BATON ROUGE--THE PANTHER.
Baton Rouge, La., Feb. 1, 1904.--While you in the North are wrestling
with zero temperatures, we are experiencing what these folk term
terrible winter weather. Men go about with heavy overcoats buttoned up
to the chin, and I saw one the other day with a tall coonskin cap, with
folds down over his neck, and earflaps. An open-grate fire is
comfortable in the mornings and tempers the chill of night for the
little one. Even the Chicago man finds a light overcoat advisable in the
mornings, though with light-weight underwear and thin outer clothes.
Nevertheless, the violets bloom everywhere, jonquils, polyanthus
narcissus, camellias and sweet olive are in bloom, and the big rose
bushes are covered with leaves and buds that already show the color of
the flower. The grass is green in New Orleans parks, and the magnolias
are budding. Masses of chickweed cover the margins of drains and several
plants of unknown lineage--to the writer--are in bloom. And this is the
weather to which we constantly hear the epithet "terrible" applied here.
But residents of the North who were raised in Dixie do not freeze.
Exposure to cold brings with it the ability to withstand it, and not
only that but all other morbific influences as well. It increases the
vitality, the power of resisting all noxious powers that threaten the
health and life of man.
But this applies to the sound and well, not to those who already possess
a material lesion of one or more organs. For them this soft, balmy air,
this temperature that permits a maximum of exposure to the open air, are
health-giving, life-prolonging, comfort-securing.
People speak of the sudden changes here--warm today and tomorrow
cold--as objectionable; but so they do everywhere, and we have found no
more changeability than elsewhere. And as to the rains: When it does
rain it pours, but most of it has been at night so far, and during the
day it dries off nicely. It it said that this is the rainy month, and we
may have to modify this view later. So far the rains have not been a
feature worthy of citation, as against the climate.
Much attention has been given the drinking water of late years in the
riverine cities, and generally they have water on which they pride
themselves. Artesian wells are mostly utilized. The river water is muddy
and unsightly, but probably safe and certainly palatable. We depend on
our Puritan still, and a tripoli filter, and utilize the rain water we
catch in the canvas cover of the launch. No trouble has as yet affected
us from this source; and we are satisfied it pays well to take
precautions.
From St. Louis down the river fairly bristles with opportunities for men
who understand business and have a little capital. But timber lands are
pretty well taken up. An Ohio party paid $100 an acre for 100 acres here
in this Atchafalaya country the other day.
The people? Well, we have simply adopted the whole--white--population,
and find them delightful. There has not been a discordant note in our
intercourse with this warm-hearted, hospitable folk, who unite the
courtesy of the French with a sincerity that makes itself felt every
moment.
Dogs! Everyone seems to own hounds here. We had a few runs with them;
they came aboard and inspected us, and after due deliberation approved
of us, took up their home with us and declined to stay away; so that at
night one can scarcely set foot outside the cabin without stepping on a
sleeping hound. Even the women folk are disarmed when these dogs look up
with their big, beautiful eyes and nuzzle their cold noses into the hand
for a caress. One great fellow reared up against us, placed his paws on
our shoulders and silently studied our face awhile, then dropped to the
ground and henceforth devoted himself to us, never being far from our
side. We felt complimented!
Go out with the gun, and see how these slumberous animals awake to
joyous life and activity. Then the long, musical bay, the ringing of the
hunters' horns, the quick dash of the deer past your stand, with the
dogs after, in full cry--say, brother, these low lands when leveed,
cleared and cultivated, will yield two bales of cotton to the acre, and
with cotton at 15 cents and over, is not that splendid? So shut your
ears against the cry of the wild, and only consider what Progress means,
and how the individual and civic wealth is increasing as these wild
lands are brought under the plow and made productive of dollars. For is
not all of life simply a question of dollars, and success measurable
only in the bank account? So put away from you the things that make life
worth living, and devote yourself with a whole heart to the task of
making your son a millionaire, that he may make his son a
multimillionaire, and so on. It will do you so much good in the Great
Beyond to know this. That the money for which we give up all that
renders life enjoyable will either render our descendants dissipated and
useless, or enable them to oppress their fellowmen, need not be
considered. Money is all there is in life.
The wife, daughter and Doctor are domiciled at Baton Rouge, while the
boys took the boats down to Alabama Bayou for a week with the big game.
Here is the small boy's report, verbatim:
Dear Mama and Papa: You talk about us not sending you any venison. If I
had any money I would send you enough to make you sick. I went hunting
with the boys this morning. Jim, Hudson and I went together. Bud drove
with the dogs. Jake and Frank went together. Frank took his shotgun and
he got lost from Jake, went to shooting robins. Jake got on an island
and did not know where he got on at. He had to wade a stream two feet
deep. After we had been looking for a stand we heard a shot behind us,
and then a rifle shot to the right of us, and three blows of Bud's horn,
which means dead deer. Jake was the first one to him, being only 300
yards. We walked two and one-half miles before we got to him. When we
got there he had a big doe laying over a log. Bud drew him and they took
turns carrying him home. Every tooth in my head aches from chewing
venison. How are all of you? I waded about 30 ditches today over my shoe
tops and one over my knees. Bud said if I followed the dogs with him he
would give me first shot, and if I missed he would get him. Millie made
me a belt to fit the rifle cartridges. I christened my axe in deer
blood. Bud said Queen was 10 feet behind it, King 20 feet and Diamond
ran up and threw the deer after it was shot. Then it got up and Diamond
got it in the throat and brought it down. I will have to close as it is
time to go to bed. With love to all,
William.
Not bad for an 11-year-old. Everyone has been complaining of the
terrible weather here--frost three nights last week, and a light
overcoat not oppressive, though it is hardly necessary except for the
tendency one has to put his hands in his pockets otherwise. We asked one
of the natives what they would do in Chicago with zero weather, and he
replied with an air of conviction: "Freeze to death."
We have a nibble for the boat. The river at Memphis is so full of
floating ice that the ferry boats cannot run; and that looks as if we
might not be able to get our boats towed to St. Louis before late
spring--and we want to be free. We note blooming in the open many
violets, polyanthus narcissus, camellias, sweet olive, magnolias just
budding out, and white hyacinths. The grass is putting up green shoots.
Large beds of chickweed are plentiful. The vinca was nipped by frost
last night. Next door is a fine palmetto and the great roses covering
the gallery are full of green leaves and the remains of the last crop of
blossoms, with new buds coming out. What a terrible winter!
There is a street fair here. These people go about the country and
exhibit wherever they find a town that will pay them, their price here
being, it is said, $2,000 for a week. The Red Men pay them, and probably
the merchants subscribe to it, the business brought to town compensating
them. There are a number of attractions, like a little splinter broken
off the poorest part of Atlantic City. But it gives something to see and
do and talk about, to a town where there is too little of either for the
demand. There are a huge and a dwarf horse, glass blowers, a human
dwarf, contortionist, jubilee singers, kinetoscope, trained dogs and
monkeys, dissolving statue, and of course the nigger babies and knives
to throw at and miss. We have run against these aggregations all the way
down, and they are evidently becoming a feature of the smaller towns.
Curious place for a State Capital. In our room stands a fine walnut
wardrobe with a door broken open; and there is not a mechanic in the
city who can mend it. Glass is broken, and it remains so; any quantity
of miscellaneous mending and repairing needed, but it stands. The sunny
south is a bit slipshod; the ladies are delightful, but they do not work
their finger ends off cleaning out the last possibilities of dust and
dirt--they leave it to the darkies, who do what they cannot avoid doing
and stop right there.
* * * * *
That our boys are not devoid of descriptive ability--and
imagination?--this chapter, written by Frank, will demonstrate.
"At Melville, on the Atchafalaya, we became acquainted with some young
men who had a fine pack of deer hounds. They also call these "nigger
dogs," because they are employed for trailing convicts who escape from
the camps along the river.
"Early in the morning our hunting party gathered on the levee--the
Doctor, Budd Tell, his brother Wylie, and two uncles, and four of us.
The old men were settlers and hunters of bobcat, deer, panther, bear and
other game. They said they had killed 160 deer in one winter, and
though we doubted this, we afterward found it was true.
"We penetrated the woods till a desirable spot was reached, and here
Budd posted us on our stands. These are places clear of underbrush for a
space, so that the hunter may see to shoot anything that invades his
location. One man remains with the dogs, termed the driver. He was left
about two miles behind. When all had been placed the signal was given,
to start the dogs. Soon we could hear the music of their baying, as it
did not take long for them to strike a deer trail, and a fresh one at
that. The chase led in the Doctor's direction and presently we heard him
shoot--and he had downed his first deer. He got two that day. I shot
one, and Budd got a little fat doe. The others were fine bucks, weighing
175, 150 and 123 lbs. At least we thought so, after taking turns packing
them, on a pole; and that was the only scale we had; so we think it was
legal, under the circumstances.
"As we were returning to the boat with our four deer, two men to each,
one man could be taking it easy all the time. Somehow the bunch got
separated in the cypress swamp, and suddenly we heard the scream of a
panther. Then there were a number of shots, and after that silence, for
a couple of minutes. Then came a rifle shot. Jake and I being together,
we hurried in the direction of the shots. Soon we heard a noise that we
could not make out the cause of. We were still packing the deer. Then we
came in sight of the Doctor, stooping over Budd's brother. Close by lay
a dead panther. Budd's breast and arms were badly torn by the claws of
the animal, and his brother had a scalp wound and was insensible.
However, we all turned in to help, and he was soon on his feet, somewhat
damaged and rather faint, but still in the ring.
"The panther had sprang on them from a tree, knocking Wylie down, then
turning on Budd who attacked the animal as soon as he realized what was
the trouble. The panther started for him like a cyclone and had his
shirt and some skin jerked off in less time than it takes for me to tell
it. Budd says he sure thought his time had come, and being somewhat of a
church member he put up a little call for help. Just then the Doctor ran
up, and by a lucky shot disabled the beast, which was soon dispatched.
He got the hide. The panther weighed over 100 lbs. and measured 5 feet
10 inches from nose to tip of tail.
"As Budd and Wylie were too weak to carry the deer, the big cat was
allotted to them, and two of us took each a deer till we got out of the
timber, about dark. We reached the boat at 6 p. m., very tired. But we
had had our fun, and some of us had had an experience not usual even to
houseboat travelers. And we got the panther--though it came very near
getting two of the best fellows to be found in the south."
Unfortunately the prize so highly valued was lost. The skin was
stretched out and placed on the roof to dry; that night the wind blew,
and next morning the skin had disappeared. The one now ornamenting the
Doctor's den was purchased to replace the original.
Will some one explain how it happens that an indifferent shot, when
brought in face of such a proposition will make an unerring snap shot,
when a slight deviation would endanger the life of the companion? Many
years ago, while traversing the woods of Pennsylvania, we heard our
companion cry for help, after two shots close together. We ran at full
speed, and saw him standing still, gazing at a huge snake at his feet.
Even as we ran we brought our double-barrel to our shoulder and without
taking aim blew the serpent's head off. There was no time to aim, and
had we done so it is doubtful if we could have made as good a shot.