggle for the mastery. had reached the foot of the mountain, and was making my way to the river, when began to con- sider what I was going to do with the
 hawk after all. This question had not occurred to me before. And the more I thought of it, the more perplexed I
 grew. If I was to kill him, I might
 have done that at the outset, rather
 than carry him miles along the road. But I had no heart for that. The al ternative then was to keep him a pris-
 oner. But was not staying in a home
 of my own; and if I had been doing so, what did I want of a broken winged hawk to feed and care for?. I had not
 reflected long before I came to the con-
 clusion that I was big fool. About that time I passed house where boy, younger than myself, was standing;
 and I asked him if he would like to
 take the hawk. He gladly accepted the
 offer, and as gladly gave up my pris- 1 oner.
 This performance of mine has often
 come to my mind as a pat parallel to the exploit of our government in talk ing possession of the Philippine Islands.
 When the Spanish war was ended, the
 thought occurred, it would be an easy thing for us to take the whole group.
 There was something fascinating in thus suddenly extending our empire to
 the Orient. We had only to make peremptory demand, and Spain would
 have to yield the possession. The idea
 was no doubt in many ways a popular
 one. Providence" had thrown the is-
 lands into our hands, just as the
 wounded hawk was thrown into mine;
 we had only to say the word, send
 small army to take formal possession
 of what Spain had ceded, and, To! at
 one stroke we would be gaining a glori-
 ous acquisition, and would be, indeed,
 'world-power." No sooner thought
 than done. We got possession of the