The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1880-12-01

n 1ebJ6I IIOH hOCklhiluY ~. l., says
! that Peter Stewart, hunter, at the age
| of eighty-six is as vigorous as q
man of eighty. He never tires in re-
lating his adventures with wounded
bear and deer and panther,
one of each of which he had killed
before he was twelve years old. His
favorite story, however, is the one re-
counting his fearful fight with q wild
hog in the "Rockland Beech" in 1926.
The writer heard him tell it in his quaint
way on recent visit to the Beaverville
wilderness. Said Peter:
The season of 1920, I'm a-thinkin',
laid leetle over any one they ever was
in producin' beech-nuts. They was so
many nuts on the trees that they wasn't
hardly no room for leaves. When they fell
off on the ground in the fall I'm a-draw
in it mild when tell you that they laid
two inches deep on the level. That year
crazy sort of chap that had made a
clearin' in the beech got it in his head
that they was money in fattenin' pork
that year on the nuts. He calclated that
every hog that was turned in the
woods was wuth five dollars more when
it come out than when it went in them.
So he made up his mind that if he put a
thousan' hogs in the beech they'd come
out with little fortune o. five thousan'
dollars a-stickin' to their ribs. Well
sir, he goes to work and gethers up
every pig he could buy in the hull
country. guess he got nigh on te the
number he wanted. He marked 'em
and let 'em loose into the woods. Jest
afore the time come around for gather
in his pork crop together an awful cold
snap dropped in on the country, and
they was two days snow come along
with it. When the weather ceased up
the pork speculator went into the beech
to look after his stock. He found it
layin' all around the woods in heaps.
Out O. the lot he turned in he didn't
find morne'n seventy or eighty alive. A
few of 'em run wild, and if they hadn't
I never would had the best rassle I
ever had in the woods, and I've had
some good lively matches with bars,
wild cats and painters, at that.
"I used to hunt a good deal with
Sam Darbee, whose father come into the
wilderness soon after mine did. Sam
was one o. the best woodsmen 1 ever see
and want afeerd O. nothin'. Along early
in the winter O. 1926 me and him was
out in the beech on bar hunt. We'd
settled three or four bar and hung up q
number o. deer, and war thinkin' about
gittin' back to the cabin, when Sam
yelled at me from holler off to the
left O. where I was standin' to come
there an see what kind O tracks them
was he'd found in the snow. / went
over to see the tracks, but I couldn't
make out what they had been made by
They want deer tracks, certain, an
they couldn't be sheep tracks, cause
they want sheep within forty mile.
All to once it struck me what they was,
an L says to Sam that I'd bet them
tracks was made by some O. the progeny
O. them hogs that the speculator O. 1920
had left over. We put the dogs on the
track, an I'm blowed if we didn't foller
it fer two days without seem anything
O. the animal as made it. We could
find now an then place where the hog
had rooted up place, an where be had
wallered once in while. An the third
day was jest on the point o. givin' up
the race when all of suddint one o. the
biggest boars 1 ever see jumped out
of bunch o. laurel. His brussels stood
up on his back more'n six inches per-
pendic'lar, and his tushes stuck up on
both sides O. his snout like spare ribs
sharpened on one end. The minute he
see me an the dog he begun to chomp
an froth at the month as if he was eatin'
soap. 1 guess he must been more'n
three foot high. An ugher-lookin' beast
never stood before anybody. The dog
were good grit, an he didn't lose nc
time, but buckled right ON to the boar.
Nor the boar didn't lose no time neither,
for he Jest met the dog half way, gave
one lunge at him and ripped him open
like buzz-saw goin' through hemlock
log. He tossed the dog more'n ten
feet off into the laurels and then waited
fur me.
"Think, says 1, 1 guess don't want
to keep no comp'ny with the dog just
now, so I'll try the virtue of leetle cold
lead on the old cuss's hide. give him
the slugs, but 1 guess they glanced off'n
his shoulder like water slips offn q
ducks back, for they didn't faze him 6
bit. The noise O. the gun kind Of
skeert him, though, an he turned an
made off into the swamp. Darbee came
up when he heered the gun, an We
started on after the boar. We come
onto it afore we know'd it. He didn't
wait for us to git in on him, but made
for us right away, a gittin' rid O the all
firedist snorts anybody ever listened TO
Darbee was in front O. me. The boar
dashed plumb atwixt his legs and
tumbled him into the laurels fore San
scarcely know'd what was up. He'd q
ripped Sam as clean-cut as he did the
dog in another second, but 1 jumped
ahead and fetched the hog a fearful kicA
behind. Sam was in such a position
that didn't dare to shoot for fear o
hittin' him. The boar turned on me
when / kicked him and sprung on one
side He tore past me an before he
could turn and get at me give him {
ball. 1t hit him in the fore-shouldel
an he dropped. He was up agin anC
II