Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-01-21
SHARPER THAN A COON.
Tho Dogs Used by the Early Set
tiers Of this Country.
CANNES Which Enjoyed a still-Hunt by
Night Trained Coon Hunters Nearly
Extinct

Extinct.
Among those species of animals
which may be said to have become ex-
tinct is the coon dog Of our fathers.
He was of no particular strain of blood,
but he united the keen scent of the deer
hound with the intelligence of the shep-
herd dog, and the tenacity of the bull
dog with the stealth of the panther.
With less accomplishments than these,
writes Honesdale, Pa, correspondent
to The Neto York Times, he might have
been good on a fox or deer trail; the
lowing herd would probably have been
safe in his keeping; he might have been
able to hold his own in fight, or have
stood an excellent chance of succeeding
as a sheep stealer--but he couldn't have
been coon-dog. For your coon is a
cute and tricky customer, and crammed
with patience. Moreover, he leaves be-
hind him the coolest, most scentless
trail Of all animals that run. He leads
you through tangled swamps and deep,
stony hollows. He crosses and re-
crosses swift-running streams. He
frisks along the tops of rough stone
walls as silent and swift as a shadow.
He stops within dozen feet of some
convenient wall, clears the intervening
space at q bound, strikes the tree, and
glides up to the longest limb, runs to its
extremity, and leaps dozen feet beyond
1t to the ground again, breaking his
trail abruptly on one side and begin
ming it rs confusingly abrupt on the
other. He invents tactics for emergen-
cics, and brings to every consideration
of his welfare and that of his family a
large and uniformly level head. He
plays his cards well, and the dog that
would beat him must needs hold both
bowers and the ace, with strong cards
to back them. These the coon dog of
our fathers always had.
There were, as l remember, twenty
five years ago, the still-hunting coon
dog and the coon dog that let you know
at every step that he was getting there.
There was mixed up with the methods
of the still hunter an element of greater
certainty that you would get your coon,
than there was with the more melodious
system OF the dog that mouthed his pres
encc in the shadowy chase; but the style
of the latter put moro Jingle in your
blood and buoyed you up with swocter
expectancy. There was something
weird and uncanny in following the still
dog in all the windings and turnings Of
the gloomy woods at night. He crcpt
among tangled brush and deep ravines
climbed about knobs, and worked his
serpentine way down into deep holows
tuning, doubling, shifting, crossing
and recrond ,th"-aSack. like the laby-
rinthian tracing of q ships caprieious
course-silent as the night around him,
stealthy as a twilight shadow. His very
silence brought him to the prize. As
the trail of the unsuspecting coon be.
grew still more cautious, until, the game
in sight, he rushed upon it like al
avalanche, and the pent-up music of hi
soul went forth i'll one fearful howl o
triumph, and the surprised and fright
ened coon knew that his nights wer,
numbered.
But it was different with the dog tina
gave tongue as he hunted. He mad
music in the night-not the silvcry trebl
of the foXhound, floating down from tn
hills on the frosty air, and drawn out il
sweet cadenza by every willing echo, no
yet the mellow bass of the deerhound
swelling over the ridges, clear and far
sounding as bugle note, but pleasant
though staccato, song of his own, hal
bark, half bay--a cheerful mingling c
melody with business.
The baying coon dog always has
better nose than his noiseless brother
and he needed to have. The coon neve
knew when the silent dog was on hi
track, and consequently did not brin
to his protection the many wiles an
stratagems that he at once resorted t
when the cry of the other dog rang GU
on the trail. 1t was then that h
Unanswered to throw false scents, an
the brock and the oramble, the hill an
the hollow, were ali impressed in hi
service in his race for life; and it wa
then that the baying coon dog of GU
fathers came out strong Step by ste
he unraveled the tangled and well-hic
iden scent, constantly sounding his vii
challenge to the coon TO do his bes
until the hunted animals repertory
wiles was exhausted and, accepting til
Inevitable, he climed tree, When I'll
dog found he had brought the coon I
this his musical bay changed to louC
quick bark, the signal to the huntt
following on behind that the coon W.
freed.
But with the war, coon-hunting wei
out of fashion as a pastime, and Il
race of trained coon dogs gradually b
came extinct. There are coon dogs ar
coon hunters yet, but they are not Il
coon dogs of our fathers, and the hun
ers are gengerally shiftless, hand-t
mouth members Of the community, wi
are even ashamed to have it known tn
they go a-cooning! Yet twenty-fi'
years ago the colonel aud the SOUR
the dominic and the deacon were nigf
ly founders of this willy game, and vi
each with the other in being known
the best coon hunter in their respect
bailiwicks. Once in those rare days
new preacher was settled over a bac
woods district in Pike county. He "
= not wise in the ways of the woo'
Early in his first autumn on the char
he began the usual protracted meet
season. BY and by he noticed that
moonlight and starlight nights his ct
gregahon was made up of won
only. Finally he asked the reason
this. A sister rose and said:
"It's cause the coonipg's bctter'n
in the dark o. the moon, dominic. Sc
ez the moon darks the men'll jine v