Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1906-01-25
A Hunters Good Memory.

little group Of old timers, kind
red spirits, who love to dwell on the
past, were seated in NJ. H. Schrams
store the other evening. As usual their
thoughts ran back ov,r by-gone days.
Many curious stories were told. One
of these was caught on the fly by a
News scribe and in an abbreviated form
is here presented as a sample of all the
others.
Oscar Mellin had the floor and he
related an odd circumstance to illus
trate how an unfailing memory may be
relied upon to help one out in many
ago. Oscar said, he was ont hunting
on the other side of the river While
tramping through one of the hollows
below kipp's Run he discovered to his
horror that he had lost his tobacco.
In the successful pursuit of game with
Oscar plenty of tobacco was as essential
as powder and shot for the fowling
piece.
The man was thinking seriously Of
giving up the hunt when he heard a
farmer ploughing III one of the fields
nearby. He made his way out Of the
brush and approaching the farmer made
his plight known. Now. no matter
what kind of man a tobacco chewer
may be he is always liberal-with his
tobacco. The farmershad large plug,
which he handed to Oscar. The latter
bit off a good mouthful and before re-
turning the tobacco offered TO buy the
whole plug There was no store near
and the farmer could no more plough
without tobacco than Oscar could
shoot squirrels without it; under the
circumstance the weed was as dear TO
the agriculturist as it was to Oscar
and money was no price.
The best that Oscar could do was to
oconomize his mouthful of tobacco and
pursue game as long as it lasted. For
awhile he had good luck, then as all
the stimulating qualities became ex-
tracted from the mouthful of tobacco
he lost his cunning and no more game
came his way.
He gave up finally and decided TO go
home. Tramping along toward town
he came to Alem Sechler's hollow at
Kipp's Run. Here Oscars good mem
ory came to his rescue. The sight of
the familiar hollow reminded him of
another hunting excursion nine years
before when he was accompanied by
half a dozen or more companions. He
remembered that the party partook of
lunch in the hollow-at a point
where one of the sides of the glen was
formed of a solid wall of rock which
leaned inward over the creek forming
a shelter What Oscar recalled with es-
pecial interest was the fact that after
the lunch the party being suddenly
called to the hunt threw away their
cigars, none of which were much
more than half smoked. Oscar, who
was always economically inclined, did
not like TO see the waste and merely as
a whim gathered up the half smoked
cigars from the ground and securely
tucked them away in a cleft of the ov-
erhanging rock where they were high
and dry. He thought nothing more
about them until he recalled the ep-
isode on the second hunting trip.
What if the cigars still remained in
their hiding place? 1t took him only
revealed the exact spot where the party
had eaten lunch. The overhanging
rock was there and there, too, was the
cleft. Oscar inserted his hand and rs
good luck would have it there were
the cigars, or fragments of,cigars, just
as they were deposited there nine years
before
Oscar didn't go home-not right
away. He continued his hunt, tramp
ing up and down the hollow and over
the fields on each side Meanwhile he
chewed the cigars, which with age had
increased wonderfully in potency and
flavor so that the game bag that Oscar
carried was not large enough to hold
all the game that fell under his unerr-
ing aim that day.
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