COL. TAURUS. 



J. W. HRADY. 



He was my friend and I loved him. He 

 was 4 years an inmate of my home, and he 

 won and retained the affection of the fam- 

 ily. During the winters of tl jse years iie 

 was my constant and often sole com- 

 panion in the pursuit of big game in South 

 Florida wilds. We were both ardently de- 

 voted to field sports, and in the open sea- 

 son we spent weeks at a time together in 

 the woods. I never- saw his equal at stalk- 

 ing a deer, and he never tired of hunting. 

 During the time he was with me I never 

 heard his voice. In early youth he had 

 contracted influenza, which, failing to kill 

 him, bereft him of voice and the sense of 

 smell. Happily his hearing and sight were 

 not impaired, and he grew up with con- 

 siderable intelligence. 



He was different from all other mutes 

 I have known in that his temper was 

 amiable and his countenance was frank and 

 pleasant. You looked in vain for that 

 drawn, painful expression so common with 

 mutes. His large brown eyes always re- 

 turned your look with a smiling light, and 

 he was everybody's friend. Having been 

 brought up in the backwoods of Southern 

 Florida, and his opportunities being fur- 

 ther limited by his affliction, the Colonel 

 had his prejudices. He had great con- 

 tempt for all dogs, especially hunting dogs ; 

 he disliked swine, and detested colored 

 people. His hearing was acute. I never 

 had to speak twice to attract his atten- 

 tion, but I have heard my colored man, 

 Steve Tatum, bawl at him at 40 paces 

 without receiving the slightest recognition. 

 The Colonel and I became acquainted 

 through our mutual love of hunting. Be- 

 fore knowing him I rambled the woods 

 day and night with a professional hunter 

 named Kirkland, and many a buck and 

 gobbler died by our rifles. Kirkland was 

 a typical Florida cracker, but able to read 

 and write and with more than ordinary 

 intelligence. He had spent his whole life 

 hunting. As was to be expected, he had 

 his idiosyncrasies and superstitions. He 

 was so fully convinced that a deer's eyes 

 would not shine, that is, reflect a jack light, 

 on the first night after a new moon that 

 he would never go out on those nights 

 no matter how much entreated. Neither, 

 according to his theory, could deer be 

 found the following day ; so he stayed in 

 camp 24 hours once a month. Another su- 

 perstition of his was that venison would 

 not spoil, no matter how unfavorable the 

 weather, if you cut away and destroyed 

 the particular part of the carcass indicated 

 by the sign of the zodiac at that particular 



time. For instance, if the almanac showed 

 the sign in the loin, the loin must go. But 

 he knew all about game, its habits, where 

 to look for it at different seasons, and how 

 to approach it. Few deer that he saw 

 escaped his rifle. 



Lying around our camp fires at night in 

 the solitude of the forest we talked of 

 many things. One rainy night he told me 

 about Taurus. It was a peculiar story, and, 

 briefly stated, about as follows : One morn- 

 ing his wife saw a weak and emaciated 

 little fellow looking wistfully through the 

 fence of their cabin clearing and moan- 

 ing in pain. She went out to him, and 

 when through fear he tried to retreat, she 

 leaped the fence, overtook and detained 

 him. The waif was nearly dead from hun- 

 ger and exposure and was covered with 

 vermin. He was given food, a bath con- 

 taining insecticide, and was put to bed. 

 It was quite an episode in the cabin. The 

 Kirklands had no neighbors, and where 

 the little chap could have come from was 

 a mystery. No one came to claim him, 

 and as time passed Kirkland evolved the 

 theory that the little fellow was of good 

 family, had fallen, or been thrown from a 

 tourist Pullman car, and had subsisted in 

 the woods as best he could until chance 

 led him to the cabin. 



That winter was an inclement one, and 

 before the waif's terror had worn off the 

 exposure he had undergone brought on 

 influenza and he came near dying, but final- 

 ly recovered. 



At first he had been dubbed Colonel, 

 but later the name Taurus was added, after 

 the zodiacal sign at the time of his appear- 

 ance. Kirkland told me much of Colonel's 

 ability as a hunter; how he could track 

 a deer by sight better than a panther could 

 by smell, and could by hearing locate tur- 

 keys in the high brush. 



One day at the beginning of a close sea- 

 son I received a letter from Kirkland say- 

 ing that as he could hunt no more until 

 fall he was going to work in a distant part 

 of the State. He requested me to give 

 Taurus a home, urging that he would be 

 a valuable hunting companion for me in 

 the winter months and would give no 

 trouble in the off season. After some re- 

 flection I consented. 



Taurus came, and I was greatly surprised 

 at his appearance. I had imagined a tall, 

 lank, weazen-faced cracker, gibbering and 

 making signs. He was, on the contrary, 

 short, stout, deep chested, with full round 

 face, fine eyes, and was the embodiment 

 of good nature and geniality. With never 



