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104

turned them all into living statues.
On the hillside not 300 yards from us,
running like greased lightning, came
a spike buck. All were ready. W. K.
Chambers led in the first shot through
the ear. Will Wirt Harness got in the
second through the noseno click that
time. Both Harness and W. K. Cham-
bers ran together. Chambers hitting
him in the back and Harness in the
side. He sank into the river and
would have been lost, but J. S. Waddle
and Welton Harness retrieved him
and brought him to the shore.

Meanwhile John and Jeff were fol-
lowing a three-pronged buck into solid
old Hampshire when they got him. John
gave us the horns and tail.

NOTES OF THE CHASE.

Will Eberly says that when Erb
saw the buck he said: My granny,
my granny, and blazed away with his
penknife.

Will Eberly and Capt. Morgan shot
Erbs Mexican pony. They took him
for a deer.

David Pier Vanmeter is one of the
best natured and agreeable men to be
on the stand with. It has ever been our
good fortune to meet.

Joe Cunningham, alias Old Man
Hendricks, took water and retrieved
like Newtons deer.

Give Albert S. Harness a good horse
and he has got onea Greyhound, a
little more experience with a rifle,
and he will not get left.

Will Wirt Harness prayers were
not loud, but deep. He is a dead shot
with his new gun.

J. S. Waddle has a pair of Laverick
bird dogs it would be hard to match
in the State. He calls the youngest
Cleveland and the oldest Old Hen-
dricks. They were presented to him
by the late Major Harry Gilmore of
Confederate fame. He is a crack shot
to follow the dogs.

W. C. Vanmeter, of the famous Blue
Grass region, who is here in the inter-
est of the Hereford stock, was so ex-
cited on the death of the buck that
for obvious reasons he had to run into
the river.

Mr. Ed. Williams, of Grant county,
the typical representative of Old Vir-
ginia hospitality, and one of Virginias
most successful farmers, was at the
Sycamore and shot a nine pronged
chicken hawk which was passing at a
Jay-Eye-See gait.

Isaac Newton Vanmeter, the Tall
Sycamore of the Saginom, can run, but
Ed Harness beat him in a fair foot
race.

Jule Waddle was the best shot in
the hunt.

John T. Vanmeter has painted every
one of his dogsexcept Trusty,
which was poisoned the second day of
the chase. Here is an epitaph that John
composed over the death of his faith-
ful friend:

Alas! and did old Trusty die?
And did his heels fly up?
Another warning from on high
To shun the poison cup.

Gen. Bill Toole is a boss hunter. He
it scared at a ground squirrel and ran
to us for protectionand then he
never makes any noise on the stand.

Will Welton Harness never flickered.
Take him and his dogs Belle and Storm
and you can rely upon seeing some
sport, no matter what inconvenience
he puts his friends to.

What shall we say of Big Ike? Van-
meter? Generous and self-sacrificing
to a fault. He is the very embodiment
of one who is willing at all sacrificing
to abandon his desire to join the hunt in
order that his friends may enjoy them-
selves.

Ed. Harness can shoot more shots
in a given time than any man in
West Virginia, and he generally gets
there Eli.

Messrs Miller and Hallowell are
gentlemen and Princes in their own
right. When they come to South
Branch again they will be received by
their people right royally. If a deer had
come their way they would have
marked him, but such was not their
good fortune. Bring your hounds next
time, gentlemen.

Dr. H. S. Ferlees issued the nervine
to the hunters. He gave Wm. C.
Vanmeter an astringent.

Capt. John G. Harness got left. He
allowed the young fellows, Will Wirt
and George, to get away with him.

There is no doubt that Bub Cham-
bers killed the buck, but we dont be-
lieve that he shot him in the ear. He
ran over him, and we think he
scratched him with his finger-nails. It
was Buds first deer.

George Harness seemed to enjoy
himself splendidly. He was the first
to discover the deer, had a shot, hit
him and was in at the death. He
went home to Grant this week happy.

Uno Who.

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