Huntsville gazette., 1885-05-09

pt the centipede. You mustn't fur
1T to meet the centipede- He'll make
ye laugh. The pec'ry' got memory
longer'n thrum h'yer to New. Orleans,
too, an the chances is that you'll meet
them fellers agin that ye see to-day.
Mind ye, now! Don't stawp yer in.
gine.'
"Sure as guns, when we went back
next day, there in the very same spot
was the remnant of the drove of pee
carries.
'Waitin' fur us. by gravyr said my
fireman.
$50 they were. AS we tore down
on 'em they braced up and met US face
to face. They sprang at the wheels,
grabbed at the side rods, and fought
every truck in the train as the cars
passed them. A dozen or more OF
them were killed. The peccaries didn't
follow us, but when we went back on
the next trip, there, at the Same spot,
was posted all that was left of the
drove, evidently waiting to revenge the
death of their companions. The drove
was reduced to twelve. The twelve
planted themselves square on the track,
facing US, and never moved an inch as
we dashed upon 'em and scattered 'em
right and left along the rails. Looking
back after the train had passed the
spot, we saw one solitary peccary left
alive out of the drove. l told the
native, at the end of the run, about the
persistent pluck of the peccaries and
about killing them all but one.
''I don't s'pose We'll see him again, ;
said I.
"'Oh, he'll be thar!' said the native.
'Ye kin bet bucket o liquor he'll be
thar! Pec'ries don't know setch a
thing as backin' out of fight. He'll
be thar
'.And he was there. We could see
him for a mile ahead of US, when we
went back next day, standing plumb in
the middle of the track, or, rather.
squatting on his launches, waiting fol-
us. 1t seemed a pity to run him down.
He rose to his feet as we drew near
him and rushed forward to meet US.
The engine struck him and hurled him
fifty feet out into the woods. We had
finished the drove.
II found out a good many things
about the peccary before left Texas.
There was time when nothing would
kill peccary but the poisoned arrows
of the Central American Indians, but
that was before the days of Winchester
rifles. A bullet from Winchester is
just searching enough to find pee
cary's vitals, but the range don't want
to be too long. When man goes out
hunting peccaries he doesn't trip
lightly through the forest, and, stealing
upon the unsuspecting game, bring it
down with his unerring rifle. No, not
when he hunts peccaries. If he did;
nineteen seconds after he fired his first
shot he would be apportioned out
among the drove in two-ounce lots,
buttons, boots and baggage counted in.
The daring peccary hunter shins up a
tall tree, near where the charming
creature will more than likely soon
come to feed on acorns or mast. The
peccary has but one virtue-he can't
climb a tree. Perched safely on a
limb, the brave huntsman waits for the
peccary's coming, and when the drove
comes trotting and grunting along be-
meath him, he sends bullet through a
peccary's heart. The wounded pee
cary lies down at once. He knows
just what's the matter. He turns his
glittering bead of an eye up to the
hunter, and dies without uttering q
sound One peccary killed out Of a
drove, the hunter must have ammuni-
ton enough to kill all the rest or pro-
visions enough to last him year, for
the survivors at once take positions
around the foot of the tree, and there
they sit on their launches. now and then
gnawing furiously at the trunk of the
tree, waiting for the hunter to come
down. If hate, in the fullest sense OF
the word, can be expressed by looks
and actions, then the peccary can look
and act it toward human beings.
":No, s-a-a-h!' said the native rail.
roader to me once. The pec'ry hain't
got no use f. fear. An as f bein'
tough, never heerd O. nawthin' no.
whar as tough as they be. A hip'ot
mus is only jis' rarnin' to be tough,
'longside of pec'ry. If I didn't know
noways else that pec'ries wasn't 'feerd
O. nawthin' an was tough, I'd know it
thrum what I see with my own eyes
once. see cycloon a tearin' long
over the perairy one day, an ightnin'
was jaggin' about in it like fireworks.
An roar? Great t'rantuly's ghost!
how it did roar! I was so 'feerd that I
jis' laid down an shuck. The cloud
was kim O. cattycornerin' way thrum
me, an want more'n a quarter of a
mile off, 1t was cuttin' right along the
grass, an oh! how that lightnin' did
jag! had to keep my eyes on it, an
what did see but big druv o. pee ries
tearin' right along to git in front of ii
an tackle it. Its roarin' had 'sturbed
'em, s'pect, an they jis' resht out to
git lick at it. Waal, now, it iia
swooped Mr.. Pec'ries up inter its
bowels bout as slick as anythin' We
ever see, an then fire begun to fly in
chunks out O. that black cloud-pieces
O. lightnin', foot long. some of 'em.
""That oycloon's grindin' sassiges
out O them pec'ries, sure, I says, but
they're more'n maxim the sparks fly
out O the mill, says 1.
'Seddintly the cycloon turned an
tore back towards whar I was layin', ,
'feerd o. my life. It passed by me SO