The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-02-14

destroy one of his traps. He took out hi
knife, and deliberately cut the tick of he
bed halfway down. She demolished
second trap; he cut the tick the rest OF tn
way along. She destroyed his third trap
upon which he cut half way down on tn,
other side of the tick. His fourth trap be
ilg destroyed, he completed his work ant
finished cutting the hrl iu two pieces.
Now, said she, on her return to thu
} house, ego and fix up your traps, if yor
want to-"
"All right" said he; " and if you wan
to sleep On your new bed tonight you had
better go up to your room and fix it,"
She found, indeed, room full of feath
ers, and the tick in two pieces. This was
all inconvenicnt young man to have about
a house. He very soon entered upon his
career as hunter, in which, from the first
he displayed an instructive sagacity, which
the wolf plagued farmers of that region
highly priced. Since the time of David
Crockett no such bear and wolf stories have
been given to the world as those of which
Wilbur Waters is the hero. Among those
mountains single wolf will sometimes
torment the farmers for years. He battles
| pursuit because, in time, an old wolf be-
comes acquainted with all the traps and de-
vices that man has invented for his destruc-
ton. Waters first wolf victory was won
when he was about eighteen years of age
| A farmer one morning found six of his
sheep dead on mountain road, which had
| been killed the night before by wolf of
this description. The boy said
"Give me the dead sheep and | will catch
the wolfn
He used the greater part Of this mutton
in teaching the old wolf that he could eat
piece of meat which he happened to find
in field without being caught in trap
The wolf devoured piece after piece without
coming to harm but under the last leg of
mutton the trap was carefully hidden, and
the animal was caught. Even then the old
wolf got away, trap and all, but the boy
gave chase, and brought in his skin. An
other of his early tricks was to hide his trap
under kind of mound in the swamps
erected by craw. fish, because he had observ-
ed that wolves place their feet upon these
without fear.
The great secret of success in hunting, as
in such games as cricket, base ball, and al
most all other door sports, is a keen,
quick eye sight. Besides this quality, Will
of the habits of animals, and can tell to u
certainty what II creature is likely to do in
any probable circumstances. lie has also
the Indian skill Of crawling and creeping
up toward an animal, so as to get near with
out alarming it. No one can realize the
skill Of good hunter in this respect who
has not seen it displayed. An Indian will
crouch down toward the earth, keeping his
head very low, cooking up one eye, and in
that attitude, work his way towards his
game with astonishing rapidity, his gun
cooked, and his finger on the trigger
Some of Waters escapes were remarkable
indeed. On one occasion, pursued by
furious wounded bear, blind with rage,
finding the bear gaining upon him, he
sprang into the air, caught hold of a branch
by one hand, drew up his feet, and the bear
passed under him without stopping, and
kept on for some distance, when he fell be-
fore the hunters rifle.
Like most men who live alone, and like
all Indians, who have no books and news
papers, he is fond of conversation, and likes
to tell stories of his great hunts as we'll as
of his campmeeting exploits. He tells
story OF his going to North Carolina camp
meeting with new hat, which, he says, he
bought on his way, as well "to honor the
LORD as to look more respectable himself"
But the new hat proved to be terrible in
cumbrance. Having put his hat under his
seat for safety, he was about to give himself
up to the feeling Of the occasion, when he
heard feet shutfling, and he knew his hat
was in danger. Then he put it on the
ground beside him; but there was a tobacco
oh ln 1,l l.: Id
He moved it 10 the other side; but there
was another man with his mouth full of the
odious weed. He took the hat into his lap.
But, as he said:
"The fear that l would mash it drove
prayer out of my mind, and looked all
round for limb, or something to hang it
on out of the way of feet and tobacco juice
but could see nothing. The minister
preached on, and Iagain tried to pray, but
that hat filled my mind, and when tried
to be devotional something would whisper
in my ear: You had better take care of that
hat, or you aoW get 1t mashed as flat as a bat,
ter-cdke.'"
At length he hid his hat away in clump
of bushes, forgot all about it and gave him
self up heartily to the exercises of the meet
ing. Going for his hat, he found it trodden
out OF all shape, and so completely spoiled
that he was able to wear it during the rest
of the meeting with perfect comfort. Ever
since, whenever meeting appears to him
to be cold and lileless, he is apt to think of
this adventure and say, "There are too
many new hats in this meeting"
wilbur Waters is one of the last of his
kind. Railroads and tourists will soon
penetrate every recess, and leave these
mighty hunters without game to circum-
vent Our Abingdon editor did well to pre-.
serve the memory of a departing race of
heroes in his sketches of the hunter of
White Top Mountain.