XI 



HUNTING THE DEER 



IN a prominent club of a Western city there 

 may be seen a series of old German woodcuts 

 depicting divers fashions of the chase of the 

 deer a century or so ago in Europe. It would ap- 

 pear that the main thing in those days was to get 

 the deer in any way he could be had. There are 

 scenes showing deer chased by greyhounds, trailing 

 hounds all sorts of dogs; deer caught in heavy 

 nets; deer driven into pens; deer driven through 

 chutes past a platform containing noblemen firing 

 upon them at a distance of three or four yards; 

 deer pursued by horsemen, footmen all sorts of 

 men. In short, there would seem to have existed 

 at the time these cuts were made a vast, delirious 

 desire to exterminate the whole deer family as soon 

 as possible. 



Something of that same desire seems to have 

 existed from that day to this. The chase of the stag 

 has always been held to be one of the highest forms 

 of all sport; and today, much as in the past, the 



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