The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-03-17
THE PANTHER SLAYER.
The Greatest Ono of All His Great
Exploits.

There is still an occasional panther
seen, but more frequently heard with
out being seen, prowling about the
lumber camps of the Susquehanna
basin, and making its presence appar-
ent by raids on sheep and even cattle
among the sparsely settled farm local
tiles of Sullivan and adjacent counties.
The advance of civilization has not
been so rapid among these dense pine
and hemlock wildernesses to have
alone caused the panther to abandon
its haunts in those forests, for there are
still inaccessible jungles and wild,
rocky retreats. so well loved by this
boldest and tiercest of the great cat
family, where it might hide itself with
almost, if not quite, as much security as
it did in earlier years; but civilization
was aided by a band of inveterate and
cunning woodsmen who passed their
lives almost solely in carrying on an
offensive warfare against the panther,
following it even to its remotcst and
most dangerous haunts, and engaging
it there fearlessly, and with tactics
which they had reduced to an exact
science. 1t was the perpetual and I'M
relenting crusade of this band of woods
men that gradually reduced the once
numerous race of panthers in these
woods to condition of almost abso-
Lutte extinction, so that to-day, with
conditions favorable not only to its ex-
istence, but to its increase, it is only at
rare intervals that the blood curdling
cry of this once monarch of the woods
is heard among its old haunts, and,
rarer still, that the dreaded possessor
of the voice is seen.
Captain Brown was probably the
most famous of the old-time panther
slayers. He was an early settler at the
Forks of the Loyalsock Creek, near
what is now the mountain village of
louisville, Sullivan County, where he
put up a cabin and spent his time in
hunting. He was the panther scourge
of wide region, and his cabin was the
first place that was visited by the set
tiers Whereabouts when panther had
bereft some one of them of a much
treasured sheep or cow, the visit being
to beg Captain Brown to come and rid
their particular locality of the ma
rauding beast. Among the hundreds
OF tales of daring and persistence mani
tested by the great pioneer hunter one
is recounted with especial pride by de-
scendants of his.
Among the first to seek the then I'M
known and unbrol1cn region about the
forks of the Loyalsock was a settler
named Samuel Rogers. One morning
Rogers appeared in great trepidation
at Captain Browns cabin, Just as that
hunter was rigging himself up for
days tramp among the panther hauDts.
Rogers said that big panther had
broken into his sheepfold the night be-
fore and had carried off his most highly
priced ram. Rogers was good panther
hunter himself, but he implored Brown
to accompany him in the chase. 1t was
one of Browns eccentricities that he
never hunted in company with any
body, and he refused to go with Rogers.
But he said:
Nov, you go home, Rogers, and
keep cool. won't go with you after
that big panther, but I'll go out myself
and kill it Tor you, and hope I'll have
chance to get it's mate. too"
That was satisfactory to Rogers, and
Captain Brown took his gun and went
at once to the woods on the flats at the
forks of the creek.
1t was late in the fall, and there was
light snow on the ground. At the
edge of the creek he struck the fresh
track of panther i'll the snow. From
the unusual size of the footprints and
drops of blood here and there along the
trail, the blood having come from some
animal the panther had secured and
was carrying away. Brown knew that
he had located the big sheep-stealer
which had beer in Settler Rogers fold.
1t is the habit of panthcrs, like all of
the cat family, to bury what is leftfrom
feast. to be exhumed and eaten on
some future occasion. Brown knew
that by following the trail, if he
did not overtake the panther itself, he
would come to the spot where it had
buried the remains of the sheep, and
that by waiting near that spot he would
be sure to get shot. not only at the
one panther, but more than likely at
its mate, which the former would fetch
along TO join in devouring the mutton.
The hunter followed the trail for long
distance, and finally, on the edge of a
dense laurel thckct. found where the
panther had buried the sheep. Before