The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-03-30
FARMER KELLUM'S FOX TRAP,
And How 1t Worked ImpartialIy on Dogs
and, Italians Also.

About twenty years ago Randall Kel-
lum, of Kimbles, Pike county, Pa, pur-
chased a horse for which he paid 800, a
correspondent q He worked the
horse daily on his farm, until D day
last week the horse died. The neigh
borhood of Kimbles, and In fact all
through. that part of the country, has
been literally overrun with foxes this
season. ,As has been the. case in Sulli-
van county, across the Delaware River,
the farmers have lost hundreds of chick
ems and other poultry by the bold raids
of these usually tilnid animals. Farmer
Kellum hit upon a plan that he thought
might destroy a large number of the
thieving pests, and that was to put
strychnine in tho carcass of the old
horse and place the body in a spot
where foxes would be sure to flock to it.
The deadly drug ~ns accordingly placed
plentifully in tn Ash of the dead
horse, and the carcass was hauled to an
out-of-the-way spot in the woods, two
or three miles from Kimbles, and left
there.
The next morning Kellum went early
to the woods to see if his plan had
worked successfully. He found lying
scattered about in all directions, and
none of them far away from the poi
soned horse, thirty-nine dead foxes.
How many more managed to get to
their holes or hiding places was of
course unknown. Mr.. Kellum had the
foxes ,aien home, and the next morn
ing went to the woods again. There
were 40 foxes found, as could hardly
have been expected, as the horse during
the previous night had been monop-
olized by half of the dogs in the neigh
borhood, fourteen of which were found
dead at the scene of the feast. With
barely IN exception the dogs were ami
mails that had long been suspected of
habitual and wholesale killing of sheep
in the vicinity, so the nights work was
regarded as an excellent one.
The following morning Kellum visited
the remains of his old horse again, and
this time picked up 10 dead foxes. He
vas returning home loaded down with
fox pelts, when about q mile from Kim
bles, he heard means and cries of pain
issuing from the woods, some distance
off to his right from the road. Kellum
made his way to the spot from which
the sounds proceeded, and found two
Italian quarrymen rolling in the snow
and writhing in pain. Upon asking
Inem WnaC the matter was, n OF the
Italians told him that they had found a
frozen horse in the woods, and had cut
a piece of meat from it, which they had
roasted over a fire and eaten. They
were almost Immediately seized with
intense pains in the stomach. Kcllum
waited to hear no more. He knew at
once that the Italians had eaten q piece
of his poisoned horse. He started on a
run for the station to telegraph for a
doctor. Fortunately, DR.. Brace, of
~Lackawana, had been called. to Kimbles
that morning to attend a patient, and
Kellum met him as he was flying in for
aid for the poisoned Italians. Kellum
hastily told the doctor the situation and
the two hurried back. DR.. Brace ad-
ministered powerful antidotes to the
Italians, and got them to the nearest
house. He succeeded in counteracting
the poison, and in a few hours the Itai-
lans were able to go on their way. Kel-
1um lost no time in burrying his dead
horse.
The So foxes that fell victims to Kel-
lum's baited horse will net him $5S in
bounties. The pelts he can sell for 50
apiece-a total of $174 from a horse
dead that only cost him 500 alive and
had given him 20 years faithful service.