Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-10
When March HareS Went Mad
BY Helena Davis.

Friends, what means all this?" asked
the chairman of the investigating commit
tee, raising his great, roaring voice above
the din of the noises. "Why this undue
demonstration at midnight when all peace
loving animals should be In bedH Some
calm minded hare please speak,"
Hereupon a small, withered old hare, his
ears dropping sadly and his cotton tail
falling prideessly behind him, came close
to the speaker Come to one side" he
bleated in the lions ear, land I'll tell you
all about how this begun"
The lions and the lambs withdrew with
the old hare to vacant place at the
edge Of the grove and made ready to hear
his story The old hare rubbed his nose In
a puzzled way tried to assume calm de-
meanor and began:
MY neghbors, the March lions and the
March lambs You have this night seen
breaking up among my own kindred and
kind, What has occasioned this strange
freak am puzzled to know. But whatever
the cause, II will be the ruination of Hare
willie. Those Of us who have this night
kept our senses will remain calmly here and
drive the others out. In vain have we
calmer ones demonstrated with those seem
ingly frenzed ones to stop their unearthly
noises, cease their ridiculous capers and
return to their beds as becomes decent and
lava bidlng hares. But our voices fell
upon deaf ears The more we talked the
louder became the rioting and revelry
around u.s. Indeed. those reckless ones lost
all respect for The dignity of age. and
catching ne, two by the front feet and two
by the hind ones, danced me about the
grove in the widest fashion. Then, stand
ing me on my head they ran round and
round me, crying out all sorts OF silly
things. At last I managed to get away
from that crowd, and going TO another
group Of hilarious hares, l begged of them
to tell me what had come over the spirits
of them. They laughed like men, crowed
like cocks barked like dogs and mewed
like cats. Then, with one accord they be-
gan pulling my ears and tail till / feared
I'd lose those necessary accessories to my
anatomy. Then, growing tired Of me, they
began to tease some other poor fellow who
had not gone out of his mind. At this
point in my story, friends. you appea red
upon the scene. l have spoken"
The old lion medtated a moment, then
said:
1T has just occurred to me that Hare
vile has gone suddenly mad. What YOU
tell me, and that which l have seen with
my own eyes and heard with my own ears
make me draw this conclusion: There IS
but one thing for us 70 do-withdraw while
we can. Those OF you who are sull in your
senses would better join us and be on the
safe side. Just now the mad ones are In
the gay state. Soon may follow fighting
state. and the few who sane would be
annihilated in quick order, Come. my old
friend call together your brothers and els
tiers who have escaped this terrible afi'c-
ton OF mind, and let us be off for Lion
Lair"
Spoken with wisdom" said the lambs.
wasgng Their tails by way OF indorse-
ment OF the lions plan. I'VE agree with
our leader, the March lion"
Perhaps he is right" sighed the little
old hare, 81 am certain Of one thing-it IS
not safe for one with dignity and sense
to ROMAN in this bedlam. / shall call to-
gether the few Of us that,
But the old hare did not finish his SEN
tence. for at that moment a wild stampede
Of the frenZied mares took place they
heading for the mountains far away. All
that the sane ones could do was to get out
OF their way, hide themselves behind the
trees and clumps OF bushes till the mad
crowd had well disappeared from the grove.
Then, overcome by the terrible sight. they
drew together and decided 10 remain where
they were, knowing full well that the ma 4
hares would never return.
And to this day the mad March hares
are loose in the land, always coming out
on their wild stampedes in March. then
hiding away In caves and canyons TIL the
season Of their madness again arrives.
And even to this day the lambs and the
Hons tell the story TO their lambkins and
cubs OF that terrible night many, many
centuries ago, when the March hares went
mad. But as the lions and lambs and
hares' language cannot be understood by
the children of men, the story of the Mad
March Hares Revelry has never before
been told.