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FOREST AND STREAM. 
469 
An Official Rabbit Hunt. 
Raleigh^ N. C., Nov. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
This month of November, like the October which pre- 
:eded it, has been a splendid stretch ob weather, with 
jareiy a break in its beauty. One of the features of each 
.November for years past has been what has come to be 
.ermed the “official rabbit hunt,” which the writer gives 
.0 the Governor and the other heads of the State depart- 
nents. The hunting is always done with beagles, and 
diese dogs are found tO' be very reliable and steady at 
heir work. There are two packs in this immediate vicin- 
ty, one of eighteen dogs, owned by Mr. William Rob- 
jins, and the. other of fourteen, owned by Mr. Charles 
Crawford. This year the hunt was had at the old estate 
jf Mr. Samuel Wilder, known as “Trinity,” the building 
apon which was erected exactly 104 years ago, as the date 
set in the chimney shows. In those days people built 
their homes on commanding hills and amid great groves, 
usually of white oaks, and the house at Trinity commands 
a view in three directions to a great distance; in fact, as 
much as twenty miles one way, across a valley which 
gives an almost mountain air to the landscape, which, on 
the 23d inst., the date of the hunt, was a beautiful mix- 
ture of the deep green of the pines and the glorious 
autumn tints of the frost-kissed deciduous trees. The 
morning was marked by a snowy frost, which rested 
everywhere like a light snow, but, as is the case in this 
southern Indian summer, the day softened quickly, and 
by 10 o’clock everything was gentle and warm and really 
with quite the air of early autumn. This year, by reason 
of a fire which destroyed a lot of the cotton stored on his 
premises, Mr. Robbins was unable to bring his fine pack 
of beagles to the meet and so there were only the beagles 
owned by Mr. Crawford, that gentleman and his master 
of hounds, Mr. Sidney Cooper, being present. 
The start from Raleigh was made in an ambulance 
from Capitol square, and in this vehicle there were 
snugly tucked away Governor Glenn, Secretary of State 
Grimes, Treasurer Lacy, Auditor Dixon, Secretary 
Bruner, of the Board of Agriculture; Attorney-General 
Gilmer, State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
Joyner, Curator Brimley, of the State Museum; Secretary 
Brown, of the State Corporation Commission, and the 
writer. The ride through the city and along the fine road 
through the charming country was full of interest and 
zest, Governor Glenn, who was boyish in his high spirits, 
leading the fun not only then but all day. The Treasurer 
presented a rather rakish aspect, topped as his head was 
by a cowboy hat, which he brought from Arizona last 
spring. The Governor, who weighs 238 pounds, later 
showed that he had not forgotten how to walk. As he 
remarked with a smile, he was always a big man; at six- 
teen years old, when he went to college, having weighed 
178 pounds. The Governor showed further that he was 
a clever shot as well as a good pedestrian, and the coun- 
try people who later joined in the hunt expressed their 
very great pleasure at seeing him get across country as 
he did and use a gun so well. Our route to the place of 
the meet lay past the grounds of the Agricultural and 
Mechanical College, and the big new agricultural build- 
ing there was greatly admired by the party, as was also 
the far-stretching farm of the college, which now em- 
braces 670 acres. The beautiful colors of the autumn 
foliage came in for much remark. For some distance 
the roadway runs alongside railway tracks, and as a train 
SOME OF THE BEAGLES IN THE HUNT. 
Governor Glenn is leaning against the Anibinance. 
flashed by Treasurer Lacy, who for_ many years was a 
locomotive engineer, said he would like to be in the cab 
again and show what he could do therein. 
When we reached Trinity we found the dogs very near 
the house, being gotten in shape for the day’s work. 
They made a very good appearance indeed, all being pure 
beagles without any cross; lithe little fellows, their long 
and pendulous ears and short legs making them look 
quite different from the ordinary fox and rabbit hounds 
of this State. Beagles have come into favor here because 
they are such persevering little dogs. As our darky 
“beater,” whose nam.e, by the way, is “Bob Rabbit,” said : 
“Dese beagles always gits what dey goes atter. Dat’s de 
good pint ’bout dem.” It is a fact, and no brier patch 
or thorn-fringed swamp has any terrors for these little 
dogs, who in truth are not much bigger than Miss Molly 
Cottontail herself, and can go wherever that young lady 
can creep or sneak. It was not long before there was 
music in a swamp and the dogs broke out with a fine 
burst of speed as well as noise. Bob Rabbit using his two 
legs with a vengeance, and all the party, officials and 
otherwise, testing their' lungs to the utmost. Up hill and 
down the chase went until presently there ' was a crack 
of one of the two guns carried and then there was a very 
dead rabbit. After this we made quite a swing through 
the very finest kind of cover, but not a rabbit could be 
developed. I had a talk with Bob Rabbit about this and 
he was very sententious, remarking: “Some days dis is 
de way. De rabbits all ’pears to have gone off somewhar. 
1 don’t rightly know whar dey have gone, but it must be 
some distance.” Sidney Cooper laughed and said he 
thought the rabbits must be attending a convention some- 
where. Presently, however, we came near a very nice 
place indeed, which looked so promising that we decided 
THE HOPE OF THE COUNTRY. 
A four-year-old cotton-picker. Seen by the official hunting party. 
I 'liotographed by H. H. Brimley. 
lo have our pictures taken, and this was done, the dogs 
in front, in a peafield with a background of sassafras 
bushes and other- small growth. 
After Curator Briniley had taken this picture we went 
intO' the promising place mentioned and Governor Glenn 
was so very sure that a rabbit was therein that he took 
position at the head of the run and said : “I am going 
to get him just as soon as he comes out,” the Governor 
having one of the two guns, Mr. Cooper carrying the 
other. The dogs worked’ with a vengeance and pretty 
soon little cries broke out which grew louder and louder 
as they bustled about in the dense tangle of green brier 
and blackberries. In a minute or so there was a sharp 
crack from the Governor’s gun and into the edge of the 
thicket ran Treasurer Lacy, who said that the Governor 
had not really hit the rabbit, but that the rabbit had died 
of pure fright. The Governor was not to be bluffed and 
said he had killed a great many rabbits in his time. To 
this Treasurer Lacy replied that he did not believe the 
Governor could hit a barn;- He walked away some thirty 
or forty yards and the ' Governor said : “I’ll show you 
what I can do. If you' will throw up that cowboy hat 
of yours I’ll fill it full of holes.” Treasurer Lacy replied: 
"1 know you can’t lilt it' and am perfectly willing to pay 
you 25 cents for every hole you make in it.” At these,, 
words up went the hat, bang went the gun, and as the 
hat dropped to the ground the Treasurer picked it up 
and with a rueful face turned to the Governor and to the 
others of the laughing party and saidi ' “I’ll be dogged if 
lie hasn’t filled it full of holes.” NotjDon Quixote him- 
self ever wore a longer or a more lugubrious visage than 
did poor Lacy as he twirled his hat in his hands and 
looked at the holes. Then he began' to say that he must 
have a new hat, and to quiet him .the Governor told him 
lie would gi\'c him a $5 Stet,son, but that $1.25 must be 
deducted from that figure, Lacy having announced that 
he had found five big shot holes in the crown of the hat 
alone, and that it was unfit for use.. After this arrange- 
ment had been made he faced about and infonned the', 
outfit that his wife would . be. ...very glad the hat was 
riddled, as for many months she had tried to get him to 
quit wearing it. The Governor said this story would not 
hold water. 
We made our way toward the house, the stomach of 
every one in the party being equal to a clock in announc- 
ing that dinner time was at hand, and on the way beat 
some of the sweet locust pods from a tree and ate a few 
persimmons on the side. The writer and Attorney-Gen- 
eral Gilmer set the^table for the dinner, and ah, that 
dinner! A North Carolina ham, several years old, boiled 
exactly right and then baked; some home-made sausage 
with plenty of sage in it; a big tin basin filled with North 
Carolina potatoes, rich with sugar, not the miserable, 
white and woody things which the unfortunates eat up 
north ; home-made butter of the finest type, and such 
buttermilk as one never gets except at the best country 
houses, with plenty of sweet milk to be had for the asking 
and good bread galore. Twelve of us sat down to the 
table, and it was fine to see the bptter fly and in fact 
everything else fly that was eatable. The Governor said 
grace and everybody fell tO' with a vim, the Treasurer, 
who labors under the delusion that he is a dyspeptic, eat- 
ing so much that he declared it would last him two days, 
and being assured by the Secretary of State that he must 
have two stomachs just like a cow. The Treasurer, on 
his part, was unceasing in his comments on the shooting 
rig of State Superintendent Joyner. The latter has been 
quite lately in France, and one of the leading French 
tailors made up for him a coat which is - an exact copy 
of one w'hich he saw worn by one of the hunting staff of 
President Loubet, of France. It is safe to say that no 
other such coat is in the United States. It has the real 
French cut, and one. cannot tell very well whether the 
wearer of it is going away from you or coming toward 
you. Mr. Brown, of the Corporation Commission, an- 
nounced, between drinks of buttermilk, that it was his 
first holiday since he took office, fourteen years ago. Some 
of the party were unable to say a word during the meal 
except to declare that the ham was even better than the 
sausage and then that the buttermilk was better than 
either and call for a new deal. After dinner, and after 
the absence of the owner of Trinity, Mr. Samuel Wilder, 
had been deplored by all (he and his family having been 
that very morning called away by the sudden sickness of 
a relative) we went out in the yard, where the dogs were 
given a bite and where Bob Rabbit, sitting on a pile of 
wood, showed that he could eat as fast as he could run 
rabbits. Curator Brimley took some pictures of us all, 
but missed one glorio'us opportunity, that of a view of 
the genial Governor and the Attorney-General “cutting 
the pigeon wing,” and showing such fancy steps that Bob 
Rabbit got up, dinner in hand, and stared with eyes as 
big as those of any rabbit in the world. The Governor 
showed that he had not forgotten how to dance. Mean- 
while your correspondent was furnishing the music for 
this impromptu dance by doing what the darkies call 
“patting” with his hands upon his brown canvas trousers. 
He was patting the good old negro tune of 
“Juba dis an’ Juba dat, 
Juba roun’ de kittle o’ fat,” 
while the dancers’ feet flew in yet more rapid measure as 
the swift hands beat the correct time. Everybody 
laughed at this and there was deep regret that Mr. Brim- 
ley had been just a moment too late in getting a snap, as 
both the Governor and Attorney-General refused to- re- 
peat the performance for the benefit of the camera. 
There were some more jokes, to be added to the fast 
growing collection of the day, and we started off for the 
afternoon round. Through the pine woods, with sweet- 
gums here and there and a fragrance which marks the 
Southern autumn, we went, along the hillsides and down 
in the valleys, with partridges whirring like big brown 
bullets here and there ahead of the dogs and of us, and 
the Governor cracking away at them when Opportunity 
offered. Presently he got a fine chance at a brace of 
birds which were flushed beside a stream, and brought 
one down, while he hit the other hard, both with the one 
barrel. The dogs seemed to appreciate the shooting, for 
they began a mighty chase after a rabbit which was 
“jumped” on a hillside in the edge of a cotton patch. 
This chase must have covered between two> and three 
mile&, but Bob Rabbit, the trusty darkey, never broke his 
gait, keeping just behind the dogs, and by and by he 
dashed in among them and lifted up the rabbit, which, 
as he declared, had' “Jus’ run hisself ter death.” 'When I 
asked Bob how that happened he replied : “De dogs wuz 
too much fer him and he jus’ nacherly run all his wind 
THE N. C' STATE OFFICERS IN THEIR ANNUAL RABBIT HUNT. 
From left to right: Mr. Charles Crawford, Bob Rabbit (with 
rabbits), Gov. Glenn, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Joyner, Fred A. Olds, 
H. C. Brown, Auditor Dixon, Treasurer Lacy, Secretary of State 
Grimes, T. K. Bruner, Attorney-General Gilmer. 
out. Fie died fore de dogs toch him. He wasn’t scairt 
ter deth, neither; he was jus’ run out. His time had come 
an’ he knowed it.” 
About this time some of the ordinary type of hounds 
joined the beagles and one of these had a whimper which 
was very like the cry of a scared rabbit. There were 
some lively runs after this, but it seemed that the dogs 
must have eaten the rabbits or else left them somewhere 
in the swamps, dead. The hunters of rabbits when they 
hear that sudden stillness of the dogs are quick to say 
that the catastrophe has happened; namely, that the dogs 
have killed the game and are either eating it or have 
dragged it aside and left it. Not infrequently the mouth 
of a hound is examined to see if there is any hair on it, 
this sign always making suspicion a certainty. 
