Benjamin Corbin
Published: 2018-02-05
Total Pages: 80
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Excerpt from Corbin's Advice, or the Wolf Hunter's Guide: Tells How to Catch 'Em and All About the Science of Wolf Hunting I have always loved nature. And stuck close to her, and I will try to do it in this book. If I have read my Bible correctly, Abraham was one of the first shepherds. In Genesis we read that he was rich in cattle, in silver and in gold - something like the ranch men and stockmen of North Dakota. Indeed the pastoral life preceded every other profession. The Patriarchs were all shepherds. Every prayer to the Lord was accompan ied by a sacrifice from the flocks and herds. When Abra ham dug a well, and there was a dispute about it, he set tled the whole thing with seven ewe lambs, and called the piaee An Oath. Those shepherds wandered from place to place wherever there was the best pasture, just as we do in Dakota, any more than the land of Canaan was nothing to be compared with Dakota for grazing. When Jacob went a courting, he hadn't a thing but a shepherd's crook, but before he return-ed he had two wives, and flocks and herds beyond computation. Even in late-r times a young fellow, who was out tending a flock, was called to be King of Israel, about the only good, king we ever had-that was David. He was keeping sheep that very day. He had guarded the flocks from the ravages of bear and wolf and lion, and slain them with his own hands, and yet he made a goodsoldier, a peerless king, and the greatest poet that ever lived. Later on, we should never forget that the Star of Bethlehem was first seen by the shepherds, tending their flocks by night. Virgil first sang the praise of shepherd life in his bucolics, before he sang the praise of the arms and the man. All sacred and classic history is replete with descriptions of Pastoral Life. All the world knows that astronomy was first made a science by the shepherds, watch ing the moving grandeurs of the skies. In the New Testament, the parable of the Good Shepherd shines like a star. If Jesus did not disdain to call himself the Good Shepherd, why should any man in Dakota not be proud to be called by that name, or to be associated as I am, with the men who are feeding their flocks on the rich and abundant pastures of this great commonwealth? Largely, my life has been spent in protecting these flocks against the incursions of ravenous beasts of prey. I know it' is but a step and the first step, which counts in the march of civilization. God made the country, but man made the town - and some of these'towns are pretty tough, like most of men's work. I can not believe that Providence intended that these rich lands, broad, well watered, fertile and waving with abundant pasturage, close by mountains and valleys, filled with gold, and every metal and mineral, should be forever monopolized by wild beasts and savage men. I believe something in the survival of the fittest, and hence I have fit for it all my life. Civilization is a fine thing, and it may spread itself like a green bay tree m rtjhe cities, and lordly mansions of the. Millionaires, with all their silks and broadcloths, but it has to have plenty of beef and pork and mutton-ye s, yes, and wool too, and plenty of it. But my lord and lady would go bare-footed, and that would be bad form, and naked, and that would be worse, and empty, and that would be awful, if somebody, somewhere and somehow, would not send them leather, and wool and beef and mutton. But the herds and flocks must be raised and protected here for my lord and lady, if it takes the last man and the last dollar. The wolf don't like them, and I trust the wolf will never come near their doors, or that any of them will turn out wolves in sheep clothing, but if he comes near mine I will take him in, and it will be the saddest day of his life. That's why I am here. The wolf is the enemy of civilization, and I. Want to exterminate him. If he eats up the. flocks, where are yourwool and mutton to come from, and what's the use of...
