The San Francisco call., 1908-03-15
By E. r. lngraham

:: and to be in need of a third in
{: terment is perhaps still more un-
: usual To have fallen in battle during
/: prehistoric times; to have lain in peace
/: in a tribal burying ground on the si-
/: lent marshes of the San Joaquin for un-
!: told years: to be ruthlessly disturbed at
length by the militant oar of an in
!; quisitiye youth. padding his boat over
the vast lagoon in quest OF more lively
prey; to be dragged forth seriatim,
; it were, cleansed, assorted. articulated,
+. .christened with a biblical name and en-
{: shrined on the front veranda of an at
! tractive cottage at Elmhurst, is enough
+; to puff one up with pride. were 1t not
!; that all adipose tissue, together with
!; earthly vanity, had departed ages
.agone and left only the dignified and
uncompromising framework OF bones.
!. immune alike to hattery and to blame.
E: Bert Chilson of Mill Valley. who ac-
] complished this rehabilitation, was at
!: that time-some 10 or 1s years sgo-an
art dealer with Vickery's firm in San
!: Francisco. and had gone to the vicinity
4: of Byron Springs for brief vacation.
!: His artistic sensibilities, combined with
love of naturar-hstory and a certain
grim humor, resulted in his making an
+: unusually good job of mounting the
/: skeleton which came into his posses
4: sion and inspired number of pranks.
when he had brought the thing home.
=: which filled the small boys of the
!: neiehborhood with the greatest Gu
/: riosity and admiration and caused the
/: little girls to clutch their dolls with
:: maternal solicitude and cover behind
i: their own mothers skirts in horror and
Precipitation.
!: The eerie spectacle of Gabriel lfor
:such was the title Mr.. Chiison rever-
:ently bestowed upon this silent COM
:panion of his leisure hours seated in
; the hammock chair of a summer even
:ing, with a lighted pipe in his mouth
:and faint glow of color in either eye
apparently bespeaking the inner fires of
Ia warrior spirit still unquenched, was
:indeed unique. Again, he stood with
:one hand upon the gatepost while he
cleaned over the fence and seemed to
/: DeCkOn the pdSSe1DN. his Illuminate
!: ing smile, superinduced by a cunningly
:placed electric bulb. was a thing TO
:dream of for months afterward. n rec
:reation less familiar TO him than smok-
; ing the pipe of peace so dear to his
:ancestors was provided for Gabriel by
:his solicitous guardian, who favored
"a little up to date sport now and then.
ITO this end bicycle was fetched from
Sh . Indian
/: chief carefully mounted upon IT. The
pose was so effective that several
4: photographs were taken to send 10
friends of the Chilson family. One of
] these having been carefully preserved.
: is herewith reproduced. When the night
air grew chill and timid pedestrians too
: few to warrant further experiment
: upon their hardihood Gabriel was con-
Quoted indoors and placed on guard at
his masters bedside, where he Incl
dentally served as a clothes rack and
proved an efficacious barrier TO bur-
glarious intrusion.
: To keep him from becoming lone
some during the day companion speci-
men had been brought from the
marshes at the time of his own eX-
huma ton, but. owing to defective
articulation, was kept in the back
ground when company came and less
was known concerning his attributes
than Gabriers. Owing to his having
unfortunately missed connections in
second life, he was not adjudged