Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-28
BIG GAME" HUNTERS

trated article about young man and his
wife who went a-hunting They hunted in
Africa and they shot lot of animals. Pic
lures of the animals they shot We're pub
lished with the article. Pictures OF the
young man and his wife, in shooting
clothes. standing alongside the animals
they had killed, were also printed with the
article. Then there was a lot of piffie about
this young couple, whose marriage was de-
scrbed as having been a romantic one.
The young man, 1t seems. belongs TO mil
lionatre family out in one OF those mldoie
western cities. He was always one of these
shootists. So when he happened to meet
up with a girl who was there with the
shoot stuff too why. he forms romantic
attachment for her. and she does all SINH
lar, and they off and get Spliced, and then
they hire boat and have their honeymoon
up in the arctic seas where they both put
in most of their time shooting polar bear
cubs and such like. Very romantic bust
ness sure enough, on the part Of two roman
tic young people. After they'd had enough
of the freezing climate they made up their
minds that they'd deplete the jungles OF
Africa of whatever supertiuous large game
happened to be kicking around from the
Zambesi to the Arumwimi and so they
went over there and shot up those jun
giles, taking pains to be rugged out in mod
ish shooting clothes, both OF EN-. at the
time, and they also took pains to nave en-
~
outfit as they stood in more or less pictur-
esque attitudes alongside the animals they
had slaughtered, their smoking guns at
rest.
We'll l read that magazine article
through with mingled feelings. l tried to
put myself in the place OF those young
folks SOS to see if l could dope out the why
and the wherefore of the fun they were
supposed to have had on that jungle shoot
ing expedition. But | couldn't do 1t. l
have pretty catholic imagination. at that,
and l ike almost any old way known to
kids and grown-ups of having fun, put l II
be hornswoggled if l could get any line OF
dope on that s.tua ton that would enable
me to understand what possible fun young
married couple could pick up by p!oW.hs
through a tropical forest and killing what
ever live things they happened to meet UP
with.
..One of the pictures in that article
showed the young man. attired in suit or
shooting clothes that couldn't be described
as otherwise than natty. and with MS large
express rife resting gracefully IN the moi
low of his arm, standing alongside crea-
ture that he had just killed. The young
man looks real proud in that picture HIS
expression seems to say, just as pam as
words could say it, Look what I've done.
l guess I'm poor, hey? on, l s'pose m
the punkerino shootist. eh?' That's what
he sure appeared to've been saying to him
self when he ranged himself alongside the
little creature that he had killed with has
big gun and looked pleasant and tod the
Snap-shotter to fire away.
But what we suppose the little creature
that he killed was? Why, 1t was young
little thing called bush buck; a little
horned thing resembling young atlleiope
or q baby gazelle 1t lies there in the pic
ture, all of huddle with the big bullet
that has gone tearing through ITS Vltais.
and deader II any of the Hyksos kings Oh
Egypt. although, in your mind eye, you
can see the little chap frisking and bobblng
about in the forest, full OF the Joy OF HE
and living, just few minutes before the
man with the big gun swung along ana
sent his big leaden ball crashing through
1t.
Now, wait a minute. Get me right. I'm
not one Of these slow-musickers. II takes
u lot to get me gursly around the hchu
don't read Felicia Her.ars poetry, and
don't burst into tears at moment notice.
But | sure did feel sorry for that poor little
mutt of a bush buck as they label II IN
the picture. l couldn't see where the little
horned creature figured to get raw deal
like that. He wasn't botherin. anybody
He was just pok!ng around, eating leaves
and things, or whatever the dickens the
poor little beggars eat, In forest quite
some thousands of miles from any place
where human folks were living. He WASH
ferocious He didn't EelOng to any man
eating species. And yonder comes along
big game person from pork-packing town
about eight or ten thousand miles from the
little deer creatures oasis Of innocent oper-
HI
the little shaver, without any kind of warm
ing at all. What for? Well, to get his pic
ture taken alongside Of the killed thing
that, obviously. was one of the purposes.
Then, later the little forest creatures
horns will be shipped to the middle western
town, to decorate what they call trophy
room; and the big game shootst viii ioll
around in club chair and tell about what
helluva a Teller he is in that he was able
to shoot that little deer creature right
through the throat or through the shoulder,
or something at two hundred and four
teen yards, and all like that.
Show me. Gimme the blue prints t1asn
Exhibit A on me.
Another of the pictures in that Illustrated
article shows the same mighty nimrod
standing self-Consciously alongside Of
young zebra that he had just shot Wen.
that got my goat quite some, too. Why
young zebra? l didn't know that zebras
were predatory animals l never heard OF
young zebra depopulating native village
by walking into the assortment of mud nuts
after nightfall and eating the folks up, one
by one, and night after night But there
the young zebra lies stretched out IN the
picture. all the same. his pretty striped
pelt showing up bravely in the sunlight, and
I'd like to know II man has got to be a
sickiy sentimentalist or headliner among
the beerily maudlin sketchists to feel sort
o sorry, looking at that picture. that the
little old zebra thing didn't get better run
for his taw agate; didn't have q chance to
grow up and look the game over; didn't
have the luck to go right on kicking his
happy heels around in the jungle clearings
until the minute popped for him to meet
whatever natura! fate befalls Zebras in
state of free and unmolested nature. l
don't think the young middle westerner
looks pretty, or smart, or brave, or chiVal-
rous, or fine or noble. or anything what
ever like that a-stand!ng there alongside
the dead zebra. on the contrary, he looks
to me like a somebody who has had the
misfortune to brush by the real meaning of
by life, life for other crea-
lures that are just as much entitled to their
breath and the pursuit of happiness as we
are l cant figure him hero at all.
i've got a sort of sneaky, fundamental
admiration for top-notch burglar. or
porch climber or fellows like that. They
take a chance They carry their lives IN
the hollow of their mitts. They jeopardiZe
their liberty They make no pretensions
They're out to match themselves against
men-not beasts-in case the men should
awaken and come at them, and they take
the game as it swings along. In their sort
of way they're brave. They face calan-
ity dauntessly. and they're always playing
a game, too. where the odds are against
them. You've got to give me Fig. l again
of how any pretty boy, with all sorts OF
up-to-the-minute shooting tools, and with
four or five hundred skillful naked dinges
spread out for miles to beat up the game
of how any lovely piece OF work, l say.
with all of those aids, who kills young
zebra a-scampering through a clearing can
bV any chance be as nerVY or engaging