The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-29

slate, a goose quill and instructions on
how to call wild turkey. This was
| to be the star spangled day of the
trip for the colonel. He had heard
wild turkeys and had almost seen
| them-almost was the word he used
AS soon as he could get something
| to eat and tell his tale, he rush
ed back to the tall timbers. No one
knows how long he sat under a tree
with the tick and chiggers and ants
and bugs and made Chinese sounds
with that slate and goose quill. The
oldtimers told the colonel that a wild
turkey would leave his wife and chill
! dren to hasten hence. So the colonel
sat with cooked gun and made funny
noises.
Right here is where truth looks fic-
| About dark Colonel Rain came stag
gering back to camp with his gun
and an 1S-pound wild turkey. The
turkey had turned from his honest
endeavors to look up that noise and
the colonel was as happy as child.
He Wore White Socks.
While the colonel hunted turkey,
Organ and the reporter went out to
fish. 1t was when the newspaper
man dug up a pair of white fishing
socks a friend had loaned him that
his standing in the Ozarks slumped 90
points. 1t was Botkin who ridiculed
the new creation and the natives look
ed at the newspaper man and shook
their heads. For five hours Organ
and the reporter fished faithfully.
Organ caught a couple of bass. The
reporter hooked something that might
have been a log or a big catfish. No
reporter slipped on some wet clay and
landed in the river. When he swan
back to shore, his line was free. That
was the best alibi he could offer. Sure
ly it was a fish.
The next morning there were fresh
fish for breakfast and Organ and the
newspaper man had produced them.
Ask Felix.
Then Botkin and Doc billiard took
charge of the expedition. Felix and
George Davenport stayed at the camp
to cook the turkey and the others
went for a days jaunt through the
picturesque mountains.
To-day we will see nature in all her
glory, said Botkin as the party start
ed up the river bank and prepared to
climb mountain that reached to the
clouds. To show that he meant what
he said, the secretary of state expand
ed his chest and made a noise like a
grizzly bear on it's way to a cheese
factory.
simps were to absorb nature like hui
man sponges. But Doc billiard who
knows the weakness of man, took a
mule with him that any who grew
the way to the gravel spring and the
rock house. the party met Tom Smith
He also had a mule. That meant
that but one of the Kansans would
walk in a pinch.
Organ Played First Tune.
Organ was the first to ride Then
the reporter tried it. After ten min
utes he decided that he enjoyed fall
ing over dead trees and stumbling
over loose stone. Then the colonel
rode. That mountain side seemed to
be a climb over million dead trees
and through underbrush that was the
summer resort of all the snakes in
the OZarlSs. But Botkin and billiard
and Smith seemed to like it. Botkin
talked some more about nature. Then
billiard sang again about the tarantula
and the scorpion. At a spring Organ,
the colonel and the news chaser wiped
their brows and drank heavily of
spring water.
Finally after walking ten miles
straight up the mountain side, the
party reached the pebble spring.
bottomless hole in the rock from
which gushed enough ice water to sup
ply Chicago and gravel polished as by
and emery. 1t was a great spectacle
and Botkin Joined billiard and Smith
in telling of its wonders
Dogs Grab a Wood Chuck.
Ten minutes later. though. the peb-