The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-15
LOU WAS LOADED
 FOR 4 REAL LION When Wife Sent Him to Kill Chicken for Dinner FORGOT HIS SCARE Lion Had Been Roaming Loose Through Indiana and This Farmer Had Loaded His
 Weapon Half Full
From the Chicago News.

From the Chicago News.
 There is a standing joke that the funny papers keep set up all the time, l think and it's about the man who didn't know il was loaded said a retired farmer. whe now lives in Chicago; but there are times when he-spealSing of the sictlm of all jo1ses-knows it was loaded.
 ''1 am reminded of Lou Grubh. This was some time ago but still emile wher I thinl; Of it. for I was boarding witt l.ous family at the time. and his esca- rade was one of the best jokes of the neighborhood for long tme.
 Tt all happened shortly after the de mise of the Benton county lion the big diana.Ax
 gest hoax that was eyer pulled off in h. diana. Everybody had kept shotguns heavily loaded for that supposed Ion, for they were taking no chances with having a couple of hundred dollars worth of live stock carried away without q protest.
 Lou had one Of these big muzzle-load- ing shotguns that looked moro like can non than gum and with an ordinary charge it made as much noise. Lou al- ways kept the weapon loaded anyhow but when the lion scare hit the country he drew the ordinary charge and filled it half way down the barrel with powder, nails, bolts and scrap iron-enough to kill an elephant if it ever hit him. Tho farmer remarked at the time that if MT. Lion ever came on his 'onc-forty' he would regret 1t about two seconds-he would be past regretting anything after that time. Lou was terribly grim when he said it. too.
 Well, the lion scare grew to its height and was disposed of and the countryside around the Wabash breathed normally again. That was in the sprinE;lme and with all sorts of work to keep him busy Lou forgot all about the lion and the ter rible reception he had planned for him. Summer drifted past and still Lou's gun hung back of the kitchen door, TO atten- ton being paid to it.
 Then one Sunday morning in late sum- mer Lous wife asked him to go out irt the yard and get her chicken for din- ner.
 "I saw him stalking a young rooster, aud. always being an admirer of his workmanship, thought I would follow him and watch his execution of the bird.
 "The luckless fowl strutted around the yard until 1t espied a small coop, under which a hen was imprisoned with her brood of 12 two-day chicks. With all the abandon of the barnyard nrurper the cock leaped the top of the coop and spread his wings and squawked out one of those funny amateurish crows of young rooster That was his last crow for Lou blazed away at hin then.
 There was a roar from the gun and a yell from Lou and somehow the idea of a lion occurred to me suddenly. There was a cluod of smoke when the gun was discharged and when 1t cleared away there was havoc. The hunter lay on the ground if dead. his gun. or what was left Of it, was lying in three or four good sized pieces few feet away-the rest of il was a mile off, I think-nothing was left of the rooster but a mass of wet feathers, and the hen. coop and chicks might have been in the next county. for all we ever saw of them.
 Lou was in bed for two weeks with badly wrenched shoulder. and when he bought new gun he. swore he would shoot the first person who said Chicken to him, His wife always caught the dn- ner fowls herself after that"