The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 6, 1902, Page 12

olone! Sterett’ Panther. (Copyrighted, 1902, by Robert Howard Russell.) we-all call ‘moun. erved the Old Cat- ng meanwhile the him who feels subject s plenty furtive, not te mighty sedycolous, to skulk. That's why a gent don't meet up h more tin’ about in him, or they nt tharof; withdraws. d in or of moun- never forces them- y're shore consider- speshul of themse'fs. you canm bet it won't be n't for me to the motives of no when the entire complete. But rcoth compels me to con- ain lions ain’t cow: whole lot. Cat- passes up as a h The: too belicose eny ani coit or mebt Tm riding hears a cras above—200 foc @8 the walls lifts my eyes deer. Onci mare colt co [ yrojects them- se'fs over tha dead as Joolius Caesar ito 'em, n lions is skir: while & brace ¢ the bluff th up an leaps in’ their lon tails in I ore, the cats has been ch an’ foal, an’ Jocoes "em t they don't know ‘where an' they nacher- ump like I re.ates. six-shooter, but a con- 1 exe- cootior, v an’ goes streakin’ it thr : woods like runkard at timid sem- n is as sternly accaneers. Ou of the Lee- a mountain ow, whatever lion goe: e ain't got ble sees it§ niher oth lonel on a-way f my i inter- * owley with the up an id recitations ckless gestures to backin’ every- he room. Yere's the down ace with sech mul it comes pler ' rar an' tar the mud, or forty miles about the speciment that our schoolmaster ain’t simply flirtin’ with the muses when he originates that epic; no sir, he means business; an’ whenever 1 throws it into the seiectmen 1 does it jestice. Them trustees used to silertly line out fer home when | fin- ishes an’ never a yeep. It simply stuns em; it shore fil em to the brim! ‘As 1 gazes r'arward,’ gves on the colonel, as by one rapt impulse he up lifts both his eyes an’ his nosepaint, ‘as 1 gazes r'arward, 1 says, on them sun- filled days, an’ spechul if ever I gets be- % into talkin’ about ‘em, I can y tar myself from the subject. I plains yeretotfore, that not only by in- iation but by birth, I'm a shore- ugh 'ristocrat. This yere captaincy local fashion I assoomes at a tender uge. | wears the record as the first child to don shoes throughout the entire summer in that neighborhood; an’ many a {ime an’ oft does my yoothful but envy-eaten compeers lamvasie me for the insultin innovation. But 1 sticks to my mocca- " to-day shoes in the Bloo Grass as yooniversal as the habit ‘Thar dawns a hour, however, when my p'siticn in the van of Kentucky ton comes within a ace of bein’' seriously shook. It's on my way to school one dewey mornin’ when I gets involved all inadvertent in a onhappy rupture with < polecat. I neyer does know how the misonderstandin’ starts; an after all the seeds of said dispoote by no means important. Followin' the difference, I'm witless enough to keep goin’ on to schoel, reas I should have returned home. ward an’ cast mysef upon my parents as a sacred trust. Of course, onct I'm school I don’t go impartin’ my trou- bles to the other children; I emyoolates the heroism of the Spartan boy, who ds to be eat by a fox an’ keeps 'em If. But the views of my late en- not to be smothered; they appeals te my ung companions; an’ tharupon they puts up a most onneedful riot of coughin’s and sneezin's. But nobody knows me as the malefactor. “ ‘It's a tryin' moment. I can see that, e I'm located, I'm goin’ to be as on- pop’lar a b'ar in 2 hawg pe! come v pinnacle in that proud he giass of fashion ap’ form. You can go your bot- s vere crisis I has ‘a inspira- od, too, as I ever entertains the aid of rum. I determines to opprobrium on some other boy the hunt of gen'ral indignation " along on his trail. ‘ “Thar’s a innocent infant who's a stcodent at this temple of childish learnin’ ame is Riley Bark. This yere ne of them giant children who's eighs 300 pounds. An’ in Riley is a_son of Anak, dwarfed mental; he i with_brains a: even. That's righ , in a saucer of syrup; ind plumb slow. 1 decides the public eyes as the felon wh isturbin’ that seminary’s sereenity. Comin’ to this decision, I points t him where s planted four seats cad of a gled up in a speliin’ k, an’ sz ina } whisper to a o's sittin’ ne: to uplift at's e realize how ¢ ntime h. No gent will ever it is to direct a people's he takes a w'irl at the by the teacher's bull's eye copper watch, every soul knows it's pore Riley; an’ in three, the teacher’s done a outdoors by the'ha'r of ed him home. Gents back_on t yoothful feat as a umph of diplomacy shore saves my the Beau Brummel of the Bioo \ 300d old days, them! obServes the Colonel mournful! ‘an’ ones never to come ag'i My sternest studies ro- mances; an' the peroosals of old tales as 1 tells you-all prior, shore fills me full of 1’ mockin’ birds in equal parts. I reads deep of Water Scott an’ waxes {o be a sharp on Moslems speshul. I dreams of the siege of Acre, an' Richara the Lion- heart; an’ I simpiy tan't sleep nights for honin’ to hold a tournament an' joust a whole lot for some fair lady’s love. “‘Once I commits the error of my career by joustin’ with my brother Jeff. This_yere Jeff is settin’ on the bank of the branch fishin' for bullpouts at the +* SILVER DOLLAR TRICK Place on the table & narrow strip of paper and on it & silver dollar on its edge, as shown in figure, and hold one end of the strip in your left hand. Hit the strip of paper sharply with the index finger of your right hand, so that it will slip from underneath thespiece of money, end you expect to see the money roll away from you, following the effect of THE NECESSARY MATE- RIALS FOR THE TRICKS IN THESE COLUMNS ARE FOUND IN EVERY FUN- ; LOVING HOME, OR MAY EASILY BE PROCURED AT THE EXPENSE OF A FEW CENTS. P e RN e B0 N W L SR the motion of the strip of paper. But this will only happen if you hit the paper slightly or pull it off slowly; the dollar will remain motionless if you hit the strip of paper.sharply, as described. A similar experiment can be executed with the help of checkers. Build a tower of a number of checkers. By hitting the lowest of the checkers sharply with a rule or the back of a knife you will knock it out without disturbing the rest of the tower in the least. If you do not succeed be sure it is because you ha¥e not hit the checker horizontally. THE LITTLE VOLCANO Place a small bottle filled with red wine ©on the bottom of a tub filled with water. The bottle is closed with a cork, through which a small hole is bored lengthwise. As the two fiuids have a variant density, the water will intrude into the bottle and force the wine out in & fine stream re- THE SUNDAY CALL timé; an’ Jeff don't know I'm hovering’ near at all. fond of fish- Paradise L« romancin’ . along, y bent, when I notes Jeff perched k. To my boyish imagination at once turns to be a Ps it box, couches my fishpola, impromptoo the work of a moment an’ falls into the branch! el TR THE BRESH.” “ ‘But thar's bitterness to follow vict'ry. Jeff emerges, like Diana from the bath, an’ frales the wamus off me ‘with a club. Talk of puttin’ a crimp in folks! Gents, when Jeff’s wrath is assuaged that a-way I'm all on one side, like the leanin’ tower f Pisa. Jeff actooally confers a skew-gee o my spinal column. A week later my folks takes me to a doctor. That practi- tioner puts on his specs an’ looks over me ‘with jealous care. sembling the eruption of a volcano. Build a small hill of plaster of paris or clay on the bottom of the tub to hide the bottle. Leave a small opening on the summit of the hill for the mouth of the bottle, as shown In figure. By setting the water in motlon the stream of wine will resemble a column of smoke blown by the wind, giving it the still more realistic appearance of a volcano. T0 GUESS THE NUMBE IN A WATCH. Ask one of the audience to remember any number on the face of your watch and to count silently up to 20, beginning fzom that number, while you move your lead pencil over the face of the watch as if the figuring were very difficult. You count to yourself in the same rhythm with him until 7. When you “ONE OF THE TWITTY BOYS RIDES DOWN AND PUTS THE EIGHTY OR MOBY DOGS INTO ‘ * “Whatever's wrong with him, Doc?” says my father. 5 “* * “Nothin’,” says the physician, “‘only your son Willyum’s five inches out o' plumb.” “ ‘Then he rigs a layout made up of uyropes an’ stay laths, an’ I has to wear t; an’ mebby in three or four weeks he's ]got me warped back into the perpendic’- ar “‘But how about this yere cat hunt? € count 8 your pencil points to 12, at 9 to 11, and so forth, backward until the other one has counted 20, when you will have reached the number which he has remem- bered. o asks Dan Boggs. ‘Which I don’t aim to be Introosive none, but I'm camped yere through the second drink waltin’ fl?l' it, an’ these procrastinations {s makin' me kind o’ batty.’ “ ‘That panther hunt is like this,’ says the Colonel, turnin’' to Dan. ‘At the age of 17 me an’ eight or nine of my intimate brave comrades founds what we-all de- nom'nates as the “Chevy Chase Huntin’ Club.” Each of us mainiains a passel of odds an’ ends of dogs, an’ at stated inter- vals we convenes on hosses, an’ with these yere four-score curs at our hocks goes yellin' an’ skally-hootin’ up an’' down the countryside, aliowin’ we're shore a band of nimrods that a-way. “ “The Chevy Chasers ain't been in be- in’ as a institootion over long when chance opens a gate to ser’ous work. The deep snows over in the Eastern moun- tains it looksslike has done drové a pan- ther into our neighborhood. You-ali could hear of him on all sides. Folks glimpses him now an’ then. They aHows he's about the size of a yearlin' calf; an’ the way he pulls down Sech feeble people as sheep, or lays desolate some he'pless hearoost, don’t bother him a bit. This yere panther spreads a horror over the county. Dances, pra’er meetin's an’ even poker partics is broken up, an’ the sccial life of that re- gion sort o' begins 1o Log down. [iven a weddin’ suffers; the bridesma stayin’ plumb away lest this yere feroc.ous mon- ster should show up in the road an’ chaw one of 'em while she's en route for the scene of trouble. That's gospei lrooth! The pore deserted briae has to hecl an’ handie herse’f, an’ never a friend to voonite her sobs with Lers doorin’ that weddin’ ordeal. The olu ladies preseat shakes their heads a heap solemn. “‘“It's a_worse augoory,” says one, “than the hoots of a score of squinch owls.” ““When this yere reign of terror is at its heights, the local eye is rolled toward us Chevy Chasers. We rises to the op- portoonity. Day after day, we're ridin’ them hills an’' vales, readin’ the milk- white snow for tracks. An' we has suc- cess. One mornin’ I comes up on two of the Brackenridge boys, an’ five more of <he Chevy Chasers, settin’ on their hosses at the Skinner crossroads. Bob Critten- den's gone to turn me out, they says. Then they p’ints down to a handful of close-wove bresh an’' stunted:timber an” gllows that this yere maraudin’ cat-o- mount is hidin’ thar; they sees him go skulkin’ in. “ ‘Gents, I ain’t above admittin’ that them news puts my heart to a’ canter. T'm brave; but conflicts that a-way with wild an’ savage beasts is to me a novelty, an’ while I faces my fate without a flut- ter, I'm yere to say I'd sooner been in pursoot of min! or raccoons sech varmint whose grievous cap'bilities I can more ackerately stack up, an’ in whase merry ways I'm better versed. However, the dauntless blood of my grandsire mounts in my check; an’ as if the shade of that old Trojan is thar per- s'nal to su'gest it I searches forth a flask an’ renoo speri 3 quali- fled for perils, come in what form they may, I resolootely stands my hand. “‘Thar’s forty dogs if thar's one in our compaily as we pauses e Skinner crossroads. An’ when the Crittenden yooth returns, he Prings with him_the Rickett bovs an’' soke forty added dogs. Which” it's worth a ten-mile ride to get a glimpse of that outfit of canine! Thars every sort onder ‘the canopy; thar’s the stolid hound, the alert fice\the sapient collie; that thar’s indivilyooal curs wherein the hound, or fice or collie seems to preedominate as a strain. But the trooth is thar’s not that dog a-whinin’ about our hosses’ fetlocks who ain't proudly descended from full fifteen dif- ferent " tribes, an’ they shorely makes a motiey mass meetin'. Still, they're good, zealous dogs; an' as they're goin' to go for'ard an’ take most of the resks of that panther, it seems invidious to crizi- cise ‘em. ‘“ ‘One of the Twitty boys rides down an’ puts the eighty or more dogs into the bresh. The rest of us lays back an’ strains our eyes. Thar he is! A shout goes up as we descries the panther stealin’ off by a far corner. He’s headin’ along a hollow, that's full of bresh an’ baby timber, an' runs parallel with the pike. Big an’ yellow he is; we can tell from the slight flash we gets of him as he darts into a second clump of bushes. With a cry—what young Crittenden calls view hallos ‘we goes pirootin’ down the pike in pursoot. ** ‘Our dogs is plumb sta’nch; they shore does themse'fs proud. Singin’ in twenty keys, reachin’ from growls to yelps an’ from yelps to shrillest screams, they pushes dauntlessly on the fresh trall of their flyin’ but ferocious quarry. Now an' then we gets a squint of the panther as he skulks from one copse to another jest ahead. Which he's goin' like a arrer; no mistake! as for us Chevy Chasers, we parallels the hunt, an’ continyoos poundin’ the Skinner turnpike abreast of the pack, B 2 2 S i TO CUT A PEAR IN HALF. A pear suspended from the ceiling by a plece of thread is to be cut exactly in half as it falls, after burning the thread on which it hangs. How can we find the exact spot to place the knife on a chair or the floor so that the pear in faling will be cut? This is done by dippinrg the pear in a glass of water. After suspend- ing the pear a few drops of water will fall on the exact spot, which must be noted. These preparations must be made before your exhibition, so that the audi- an’ ever an’ anon givin' a encouragi’ shout as we briefly sights our game. “ ‘Gents,’ says Colonel Sterett, as he re- freshes himse’f, it's needless to go over that hunt In detail. We hustles the flyin demon full eighteen miles; our faithf dogs crowdin’ close an’ breathless at coward nocks. Still, they don’t catch up with him; he streaks it like some saffron meteor. * ‘Only once does we approach within strikin’ distance; that's when he crosses at Old Stafford’'s w ey still. As hne glides into view Critt *“ * “Thar he goes “ “For myse'f I'm prepared. that’s built doorin rely cuts that weepon e ‘gun seems a born profl way; for the six chambe: ice. Wt should have s Chevy Chasers An, well they may: that broad vain! My aim i3 so troo that the r'armost dc evoives a howl < n he @ up gnaw la frantic ions t hunt is don for him. We leaves b loctorin’ himse'f an’ picks him up two hours later on our triumphant return. “'As I states, we harrows that foegi- tive panthey for plumb eighteen miles, an’ in our hot ardor founders two hosses. Which fatigue an’' weariness bes to also our prey weakens In the half- 'gin gets of him an’ distance is s on; -an' as that panther I've got one n’-ball six- s no - his flyin’ distance. “ ‘But the end comes. We've done run him into a rough, wild stretch of coun- ury where settlements is few an’ cabins roode, an’ wide an’ far between. ot a ridden the panther emerges onto, the road an' goes racin’ along the We pushes our ‘spent steeds to the " “‘“Thar's a log house ahead; out in the stump-filled lot in front is a frowsy woman an’ five small children. The pan- ther leaps the rickety worm fence an’ head ight as a bullet for the cl'arin! Horrors! the sight freezes our marrows Mad an’ savage, he's doo to bite a hunk outen that devoted household! Mutooally callin’ to each other’ we goads our horses to the rescue. We gains on the pan- ther! He may wound, but he won't have time to slay that fam'ly. “’Gents, it'’s a seopreme moment! The panther makes for that female squatter an’ her litter; we pantin’ and pressin’ clost behind. ‘The panther is among 'em; the woman® an’ the children seem trans- fixed by the awful spectacle, an’ stands rooted with open eyes an’ mouths. Our ons shore beggars descriptions. OW ensooes a scene to smite the bhardiest of us with dismay. sooner Goes the panther find hims in the midst of that he’pless bevy of cnes than he stops, turns round abrupt an sets down on tail: an’ then uplittin’ his muzzle he busts into shrieks and yells an’ howls an' cries: a absoloote case of canine hysterics! That's what he is great yaller dog; his reason is, no wrack because we har s him eighteen miles. “ ‘“Thar's a ugly outcast of a mattock in hand, comes squander! s from some’ers out where he's been grut s chasin’ my dog for?”' demands this onkempt party Then he menaces us with that implemer “ ‘We makes no retort, but stands pas- sive. The great yaller brute, who nerves has been torn to rags, creeps to the s ter an’ with mornful howls explains what we've made him suffe No, tha nothin’ further to deo less to be said. That calvacade, erstw so gala an’ buoyant, drags itself weari y homeward, the exhausted dogs walkiu stiff an’ sore like their laigs is wood the r'ar. For more'n a mile the e plainin’ howls of the hysterical yaller d is wafted to our y'ears. Then they ceases; an’ we figgers his sympathizin’ master has done took him into the shanty an’ shet_the door. ““‘No one commefts on this vere ad- venture; not a word is heard. ch is silent, ontil we mounts the first hill. As we collects ourse'fs on this eminence, one of the Brackenridge bo: holts up his hand for a halt. “Gent he says, as— hosses, hunters an’ dogs—we-all gathers ‘round, “gents, I moves you the Chevy Chase Huntin’ Club yereby stands ad- Journed sine dle.” Thar's a moment's pause, an’ then as by one impulse every gent, hoss an’ dog says “Ay!” It's yoo- nanimous an’ from that hour till now the Chevy Chase Huntin' Club aln’t nothin’ save tradition. But that panther shore disappears; it's the end of his forage; an’ ag'in does quadrilles, pra'rs, an’ poker resoom their wonted sway. That's the end, an’ now, gents, if Black Jack will caper to his dooties, we'll uplift our drooped sperits “with the usual forty drops.’ m ence will only see the suspended pear, without knowing anything of the drops of water. When the moment for the per formance has arrived, piace the edge of the knife on the exact spot, them burn the thread and the pear in falling will be cut in hailf. Wiis experiment can also be done with two knives placed crosswise, as shown in the figure. The knives must be crossed at the exact spot where the drops have fallen.