Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-08-07
PENNsYLvANlA,s WlLD-TURkEY EAT.
Backwoods Festivity That the Pot
Hunter Is Fast Destroying.


Hunter Is Fast Destroying.
There are few localities in the eastern
states where the wild turkey continues
to make its haunts, although it was once
common game from the Schuylkill to
the Allegheny river and the tier of north
ern Pennsylvania counties. The wild
and desolate sides of the Blue mountains,
which hem in the southern portion of
Schuylkill county, still afford such feed
ing and breeding places as wild turkeys
covet, and the birds are found there in
numbers sufficient to make the hunting
of them profitable and enjoyable sport.
The region is sparsely populated, the in
habitants being rude and rugged wood
men, and their families, many of them
descendants of the old Pennsylvania
Dutch stock, and all honest and hospita-
BILE. Among them are scores of men
who have become famous in their locali-
ties as wild-turkey hunters, and who
make their homes and cabins in the
mountain wilds.
One of the rare pastimes of the winter
season in those backwoods neighborhoods
is to visit in parties the cabins of the
hunters and have turkey eat" None
OF the mountain sportsmen can ever be
found without fat and well-frozen wild
turkey hanging in his cellar, as the cave
excavated in the side hill, or the rude
stone Enclosure near the cabin, is called.
The best of cider, liberal supply of
"paan-hoss" and head cheese, and the
sweetest of rye bread and butter always
keep company with the turkey in the
cellar. "Paan-hoss" is strictly Pennsyl-
vania Dutch delicacy, and is made of the
rich juices which are left after boiling
the ingredients for head cheese, and
which are thickened to thick paste
with buckwheat flour. The paste is
pressed in forms until cold, and is served
in slices.
The cabins of these jolly mountaineers
are built of logs, the chinks being filed
with coarse mortar mixed from the soil,
and which become very hard when dry. A
huge stone chimney occupies one end of
the cabin on the outside. Banks of earth
and hemlock or pine boughs are heaped
about the outside, and sometimes ranks
of cordwood are piled up almost to the
caves, the better to keep out the cold,
which is intense in these elevsted re-
gions. There is only one room, and
description of these backwoods interiors
answers for all. The fireplace is the
inside of the huge stone chimney. Here
and there on the bare floor bear and deer
skins may be seen, with two or three
dogs doing on them in the light and
warmth of the blazing fire that illumin-
ates the whole room. The walls dark and
smoky, and guns and the traps of the
sportsman occupy pegs and shelves.
On the arrival of visitors to enjoy a
turkey eat" the host at once places a
turkey-which is generally in readiness
in spit over a fire of hickory logs in
the fireplace, and attends to it carefully
while his guests enjoy the cider that APP
pears before they are comfortably settled
in the room. The turkey ready for the
table, the hunter places it, crisp and sa-
worry, on large tin platter, and the guests
carve, each for himself, such bits as they
prefer. The tempting morsels are eaten
from tin plates, and sometimes from
large birch chips or bark fashioned into
convenient shapes.-New York Sun.