Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1914-08-28
CHANGING BACKWARD
BY DANIEL HENRY MORRIS.
(Copyright.)

oCopyright.)
A vast stretch of dense wood and
swampland, murky rivers, streams,
roughly hewn mountains and cliffs,
spread across the continent.
Frequent storms disturbed the
strange creatures in their lairs and
pastimes.
The mammoth, long-haired and ivory
tusked, pressed his huge body against
the side of a cliff and beneath the
sheltering branches of thick growths
overhead.
The giant dinosaur and others of
his ilk stretched their great heads up
ward with questioning ~glances, and
sent forth bowls as Of ten thousand
viols at the Interruptions.
The wide river-lake foamed aad
churned, disclosing dark green and
black creatures, scaled and loath-
some, swimming, diving, and, even
that was powerless against their re-
spective superiority in encounter.
Heavy reptiles, lizards, and SER
penis, huge alligators, progenitors all
of ~present-day species, snarled and
fought, a confused mass of living,
moving flesh, lone daring to climb
the banks, though the wide river-lake
continued to seethe and hiss from the
war of the elemets.
Lying fat on a high precipice above
this large body OF water, a creature
was cen female.
More monkey than human, her long,
matted hair partly covered her back,
face and breast. Quite upright she
walked at times as she changed her
position at the crest of the cliff; oc-
~casionally, however, she would sink
to all fours, for this action seemed
to afford her a certain degree of rest.
When the fury Of the storm broke,
the creature, with her babe fastened
to her back, defied the efforts of the
"upper-gods' that sought to thus sep
arate the mother from her offspring.
She raised her hairy hand high in
the air and gave ven to howls Of
rage. Having arrived, however, at
the edge of the precipice, she lay fiat,
he infant sheltered and soothed by
the warmth of her body n thick
hair.
In the flashes of the forked light
ming she peered downward at the riv-
erlake, and an expression of fear
came into her eyes. Closer she pressed
her body to her infant and grunted.
The lightning flashed again, and,
CHANGING to look to the right, she saw
a bead-eyed serpent approaching
She recognized it as one of the
dreaded "deathers" of the forest.
Scared from it's lair by a falling tree,
it had sailed forth.
Terror crept into her eyes now, but
she made no sound, only stared
stared-and her. eye-teeth glistened in
the lightning-light. The writing
thing crawled closer and closer
there was a shrek, a kissing. With
both hands the mother had grasped
the great snake at the neck, dodg
ing its fangs, and hurled it down from
the height.
There it was set upon by a huge
w-ater-serpent that swallowed it whole
and then sank to the depths of the
water to digest in comfort the large
morsel.
The mother o wiped the hairless
weather-beaten patches Of her face
with her hair, Rugged her offspring
close to her breast then lay fiat agar
awaiting the ceasing of the storm.
Soon night gave place to day-ths
hot sur poured through the fast-dis
appearing mist-and the creature fec
to the forest beside the cliff. Their,
she nursed her child, after which sh,
refastened it to her back by a stril
of softened hide, and then, promptet
by the agony of hunger, she pursued
overlook, and with a heavy ston,
killed a young ure-ox that had beer
separated from the herd.
With the aid of a long, sharp piec,
of flint, carried at her waist on
strip of hide, she cut a piece Of meat
which she tore with her teeth, swal
lowing the smaller pieces and suck
ing the nourishment from the larger.
Thence she continued on her wa,
to a cave that was hidden behind
growth of vegetation.
Entering, she drank some water
using her hands as a cup, after which
she threw herself on some stiffene,
skins in a orn
Soon she was asleep, and her child
one of the worlds early recipients o
mother-love, was resting on he
breasti
After a while, the growth at the en-
trance to the cave was parted. and
heavy creature entered.
His face. neck and chest were COY
cred with hair. About his waist an,
covering his thighs was a piece O
softened hide.
In n hand he carried a massiv
club, at the end of which a heavy
sharp-edged piece of flint was rudel
but securely fastened. In the othe
hand he held a piece of dark. blood
soaked meat.
In the dim light, to which his eye
had long since become accustomed