Pioneer Tales: My First Deer Hunt

Arkansas Echo

Pioneer Tales
February 9, 1894

I want to also tell a small hunting adventure that did not happen to me here in Arkansas, but in Missouri where we were for eight years before we came here. In that area at the time, the deer were not rare and whoever was a good shot could have deer meat through the entire year.

Now, I had a cornfield that lay fairly high on a mountain. From the corn, I had made, as was the practice there, corn stacks and had placed them together in round corn shocks. One left them standing there as long as he wished or until he had time to shuck the corn.

One day I came there and saw to my horror that most of the corn shocks had been rummaged through, a few were even ruined. Instantly I thought that the pigs had broken out, but after a closer inspection I saw that deer had been there. Wait! I thought. There will soon be roasted deer meat.

Advertisement in an 1894 issue of the Arkansas Echo
A.G. Linzel & Son, 110 East Markham St., Little Rock

I went out toward evening with my rifle and hid myself in a corn shock and waited in case the thing should return. I lay there two, three, even four hours on the lookout, but still nothing wanted to show itself. Soon I became bored and had decided to take a break, when I thought I heard something sniffing and blowing. And as I looked in that direction, a marvelous deer came very cautiously to the corn shock next to me. Here he stood still once again, sniffed around again, and since he did not notice anything suspicious, he began to root through and eat the corn.

I carefully stuck my weapon out and aimed. But damn and blast! What is that? I was shaking all over and I went blind. I could have boxed my ears. I have many times stood in a thick rain of bullets and not flinched, and here in the face of a dumb deer, I got buck fever.

I pulled myself together enough that I was able to take aim and pull. And bang, a shot, and the deer takes off. That serves you right, I heard a voice in my head say. It is not possible that you hit him. But I must have hit him because as I looked more closely at the spot, I saw blood, or as it is called in hunter’s Latin, sweat.
Since there was a bright moon and it had recently risen, I was able to easily follow the trail and noticed that it had lost much blood.

It had made it over the fence and then was gone into the thick woods. Here I lost the trail and returned home sullenly, with the intention of following the trail as far a possible the next morning.

The following morning a young neighbor boy came at about 10 a.m. to the house and asked me if I could loan him my wagon and a horse for an hour. He did not at first want to answer the question “why?” But then he said that he had shot a deer up ahead and that he wanted to haul it home in the wagon.


Advertisement in an 1894 issue of  the Arkansas Echo
Edmund Craig, & Co, 414 East Markham St, Little Rock

Confound it, I said (since everything was immediately clear to me): “Bill, you are lying. You did not shoot that deer! You only found it!” The boy was red up to his ears and quickly admitted it.

I told him that the previous night I had shot the deer and that he probably was lying not far from the fence. I went with Bill and, sure enough, as I had surmised, it lay hardly 200 yards behind the fence where it had collapsed and died.

Since it was the usual practice to give the finder a portion of the booty, I divided the deer with Bill, but I kept the hide and antlers for myself. I had to soon remove them from my sight because they reminded me every time I saw them of my “buck fever” that I had on my first deer hunt.

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Introduction to the Pioneer Tales

This pioneer tale is one in a series published in 1893 and 1894 by the Arkansas Echo, a German-language newspaper in Little Rock. The stories are intended to show the challenges and adventures facing German-speaking immigrants when they came to settle in Arkansas. So far, the following posts have introduced the Pioneer Tales and provided translations of most of them:

Pioneer Tales of Arkansas' German Immigrants (background of the newspaper series)
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/05/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, November 3, 1893. THE GOOD OLD DAYS? http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/05/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_17.html

Arkansas Echo, November 10, 1893
MERRY MÄT, OR A TRIP TO THE BATHS, Part 1
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/05/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_21.html

Arkansas Echo, November 17, 1893
MERRY MÄT, OR A TRIP TO THE BATHS, Part 2
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/05/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_31.html

Arkansas Echo, December 1, 1893
A JUICY ROAST--OR--WHO WANTS TO EAT WITH ME?
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/06/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, December 8, 1893
ANOTHER PIECE ABOUT "AUGUST" --OR -- LONG FENCE RAILS
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/06/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_08.html

Arkansas Echo, December 22, 1893
HOW FRANK, WITHOUT POWDER AND LEAD, ONCE SLEW A MAGNIFICENT DEER
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/06/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_10.html

Arkansas Echo, December 29, 1893
ERNST'S BAD LUCK
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/06/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german_17.html

Arkansas Echo, January 5, 1894
THAT'S THE WAY ITS DONE IN HUNGARY -or- A PERSON WHO WILL NOT ACCEPT ADVICE CANNOT BE HELPED
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/07/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, January 14, 1894
HOW ONE CAN LOSE ONE'S WAY IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/09/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, January 19, 1894
BILL’S TRIP TO THE MARKET
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2011/10/pioneer-tales-of-arkansas-german.html

Arkansas Echo, February 23, 1894 and March 2, 1894
JOSEPH GLANZMANN'S STORY OF GERMAN-SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS
SETTLING NEAR ALTUS, ARKANSAS
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2012/10/pioneer-tales-joseph-glanzmanns-story.html

Arkansas Echo, January 26, 1894. THE WAY YOU PUSH THINGS, SO THEY WILL GO (OR, YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW)
http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2013/01/the-way-you-push-things-so-they-will-go.html


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