Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1879-05-14
a Panther Fight.

Colonel Seth a. Abbey, the veteran
printer who in 1921 issued 10, 900 copies
of the old English Reader, has just re-
turned from California, Oregon and
Washington Territory. He is full of
those hunting "reminiscences now so
rare, among which is the following !:
1 went to Watertown, jefferson coun-
ty, New York, in January, 1919, with
my printing establishment and COM
menced publishing newspaper. Jai-
rus Rich was kind of halfway law
yer; he had started a newspaper year
or two tefore and failed. He and his
wife then started little whiskey tav-
ern near the Court House, and they did
not succeed in that very well, He said
to me one day; 81 think | can get a
better living with my rifle and traps in
the woods than l can by hanging
around here in the village" Rich was
Yermonter by birth; a small, muscu-
lar man. The north portion of Jeffer-
son county, at that time, was an almost
with his wife and traps, bent his way.
4 number of months elapsed before L
heard anything from him. At length
d rumor came that he had been killed
this got letter from him describing
his encounter with a panther; he was
hardly able TO write then. His story
ran thus: - | had fastened one of my
traps to the root of a large heml0ck
tree and near by was a dense thicket OF
low hemlocks of about half an acre.
When L visited my trap this morning
discovered one panther in my trap and
another close by. | fired at the one
outside of the trap and wounded him,
and he made Immediately for this thick
ct. 1 had little whIffet dog with
me. and | put the little dog into the
thicket where the panther enter
ed, and | ran around the thick
ct where | thought the panther
would come out and met him just as he
came out of the thicket. | tried to shoot
him but my gun missed fire, and there
we were, face to face, and | had to run
or fight. | threw down my rifle and
drew nv hatchet from my belt and
made bass at him and he knocked my
harchet more than twenty feet from
me. We then clinche6 in and were
up and down in every shape; he tear
ing away with his teeth and chewing
my hands. He would sometimes have
one hand in his mouth and sometimes
the other. We were wrestling and
tearing in this way until | was nearly
done for. In one OF the falls he hap
pened to come under, and clapped my
knee right in his flank, forward of his
hind leg, with my left hand in his
mouth. [ then slipped my right hand
into my pocket and pulled out my Jack
knife and opened it with my teeth, and
made very short work of it then. lay
there by the side of my victima long.
long time. My clothes were tore off
from me or hung in shreds; my face
and limbs gore of blood. The near
est settler was two miles. | came to
myself after time, so that killed the
other panther. 1t took all the rest of
the day to make the house of the near
est settler" L knew this man for many
years after this encounter. and strange
to say, he still continues to hunt pam
thers and wolves. | saw a panther
skin that was green, killed by him and
just taken from the body, that measured
from the nose to the end of the tail,
nine feet. would like to tell you one
of Rich's wolf stories. He did not tell