Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-02-04
* Guard for Prisoners.
The Famous Niger Hounds Of
the South.
An Exhibition of Their Wonderful !
Noses at q Georgia Convict
Camp.

4hi w SihAtiNoS ahA iiO "oS
backed by Capt. James, that any con-
vict could be selected out of hundred
and sent off to circle through the
oods, passing through dozen squads
OF conyicts; that. an hour later, he
could put his hounds on the convict's
track, and they would thread him
through the squad of convicts, never be
shaken from his indiyidual track, and
finally bring him up.
l remarked that l could understand
how the hounds might carry convict 8
track through q crowd Of outsiders
from somo scent of the camp, but not
how they could separate one convict
from another.
There may be a hundred convicts,
he said, clothed precisely alike, and
wearing precisely the same shoes. They
may feed together on precisely the
same food, and sleep in hunks that
touch each other under precisely the
same coyer. And yet each one of them
has a scent that marks him just as dis
tinctly to my hounds from his fellows,
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 ground y,
Undoubtedly. And further. He
may stop in squad and change shoes
with a convict, and the dogs will still
follow him. On the hardest ground,
his scent will be plain to them, though
his shoe soles are half an 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 lie ram
DO you mean that you can take fifty
convlcts, all clad in convict suits, let
them rnn 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 twigs
as his clothes brushes them, win lead
the hounds through the maze p
Yes, fifty yards away, they will run it
parallel at full speed. To prove this
l will start convict. l will let others
follow him through the woods, ! will
let him make a semicircle in the woods
with fifty yards radius. When the
hounds come to this, instead of follow
ing the curve they will scent the oppo-
site side of the 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. He
was told to put off quickly, circle in the
woods, take a swift run over the fields,
roads, and through every squad of con-
victs he could find 10 his way. This he
did. The hounds were then loafing a.
bout the stockade yard, as listless a lot
CT dogs as ever were seen.
Il am tempted said Mr.. Williams,
'to let the convict ride a horse for a
mile or two after he has run awhile. I
have had dogs trail convict on horse
back four miles. and then take the
track where he jumped from the horse
BY this time the flying convict was
small speck on the broad fields, and in
a moment more had melted into the
horizon and was gone, as il, indeed, he
had found that liberty for which his
soul painted and had gone as the strong
winged birds 60 when they vanish in
the blue ether.
In an hour we mounted our horses.
The hounds were still loafing about in
the sunshine. Suddenly Mr.. Williams,
squaring himself in his saddle, blew
three quick, short blasts on tie cows
horn that hung at his side. As if by
magic. the hounds awaked and charged,
at his saddle-eager, baying, frantic,
sNigger = he said sententiously. Like
the wind they were off, nose to the
ground, tails up, circling like beagles.
Larger the circle grew, the hounds ST.
lent as spectres, eyes and nose eatin G
the earth for its secret. They 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, noting our
silence, will throw it off and search a.
gain. When they get the right track,
we will halloo and start after the hound
that has it. The others will join him,
and the race is opened
At last red hound, careering like
mad across the field, halts suddenly,
tumbles over himself, faces about, nos
es the ground eagerly, lifts his head.
sA-a-o.o-w-u = and is off like an arrow
from a bowstring. That's the track,
shouts William, and after the howling
hound we go. The other dogs join in
pell nell at first, then each hound true
to the track, in full Cry and at rat
tling gait. Away off to the left Capt.
James calls attention to moving
speck against the sky. That is the
convict circling back to camp he said.
On The dogs went, keen as the wind.