The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-27
HUNTING MEN WITH DOGS.
Pastime of Southern Sportsmen as
n Georgia Convict Farm.

vict and the hounds. 1t came about in this way:
Mr.. Williams claimed, and he was backed by
Captain James, that any convict could be select
ed out of a hundred and sent off to circle through
the woods, passing through a dozen squads of
convicts; that an hour later he could put his
hounds on that ~convicts track, and they would
thread him through the squads of %convicts,
never DO shaken from his individual track, and
finally bring him up. l remarked that / could
understand how the hounds might carry a con-
victs track through a crowd Of outsiders from
some peculiar scent of the camp. but not how
they could separate one convict from another.
There may be a hundred convicts,H he said,
clothed precisely alike, and wearing precisely
she same shoes. They may feed together on
precisely the same food, and sleep in hunks that
touch each other under precisely the same cover.
Aud yet each one of them has a scent that marks
him just as distinctly to my hounds from his fell.
lows as his appearance marks him under your
deliberate study"
And do you expect me to believe that the
dogs can catch this scent from the flying touch
of his thick shoes on the hard groundY'
Undoubtedly. And, further, he may stop in
a squad and change shoes with a convict, and
the dogs will still follow him. Or the hardest
ground his scent will be plain to them, though
his shoe soles are a half-inch thick. When he
runs through the woods where his clothes touch
the bushes they will trail him heads up, in full
cry. fifty yards, running parallel, but away from
where he ran"
"Do you mean that you can take fifty con-
victs, all clad in convict suits, let them run
through the bushes, then send the convict the
dogs are trailing through the same bushes, and
the scent of his body left on the yielding twics
as his clothes brush them will lead the hounds
through the mazeg'
Eyes; fifty yards away, they will run it paral-
lei at full speed. To prove this, | will start a
convict. 1 will let others follow him through
the woods. l will let him make a semi-circle in
the woods will a fifty yards radius. When the
hounds come to this, instead of following the
.pxva fhav Nv;ll n - ~ @--oe.A ia q. A.
circle, fifty yards away cut across to it, take the
track up there and follow it," A gaunt convict,
long of leg and flank. was selected for the run.
lie was told to put of quickly, circle IN the
woods, take a swift run over fields, roads, and
through every squad of convicts he could
find in his way. This he did. The hounds were
then loaing about the stockade yard, as l~istless
a lot of dogs as ever were seen. II am tempt
ed, said Mr.. Williams, "to let the convict ride
a horse for a mile or two after he has run awhile.
| have had dogs to trail a convict on horseback
four miles, and then take the track where he
jumped from the horse" By this time the fly
ing convict was a small speek on the broad
fields. and in a moment more had melted into
the horizon and was gone, as if, indeed, he had
found that liberty for which his soul painted. and
had gone as the strong-winged birds go when
they vanish in the blue ether. In an hour we
mounted our horses. The hounds were still loaf
ing about in the sunshine. Suddenly Mr.. Will
Jams, squaring himself in his saddle, blew three
quick, short blasts on the cows horn that hung
at his side. AS if by magic. the hounds awaked,
and charged at his saddle-eager. baying, frant-
tic. "Nigser, he said, sententiously. Like the
winG they were off, nose to the ground. tails up,
eircling like beagles. Larger the circles grew.
the hounds silent as specters, eyes and
nose eating the earth for its secret.
''Fhey will pass over the tracks of convict squads,
but will open on the first single track they find.
If it is the wrong track. we will simply sit still.
They will run it a hundred yards or so, and not
ing our silence, will throw it off and search
again. When they get the right track we will
halloo, and start after the hound that has it. The
others will at once join him and the race is
opened" at last a red hound, careering like
mad across the field, halts suddenly, tumbles
over himself, faces about, noses the ground
eagerly, lifts his head, "A-a-o-o-o-w-u!' and is off
like an arrow from a bowstring. ''Thats the
track, shouts Williams, and after the bowling
hound we go. The other dogs join in, peil-mell
at first, then each hound true to the track, in
full cry aud at a rafting gait. Away off
to the left Captain James calls attention
to q moving speck against the sky. "Thatis the
convict circling back to camp" he said. On the
dogs went, keen as the wind. inexorable as fate,
following the track of the convict as trae as his
own shadow. Across the tracks Of hundreds of
others, along high-roads, over fields, through
herds of cattle, by other convicts that smiled
erin,ly as they passed, the hounds went. holding
the track of the flying convict where it had been
laid as lightly as thistle On the Grm earth,
but where it left its t~eil-tale
scent all the same. Nothing could shake
them off-nothing check their furious rush.
Over other tracks made by convcts wearing
shoes from the same last and same box they
went without hindrance, led by some intangible
miracle of the air, straight on a single trail.
NOW we'll see them wind his scent fifty yards
away" said Williams, as we neared a patch of
forest. Close to this was a squad of convicts.
These we had sent through the woods an hour
before. We had made TRUSTEES, walking singly,
touch every bush and tree. Then the convict
we were trailing was run through, making a half
circle. with at least fifty yards radius. The
hounds entered the forest at a hustling
pace, q small red dog leading. Suddenly
the leader faltered for An instant. with nose
in air, then burst with fierce cry to the left. ran
%obliquely for fully fifty yards, with head up.
when he took up again the track of the convict.
and lowered his head to the ground. He had
simply made a short cut across the semi-circle,
having caught scent of the convict on the bushes
more than a hundred feet away. 1 am aware
that this is incredible to those who have never
seen it. / cannot explain whatit is that the fly
ing man, clad and shod AS a hundred others,
fed on the same food, chained daily to
the same chain, and sleeping in the
same hunks at nights imparts to a yielding twig
touched by his clothes so that it attracts a hound
fifty yards away. But it certainly does Just
that thing. The last test was now coming. We
were nearing a squad of convicts at work in a
cotton-fe!d. We had sent the fugitive convict
through this squad. We had then made them
Walk IN q d0UDle circle around him. They then
crossed and recrossed his tracks, many of them
wearing exactly such shoes as he wore. One
hour later the hounds struck this point. There
was not an ~instants pause. There was 10 devia-
ton, no let up in the pace. Through the laby-
rinth of tracks the hounds went, as swallows
through the air. %hurrying inexorably on the one
track they had chosen. The end was now near.
The convict having run his race was seen lean
ing a gainst a tree, and watching the hounds
plunging toward him. Won't he climb the
tree?" / asked. mo, the hounds are trained to
simply bag the convicts when they come up with
them. Otherwise the convicts would kill them"
By this time the hounds had sighted him. They
halted about twenty yards away from the tree
against which ne stood. and payed him furiously.
Pretty music they made, and not deeper than l
have heard often and again under a 'possum tree.
Mr.. Williams called them off and the convict
come forward. Dem puppies is doin' mighty
well cap'n," he said, grinning as he lazily swung
by, on his way to the stockake. These dogs are