The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1913-11-27

| " 0A OAhuOWu uVSAOCs AAtV SuV v4Ay
crude mixture of these two posses
sions l have poured third ingredient,
the aspiration to write something.
| thought Of the boundless prairies
of the West, the endless fields of ice
North, the scorching deserts Of the
equatorial South, and the great cities
and oceans of the East; after carefully
surveying them all l found nothing
that produced the inspired effect !
had longed for.
At last an idea occurred to me:
The Ozark mountains. Instantly the
following lines came into my mind:
"There is where the babbling brooks
babble night and day;
There is where the bubbling springs
where'er they may;
There is where grow the oak, ever
green and vine;
There is where the bacon is frying
DER the pine"
was just running over with some
thing, although don't know whether
it was inspiration or temporary insan-
ity, which sometimes think amounts
to the same thing. At any rate I
started for the Ozark mountains.
boarded the train, and when night
came on watched at the window of
the coach, for had decided that, as |
was going to live in the wilds and be
an animal once more, as soon as l
could see a great scope of country
with no sign Of lamplight and civiliza-
ton in sight, would jump off the
train and disappear into the forest.
Planting my feet securely on the
lower step of the rear end of the rear
coach l waited, and, as that train
went down through the mountains
and valleys switching its tail like
dryland terrapin, all at once the op-
perfume time came. As far as | could
see everything was as dark as a dun
geon. The past came before me like
a dream. thought of my weeping
friends and relatives and as | looked
at that vision | could see multitudes
of people carrying palm leaves, ban
ners and flags from all portions of
the earth.
made leap into the wild and that
leap was the last movement I made
for awhile. When l recovered my
senses judged from the general APP
pearance of things around that had
been unconscious about half an hour.
After l had given the ground
thorough searching and had placed
all of my body back into working
order, l began to feel around for trees
and rocks. found none. l began
to be Slightly worried. After ex-
ploring things for awhile in my inn
mediate vicinity l discovered that l
had jumped off that train in the mid
die of tunnel.
Of all the ideal places on this earth
or in Mexico to have sweet day.
dreams, this tunnel at night was the
limit. didn't know which way to
90. finally decided to 60 the other
way. BY measuring the distance the
other way found that I had saved
about seventy-four feet and thirty
eight inches by going the way / went.
l had not yet decided how l would
discard my clothing in my preparation
for entering the forest among the
wild animals. As it was too dark to
disrobe where l was and the mos
quitoes were holding a mass meeting,
l waited until l got an inspiration. |
had made up my mind firmly before
l left civilization that my "Back to
the Wilds" trip would positively be
without formality. The reason had
started by myself was because, if a
companion had been with me, and
anything had happened that my feet
didn't exactly understand, would be
by myself three or four miles in the
lead, and l couldn't afford to deprive
myself of notoriety by taking some"
one along who might mistake my
fleetness of foot for cowardice.
This bit of wisdom had no more
than gone through the headquarters
of my nervous system when l heard
FOOTBALLS behind me-four FOOTBALLS at
a time-and a snarl and growl mixed
with delicate touch Of bulldog per-
sox,oronno know,. tho time had