Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-26

n Hunt in the Mountains for Bears,
and What Came of It-A kentuckian
Shot in the Arm.


Shot in the Arm.
From the Louisville Courier Journal.
MI George Daniel, Of Lexington. KY, arrived
IN this city yesterday morning. on his way home,
after spending three months in New Mexico and
other territories and states in the far west.
Mr. Daniel is in excellent health, and, save an
arm, which he carries in sling, he is physically
much better than before. reporter of the
toa'aer-Jo'1ndt met Mr. Daniel in the office of
the Louisville Hotel yesterday afternoon, and,
after few minutes conversation about his trip,
asked him about his arm. ''Ths arm as you
see" replied Mr. Daniel. sis badly broken and
somewhat torn up, and there is quite an adven-
ture connected with the time in which it was
broken, and if you would like to hear it l will
tell You about it," The reporter expressed his
Willingness to hear the incident, and after light
ing cigar. he commenced:
Il had been in Denver City for some time,
and thought would take run down into
New Mexico, and started in few days The
travelling was very slow, and it took up consid-
cradle amount of time to reach Santa Fe, where
l proposed to stop for week or two. l had
been in the city for a few weeks. when some
gentlemen whom knew proposed that we take
trip to the mountains. which lay to the west
of the city. and have good hunt | accepted
the proposition immediately, and the next
morning we made up party of five. and getting
into an old fashioned emigrant wagon we started,
after supplying ourselves with enough to eat on
the way and some tOlerably fair whisky. which
we were fortunate enough to procure. We
were in no particular hurry to arrive at our
destination, and managed to spend about two
days on the route camping out at night and
having a generally good time. had been in
formed we could find some bear in the noun
tains if we looked for them. and nothing would
satisfy me but to look for them. My companions
were not SO large in their aims as was and
were cOntented to hunt smaller game, but had
read so much about the fun of hunting bears in
the mount aims that nothing else would do me-
so we started out about three o'clock one after
noon to see what we could scare up. Our camp
was at the foot of tOlerably high mountain
and on the north side was some very broken
ground. covered with a scrubby growth of trees
At some places the underground was so thick
that it was with difficulty we could make our
way through it, but Twas looking forward with
true Kentucky blOOdthirstiness to the time when
| should tackle my first bear, and did not
mind torn clothes and scratched hands and face
After about an hours working we got into a
short stretch of country where the underground
was somewhat thinner and the trees little
larger. Three of the party had gone around
some distance from us and left me in company
with ManniOn. who had even less experience as
a hunter than l. We sat down together at the
foot of rather large sized tree. and having a
flask IN my pocket, proposed that we regae
ourselves by taking drink We had been sit
ting at the foot of the tree for some time wait
ing for the rest of the party to come up. when by
accident cast my eyes up into the tree. and to
ny surprise saw beast which, at the first
glance took to be bear. but which turned
out to be small species OF the panther, which
is found in several parts of the mountains. |
instantly told mp companions to look up, and,
after taking look at the animal which did not
appear very aggressive. took courage, and said
would kill it with my rifle. Mannion was in
cilned to he little more careful and said that
we had better get out from under the tree, as
the beast might jump on u.s. This very
good advice and got up very carefully so as
not TO brighten it away. and, retiring to about
two yards from the tree. cooked my rifle and
took good aim, Mannion having agreed TO
reserve his fire in case my bullet did not take
effect. After aiming for a considerable length
OF time. | fired. and the bullet instead of
striking the animal. struck the limb upon
which it was sitting. and the only effect
which it had was TO make the animal jump out
Of the tree. Mannon saw the body coming
down. and started to run. but stopped when he
rot about three yards off, and prepared to shoot.
MeanWhIe the animal struck the ground on all
fours. and made a charge at me. Mannion
thought this was the time to shoot and such
thought as stopping because was directly be-
tween him and the animal did not occur to him.
so he blaZed away. and struck me in the arm
breaking it just above the elbow, where you
see this bandage. The bullet was not to be
stopped by my arm. however, but passed
by and struck the panther in the side of the
shoulder, making deep flesh wound. The
shot had the effect, much to my joy. of causing
the animal to turn around and run away. This
satisfied NE with hunting for years and we re-
turned home the next day. l remained in Santa
Fe for few days longer. and then started Oh
my journey to Kentucky. ! arrived here last
night from st. Louis, and in the future am will
ing to stay here. -