Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-12-02

water and rushes for the migratory
duck-that man learned what his less
fortunate brother can never know.
When he came to know the difference
between the rabbits track in the snow
and that of a wandering cat, he began
learning. When his throat became at
tuned to the call of the different ducks
he increased his education, and by the
time he had learned TO distinguish the
quail's last nights roosting place from
that of the night before he had gone
further toward being real man than
had the son of his fathers neighbor,
a man who did not believe in allowing
boys to use firearms. He is stronger
physically and mentally for his out
door life. Ills muscles become hard
ened and his face has a healthy hue.
He grows into man whose bodily Wig
or is not impaired by a long day over
a desk, for the outdoor life of boy
hood has built up frame of health
and strength that is able to with
stand WEAKNESS and sickness. He is a
physical man, and there is time in
the life of every one when the need of
the physical man is felt. The physical
man Is friend who never backs down
matter how arduous.
There is something about the tire
some tramp through fields and woods.
with a gun over the shoulder and the
eye always on the watch for game
that brings a man, or boy, close to
nature, that basis of all life. When he
is learning the customs and character
istics of the creatures of the bird and
animal kingdom he is gaining informa-
ton that will help him, whether he
! knows it or not, in the walks of bust
ness or professional life. Getting close
to nature. he gets close to the bottom
| of all things, and the man who starts
from the bottom always has the advan-
tage over his neighbor who begins half
way, for he can climb to the highest
rung of the ladder, while the other
can go no nearer the top than the dis
lance from the bottom TO the point
where he started.
What is life, bat the. opportunity for
each of us to enjoy his stay on earth
and to get as much out of it as posi-
BILE? We spend years at study in
schools, colleges and universities. We
delve into books to enlarge our minds
and to fit us for a useful life-useful
to ourselves first of all. But nature is
greater than any other university. Ma
ture is Gods school, and the student
! therein gains knowledge he can never
acquire at any of the ,1.en-made founts
of learning 1t gives him broader
view of life and consequently more OPP
portunity to enjoy his share of life.
One might say that this knowledge
is to he gained from books and need
not be gathered at first hand, with gun
in hand and dog searching for game.
But this would only show more ignor-
ance of the truth, for it is from the
trained Cog, descendant from a race of
animals with superhuman gifts in
some ways, that the hunter learns
some of the lore of the woods and
i field. And the dogs incentive to ex-
hibit his skill and native learning is
nothing less than the gun and the pos
sihilities it gives of allowing him to
retrieve the game he finds and thus
complete his part of the hunt. This
is part of what the hunter knows that
the book worm can never learn, part
of that knowledge that makes him the
more able to enjoy fife.
| The day of the gun and the dog is
not past. They are reminders for
some who have grown too old or too
busy to bring them back to the pres
ent, but they have left something in
the life of every devotee, something of
value that could have been obtained
in no other way.