1 HUNTING Tnl J BIfRLO \ THEODORE ROOSEVELT [Copyright, 18e in the soil, and yet did ;h so much as a glimpse It wits late in (he afternoon befo.. we saw any game; then we made on. In the middle of a large plain thret black specks, which proved to he but" falo—old bulls. Our horses had conn a good distance, under a hot sun, and as they had had 110 water except froir the mud-hole in the morning thej were in no condition for running They were not very fast anyhow; so though the ground was unfavorable we made up our minds to try to creep up to the buffalo. We left the ponies in a hollow half a mile from the game and started off on our hands ami knees, taking advantage of every sage brush as cover. After a while we hail to lie flat on our bodies and wrigglt like snakes; and while doing this I blundered iuto a bed of cactus, ant; filled my hands with the spines. Aftei taking advantage of every hollow hillock, or sage-brush, we got witliit about a hundred and twenty-flve oi fifty yards of where the three bulls were unconsciously feeding, and as al between was bare ground I drew u[ and tired. It was the first time I evei shot at buffalo, and. confused by tin bulk aud shaggy hair of the beast, i aimed too far back at one that was standing nearly broadside ott towards me. The bullet told on his body with a loud crack, the dust flying up from his hide; but it did not work him any Immediate harm, or in the least liimlei him from making off; and away wcnl all three, with their tails up, disap pearing ov»r a slight rise in tin ground. Much disgusted, we trotted back t< where the horses were picketed jumped on them, a good deal out ot breath, and rode after the flying game AVe thought that the wounded one might turn out and leave the others and so followed them, though tlie.v hafl over a mile's start. For some seven or eight miles we loped out jaded horses along at a brisk pace, occasionally seeing the buffalo far ahead: and finally, when the sun had just set, we saw that all three had come to a stand in a gentle hollow There was no cover anywhere neai them; and, as a last desperate resort we concluded to try to run them on our worn-out ponies. As we cantered toward them thej faced us for a second and then turned round and made off, while with spurs and quirts we made the ponies put or a burst that enabled us to close in witt tlie wounded one just about the tlm« that the lessening twilight had ahnos! vanished; while the rim of the fill moon rose above the horizon. Tin pony I was 011 could barely hold its own, after getting up within sixty 01 seventy yards of the wounded bull my companion, better mounted, forged ahead, a little to one side. The bul saw him coming and swerved from his course, and by cutting across I was able to get nearly up to him. Tin ground over which we were runninj, was fearful, being broken into holes and ditches, separated by hillocks; Ii the dull light, and at. the speed wc wen- going, 110 attempt could be mad« to guide t lie horses, and the latter fagged out by their exertions, flounder ed and pitched forward at every stride hardly keeping their legs. When 111 within twenty feet 1 fired my rifle, but the darkness, and especially the vio lent, labored motion of my pony, made me miss; I tried to get in closer, whet suddenly up went the bull's tail, and wheeling, he charged me with lowered horns. My pony, frightened iuto mo mentary activity, spun round anc tossed up his head; 1 was holding 11K rifle in both hands, and the pony's head, striking it. knocked it violently against my forehead, cutting quite : gash, from which, heated as I was the blood poured Into my eyes. Mean while the buffalo, passing me, charge* my companion, and followed him sis he made oil', and, as the ground was very bad, for some little distance his ;;.wiTed head wa unpleasantly neai the tired pony's tail. ! tried to run ir 011 him again, but my pony stopped short, dead beat; and by 110 spurring could I for. e him out of a slow trot. My companion jumped off and took .■ couple of shots at the buffalo, whicl missed in the dim moonlight; and t< our unutterable chagrin the wounded bull labored oft' and vanished in tlit darkness. I made after him on foot In hopeless and helpless wrath, unti he got out of sight. So far the trip had certainly not been a success, although sufficiently varied as regards its incidents; we bail been confined to moist biscuits for three days as our food; had been wet and cold at night, and sunburned till our faces peeled 111 the day; were hungry and tired, and had met with bad weath er, and all kinds of accidents; in ad dition to which I had shot badly. But a man who is fond of sport, and yet is not naturally a good hunter, soon learns that If he wishes any success at all he must both keep in memory and putin practice Anthony Trollope's famous precept: "It's dogged as does it." And If he keeps doggedly on in his course the odds are heavy that in tins end the longest lane will prove to have a turn ing. Such was the case 011 this occa | sion. Shortly after mid-day we left the civet; bottom, and skirled a ridge of CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24. 1908 hroVen buttes, cut up by gullies and winding ravines, iti whose bottoms grew bunch grass. While passing neat ihe mouth, and to leeward of one of these ravines, both ponies threw \ip their heads, and snuffed the air. turn ins their muzzles towards the head of the gully. IVellug sure that they had smelt some wild beast, either a bear or a buffalo, I slipped oft" my pony, and ran quickly but cautiously up along the valley. Before 1 had gone a htm dred yards, 1 noticed in the soft soil at the bottom the round prints of a bison's hoofs; and immediately afterwards got n glimpse of the animal himself, as he fed slowly up the course of the ravine, some distance ahead of me. The wind was just right, and no ground could have been better for stalking. Hardly needing to bend down, I walked up be hind a small sharp-crested hillock, and peeping over, there below me, not fif ty yards off. was a great bison bull. He was walking along, grazing as he walked. Ills glossy fall coat was in tine trim, and shone in the rays of the sun; while his pride of bearing showed him to be in the lusty vigor of his prime. As I rose above the crest of the liill t he held up his head and cocked Ills tail in the air. Before he could go off, I put the bullet in behind his shoulder The wound was an almost immediate ly fatal one, yet with surprising agility for so large and heavy an animal, he Before he could yo off 1 put a '/uVet in behind the Hhouldor. bounded up the opposite side of the ravine, heedless of two more balls, i both of which went into hie riauk and ranged forwards, and disappeared over ' the ridge at a lumbering gallop, th.e j blood pouring from his mouth and nostrils. We knew he could not go j far, and trotted leisurely along on his i bloody trail; and in the next gully we ! found lilni stark (l through, in order to pro- ! cure the head, made me feel all the | prouder of it when it was at last In my j possession. A Deceptive Attitude. A scene that was more than farcical, | dedans M. A. p., occurred in the house ] of commons !: t season. Two of the , most respect a I ile members of the house ! were seen with their coats off and with j a staid old policeman standing between I them. They two had been downstairs I to wash their hands and by some mis- j chance had changed coats. They went j into the house together. One of them, \ putting his hand into bis coat pocket, | pulled out an old brier pipe of very strong flavor. It was not his. He looked at the coat, also that of his neighbor, and, turning to his friend, said: "Excuse me. but I think you have put on my coat." "I beg your pardon. I have done nothing of the kind." "I think," replied the other member, "this is your pipe, and If you put your hand into the right hand pocket of the coat you are wearing you will find a cigar case." "Dear me!" was the reply. "You eer- j tainly are right. What shall we do?" ! "We cannot change In the house," oh- j served the tlrst. member. "Let us go into the division lobby." Here is where the policeman came in. Seeing the two facing each other and at the sawe time taking off their coats, the policeman feared the worst. He rushed up and, placing a hand on the shoulder of each, said: "Gentlemen! (ientlenieu! Not here, please!" I HUNTING THE ELK BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT fOopyrlght, 18S5, by O. P. Putnam's Sons. Published under arrangement with G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York anil London.) day Merrifleld and I # went out together and had a rather excitinji l___g chase after some bull elk MnMS The previous evening, to ward sunset, I had seei: thrce bullß trottlng l)fl across an open glade toward a great stretch of forest and broken ground up near the foot of the rocky peaks. Next morning early we started off tc hunt through this country. The walk ing was hard work, especially up and down the steep cliffs, covered with slip pery pine needles; or among the wind falls, where the rows of dead trees lay piled up across one another in the wildest confusion. We saw nothing until we came to a large patch of burnt ground, where we at once found the soft, black soil marked up by elk hoofs; nor had we penetrated into it more than a few hundred yards before we came to tracks made but a few min utes before, and almost instantly after ward saw three bull elk, probably those I had seen on the preceding day. We had been running briskly up-hiii through the soft, heavy loam, in which our feet made no noise, but slipped and sank deeply: as a consequence, I was all out of breath and my hand so un steady that 1 missed my lirst shot. Elk, however, do not vanish with the instantaneous rapidity of fright ened deer, and these three trotted off in a direction quartering to us. I doubt if 1 ever went through more violent exertion than in the next ten min utes. We raced after them at full speed, opening tiro; I wounded all three, but none of the wounds were immediately disabling. They trotted on and we panted afterwards, slipping on the wet earth, pitching headlong over charred stumps, leaping on dead logs that broke beneath our weight, more than once measuring our full length on the ground, halting and tir ing whenever we got a chance. At last one bull fell; we passed him by after the others which were still run ning up-hill. The sweat streamed into my eyes and made furrows in the sooty mud that covered my face, from having fallen full length down on the burnt earth; I sobbed for breath as I tolled at a shambling trot after them, as nearly done out as could well be. At this moment they turiTed down-liill. It was a great relief; a man who is too done up togo a steep up-hill can still run fast enough down; with a last spurt I closed in near enough to Are again; one elk fell; the other went off Soun the t njxtju steaks weve hriiiliiiij. at a walk. \Ve passed the second elk and I kept on alone after the thinl, not able to no at more than a slow trot myself, and too much winded to dare risk a shot at any distance, lie- got out of the burnt patch, going into some thick timber in a deep ravine; I closed pretty well, and rushed after him into a thicket of young evergreens. Hardly was I In when there was a scramble and bounce among them and i caught a glimpse of a yellow hotly moving out to one side; I rail out toward the edge and fired through the twigs at the moving beast. Down it went, but when Iran up. to my disgust 1 found that 1 had jumped and killed, in my haste, a black-tail deer, which must have been already roused by the pas sage of the wounded elk. 1 at once took up the trail of the latter again, but after a little while the blood grew less, .ind ceased, and 1 lost the track; nor could I lind it, hunt as hard as I mlpht. The poor l>east could not have gone live hundred yards; yet we never found the carcass. Then T walked slowly back past the deer I had slain by no curious a mis chance, to the elk. The first one shot down was already dead. The second was only wounded, though it could not rise. When it saw us coming it sought to hi lie from us by laying its neck Hut i %'A" V\ a vt* \ . m > /r~- I'X .1 ~x~ r y ~1. on the ground, but when we came uj. close it raised its head and looked proudly at us, the heavy inane bris tling up on the neck, while Its eyes glared and its teeth grated together. I felt really sorry to kill it. Though these were both well-known elks, theii untlers, of ten points, were small, twisted, and ill-shaped; In fact hardly worth preserving, except to call to mind a chase in which during a few minutes I did as much downright hard work as it has often fallen to my lot to do. The burnt earth bad blackened our faces and hands till we looked like negroes. The finest bull, with the best head that I got, was killed in the midst of very lieautiful and grand surroundings. We had been hunting through a great pine wood which ran up to the edge of a broad canyon-Hke valley, bounded by sheer walls of rock. There were fresh tracks of elk about, and we had been advancing up wind with even more than our usual caution when, on stepping out into a patch of open ground, near the edge of the cliff, we came upon a great bull, beating and thrashing his antlers against a youns tree, about ei.jc'-'y yards off. He stopped anil freed us far a second, bis mighty antlers thrown in the air. as he held his head aloft. Behind him tow ered the tall and sombre pines, while at his feet the jutting crags overhung the deep chasm below, that stretched off betwe n high walls of barren and snow-strei hi d rocks, the evergreens clinging to their sides, while along the bottom the rapid torrent gathered in places into black and sullen mountain lakes. As the bull turned to run I struck him just behind the shoulder; he reeled to the death-blow, but stag gered gamely on a few rods into the forest before sinking to the ground, with my second bullet through his lungs. Two or three days later than this I killed another bull, nearly sis large, in the same patch of woods In which I had slain the lirst. A bear had been feeding on the carcass of the latter, and, after a vain effort to find his den, we determined to beat through the woods and try to start him up. Ac cordingly, .Merrifleld, the teamster, and myself took parallel courses some three hundred yards apart, and started at one end to walk through to the other. I doulit if llie teamster much wished to meet a bear alone (while nothing would have given Merrifleld more hearty and unaffected enjoyment than to have en countered an entire family), and he gradually edged In pretty close to me. Where the woods became pretty open I saw him suddenly lift his rifle and lire, and immediately afterwards a splendid bull elk trotted past in front of me, evidently untouched, the team ster having missed. The elk ran to the other side of two trees that stood close together some seventy yards off, and stopped for a moment to look round. Kneeling down I lired at,the only part of his body I could see be tween the two trees, and sent a bullet into his flank. Away he went, and I after, running in my moccasins over the moss and pine needles for all there was in me. if a wounded elk gets fairly started he will go at a measured trot for many hours, and even if mor tally hurt may run twenty miles be fore falling; while at the same time he does not start off tit full speed, and will often give an active hunter a chance for another shot as he turns and changes bis course preparatory to taking a straight line. So I raced along after the ell; at my very best speed for a few hundred feet, and then got an other shot as he went across it little glade, injuring his hip somewhat. This made it all right for me, and another hundred yards' burst took me up to where I was able to put it liall in a fatal spot, and the grand old fellow sank down and fell over on his side. No sportsman can ever feel much keener pleasure and self-satisfaction than when, after a successful stalk and good shot, he walks up to a grand elk lying dead in the cool shade of the great evergreens, and looks at the massive and yet finely moulded form, and iit the mighty antlers which are to serve in the future as the trophy and proof of his successful skill. Still hunting the elk on the mountains is as noble it kind of sport- its can well be imagined; there is nothing more pleas ant iind enjoyable, and at the same time it demands that the hunter shall bring into play many manly qualities. There have been few days of my hunt ing life that were so full of unalloyed happiness as were those spent on the Bighorn range. From morning till night I was on foot, in cool, bracing air, now moving silently through the vast, melancholy pine forests, now treading the brink of high, rocky prec ipices, always amid the most grand and beautiful scenery; and always after as noble and lordly game as is to be found in the Western world. Since writing the above I killed an elk near my ranch: probably the last, of his race Unit will ever be found In our neighborhood. It was just before the fall round-up. An old hunter, who was under soui." obligation to inc. told me that he had shot a cow ell; and had see., th ■ tracks of one or two others not more than twenty-live mi' ; off. In a place where the cattle rarely 'wandered. Such a chance was not to be neglected and.on the first free day, one of my Flk-horn foremen, Will Dow by name, and myself, took our hunt ing horses and started off, accompa nied by the ranch wagon, in the direc tion of the probable haunts of the doomed deer. Towards nightfall we struck a deep spring pool, near by the remains of an old Indian encampment. It was at the head of a great basin, several miles across, in which we be lieved the game to lie. The wagon was halted and we pitched camp; there was plenty of dead wood, and soon the venison steaks were broiling over the coals raked from beneath the crackling cot ton wood logs, while in the narrow valley the ponies grazed almost within the circle of tho flicker ing fire-light. It was in the cool and pleasant month of SeptemlKT; and long after going to bed we lay awake under the blankets watching the stars that on clear nights always shine with such intense brightness over the lonely Western plains. We were up and off by the gray of the morning. It was a beautiful hunt- There " i<* " cruDh and movement in the timber below me. ing day; the sundogs hung in the red dawn; the wind hardly stirred over the crisp grass; and though the sky was cloudless yet the weather had that queer, smoky, hazy look that it is most apt to take 011 during the time of the Indian summer. From a high spur of the table-land we looked out far and wide over a great strtiteh of broken country, the brown of whose hills and valleys was varied everywhere by patches of dull red and vivid yellow, tokens that the trees were already put ting on the dress with which they greet the mortal ripening of the year. The deep and narrow but smooth ra vines running up towards the edges of the plateaus were heavily wooded, the bright green tree-tops rising to a height they rarely reach in the bar ren plains-country; and the rocky sides of the sheer gorges were clad with a thick growth of dwarfed cedars, while here and there the trailing Vir ginia creepers burned crimson among their sombre masses. We hunted stealthily up-wind, across the line of the heavily timbered, cou lies. We soon saw traces of our quarry; old tracks at first, then the fresh footprints of a single elk —a bull, judging by the size—which had come down to drink at a mirey alkali pool, Its feet slipping so as to leave the marks of the false hoofs in the soft: soil. We hunted with painstaking and noiseless care for many hours; at last as I led old Manitou up to look over the edge of a narrow ravine, there was a crash and movement in the timber below me, and immediately afterwards I caught a glimpse of a great bull elk trotting up through the young trees as he gallantly breasted the steep hill-side opposite. When clear of the woods, and directly across the valley from me, he stopped an«y turned half round, throwing Ills head in the air to gaze for a moment, at the intruder. My bul let struck too far back, but, neverthe less, made a deadly wound, and the elk went over the crest of the hill at a wild, plunging gallop. Wo followed the bloody trail for a quarter of a mile, and found him dead in a thicket. Though of large size, lie yet had but. small antlers, with few points. EJ ~ ,n . Jf i.r The Sphinx and Success. The ambitious young man approach ed the sphinx and said. "Oil, tell me. what rule makes for success!" "I will, sir," said the sphinx, with a Blight smile. "No man is a success alone. He must have his associates, his assistants. Select a capable general manager and make him responsible to you for everything. Choose for hjni a lieutenant, holding him responsible to your general manager. For the lieu tenant get a division superintendent under command of the lieutenant, un der him an assistant, and under him im assistant, and under the assistant assistant a helper, each in turn respon sible to the one above. Follow this to the!:■ 1 d lowest man. You your self 1 tve no worry, no frets, and need only to draw the dividends. You may even live in Europe." -nut." asked the ambitious young man, pn/.zled. "how am I to 1M- able to select the risrhl men?" And then the sphinx smiled broadly.