The Sauk Centre herald., 1940-02-22

little animals to bring their bag to pretty good
| seasons take.
| Reason for this sudden splurge in the direction
of fox pursuit is not monetary. Our hunters are
not mercenary but regular sportsmen. fox hide
might be worth from two to four dollars if you find
a market. On the other hand twenty years ago
it worth from fifteen to twenty simoleons. TIC
show how even in hunting women figure in tremend
ously, the exodus of that once prosperous market
must be laid to the female alteration of whims.
From Walt jung who has been with the boys
these fox hunts learn the odd piece Of informa
ton that today in this section there more fox
than ever before Their return began about three
years ago. I confess that before that the closest
I'd ever been to one was in the childhood stories
about Reynard. Walt has theory in regard to
this natural rise and return of the fox, for it
incides quite generally with the return of deer and
beaver to these midstate precincts It is further
convincing when Walt said that if you had told them
fifty years ago of the plentfuness of fox deer and
beaver in these parts they would have put the finger
on you, laughed politely and went about the village
denying you were entirely sane. It's so that more
of these animals are here than ever before per-
haps certainly within the last fifty years. I was
interested in that end, and Walt offered the theory
that man-made legal protection, while animals
not, to my knowledge, read the statute books, still
instnctively they recognize the places where it
is least dangerous. There is also some sort of a
theory about natural cycles in which nature handles
herself very well in balancing sort of process that
at period booms certain species to great num-
bers and nearly dooms others to extinction
The fox small and without natural armament
has been blessed with compensating cunning. But
it's pathetic sort of cunning too, for it's put to
negative OF there is the positive factor
that his cunning provides him with food, but nine
times of ten he is exercising it in the direction
of protecting his own hide saving himself from be-
coming just food. Tales of his cunning are not
without subsantiation from the men who have hunt
ed him. He knows all the tricks. You may be trail
all, yet the fox is not standing in those last tracks
He has back tracked, stepping exactly in his prev
ious prints. Or he'll roll and jump about in a GER
tain spot that is temporizing measure to befuddle
the pursuing hounds Or he'll run like the wind
across the plowed field, picking his way the
barred furrow tops. Or he'll swim stream, and he's
the originator of hundred articles by which his
pursuers are more than often outwitted In the
south and east they pit the dogs entirely against the
fox, with tally no and bray from the trumpet,
they go swooping down after the baying hounds
been all that is desired unless the movie moguls
have deliberately censored the part where the fox
is killed, it is my conviction that the quarry
is treed holed, the hunt is over. 1t is certain
that never do they carry guns Now that's all very
humanitarian and all that. But out here the boys
do things differently. No guy is going to walk his
feet into of meat without taking shot
at the cause of it ALL No. we do things with more
frank brusqueness more brutal finality. We shoot
and kill the outwitted fox.
Heheheh-Minnesotans-t meanes-have CUR
ged long and generously this those who
went south for the winter-and found it!
Main Street Portraits
Fred Lewis saws wood in the backlot of his
home here today. He may put in three or four
hours to keep himself in trim and to keep from
reading endlessy. OF course, he points out a man
makes in the neighborhood of five cents daily that
way but it occupies him adequately. Fred for
81 years was miller, and good one. Then, like
many another tradesman whose craft passed into
oblivion in the changing order Fred was caught
in the great mill Capitalization. While at time
mill dotted the landscape in every town along the
Kline north Fred pointed out now they have faller
by the wayside in the rush to Capitalization are
confined to just plain custom grinding. For
twenty years he worked locally then added another
eleven in the last years of the small mill heyday
in such points as Bertha and Long Prairie. Fred
has had the outdoor to turn to with his home just
step from the lake. For years he has fished
regiously
Sidewalk Sallies-Other ayem when cars were
pushed off the street to the sidewalks for poughng
out of street cutters, some wiseacre scrawled
on the windshield of car, parked in front of one
Of the theatre's-Given away free tonight!
Six years ago on October oath, tall young man
in the late 20s came to town. There nearly
a spontaneous mutual affection for the other
between this young fellow and our town. Now
Harley Forsyth leaves and in his wake that is a
commentary his works of public service, verit-
able shambes of emptied offices is left He leaves
arid the places he held You could find Harley For
syth reading philosophy, reading Sunday school
lesson he would teach the next Sunday superin-
tendent of the Methodist Sunday school; chatting
with the boys in the fire department of which he
was member; or rounding up some new program
in Boy Scouting, a project he served religiously.
Boy Scouting became feversh activity for Harley,
he carried into local program, is easily the
most active man in the Sauk Valley district. Com
munity Club committees will miss his willingness;
Rotary loses it's prexy in mdterm, the Safety Coun-
oil knew of his services. And who else did not?
Not quite year after he came his friends
bounced in eagerly rejoicing in his marriage to Helen
Faley, of Montevideo, who took her place in this
community. Not long ago there genuine hap
pness when they became parents of a daughter.
To fha fOXpp haCqp mo lyVQV h
Harley says. :. 1t be said safely he became
of the most publicspirited men of the commun-
ity; he also became of the friendliest. For
Harley Forsyth knows today, some through his busi-
associations and largely through his own per-
sonable affinity, more people, perhaps than many
who have lived here for years. Then when he
wasn't busy with his work. his extra-curricular