The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-01-05
THIS. THAT AND THE OTHER
By NJ. H. J

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER
BY NJ. HI.
The Dial says:
Grow old with me, the best is yet
to come.
The Pacific Coast has been sub
merged by torrental rams, which will
relieve it temporarily Of the stigma
that it is the only country in the world
that has to irrigate its rivers.
10000
In answer to my question, a citizen
Of Denver replied: eyes, sir; that is
the Post Ofice-the only marble Post
Office building in the world. The aIti-
tude of that city is one mile above
tide water, and the edge of winter
approaches the last days of Septem-
Der, requiring an overcoat if you are
riding.
10000
Our migrating water fowl choose
Florida for their resting place during
the winter months. I have seen them,
a thousand or more in a bunch, in
sheltered place on the margin Of a
lake; they appeared to be senli-tropic;
moving very little upon the water
ond never rising. AS they feed little
or none during the alternating sea-
son, they are very poor by February
when they begin the short flights
northward. I have-wondered that the
alGgators did not swallow them a half
dozen at a gulp; but I have never seen
them disturbed by the saurians; on
the other hand, have brought down
with my fOwling piece a black heron. |
sitting on limb overhanging the /
water; and the instant it touched the
water, it was snapped up by the hid /
den foe.
10000
Florida IS land of romance. all the
way from Ponce de Leon and old
Fort Marion, three hundred years
old, to the Seminole Indian of Lake
Okechobee. At my first visit, fifty
years ago, the country was full of
game, large and small. The state has
inland lakes in marked
contrast to southern California; some
of these, miniature and beautiful.
round as a silver dollar and twenty to
iorty feet deep, fioored with sand
white as snow, the bottom featured
,fI
lilies and shrubs in a park, out of
which black bass has darted and taken
ny hook. A century ago, as assured
% me by old residents, the peach was 4
an evergreen in that cOuntry-never
.ast its leaf. unsupported frosts and
freezes have blighted the northern
laIf of the peninsula of some of its
ropical features.
10000
saw the one survivor of a South
,rn family feud in that country. A
run is the inseparable companion of
he Florida cracker. They met in the
pine forest, two on one side and three
m the other, and each man took his
rec and began firing, and the battle
vent on till only one was left.
10000
1 made the acquaintance of a Bap-
ist preacher down there; any man
an preach in that neck of the woods, {
yhen the spirit moves him; they can
ead-some of them-but it would be
ifficult for them to use a pen. Hunt
ng and fishing fifty, years ago was the
vocation. The preacher
foresaid and his companions were
ut one day hunting alligators. The
sual method was to cut up the ]
gator" try it out, and preserve the
he oil for which there was a market.
low, the "gator" does not always die
,hen you think he does. The preach /
r and his help dragged their trophy 1
VI on the sand and went home; on
ne morrow they returned and the
reacher with great confidence, strad-
led the "gatro" and sank his hunt !
lng knife in its side, which woke it {
p, and it opened its long jaws back
ard with its gittering teeth sharp
S needles and struck the apostle of
IMMERSION a double-shotted whack t
18th its tail, which sent him headlong t
trough the creatures jaws and peal z
j the flesh in strips from one of his t
gs. !
10000 '