The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-12
rom the lNers YORK Times.

Joe Christy, who lives in a log cabin near
the Lewis county line on the borders of the
big Osceola woods. Joe, or "Oli Christy,n
as he is now Familiarity known, is about "a
years of age, and he has lived in or near
his present habitatation upward Of forty
years. No woman ever graced his cabin III
the woods, and during all this
time he has lived almost like
hermit. He does not seek the
society of his fellow-men, but rather
allows them to seek him. Many fishing
and hunting parties call at the cabin every
year, and both Christy and the sportsmen
profit by the acquaintance. The money
that he earns in this way. besides what he
gets by hunting, trapping, and cultlvating
a small patch of cleared land, makes Christy
a comfortable living. Outside of the hunt
ing and fishing season, it not unfrequently
happens that Christy lives for weeks at a
time without seeing a single human being.
When approached, however, he is found to
be com aniouable old fellow. He has an
inexhaustibe stock of hunting and fishing
stories with which he will entertain his
visitors for hours without getting weary.
Old Christy's chief occupation just now
is hunting the raccoon, an animal that is
abundant in his part of the county, as the
various cornfields testify. He has one Of
the best coon dogs in the state and when a
visitor dropped In on him the other day tie
front of his cabin was almost covered with
skins that had not long before covered coons
of all sizes. There were skins of baby coous
and coons that must have weighed at least
forty pounds, all nailed to the logs, flesh
side out, and drying in the sun. 1t was an
odd sight, and when the visitor commented
thereon, Old Christy fell to and talked coon
and politics for an hour in a way that was
both entertaining and interesting "There's
one kind Of game that don't get any scarcer
up here in these woods" said he
land that's coon. I've killed coons
hereabout every year for fifty
years, and there's more of them here now
an there was when | began. The fact is
folks don't hunt coons as much as they do
other game. Most of the city sports had
rather shoot partridges than to lay around
all night waiting for dog to get a coon up
a tree when that dog don't know any more
about coons than he knows about tigers in
Africa. There's only one dog in a thousand
that's good for anything for the business,
and when you get one he's prize in this
part of the country. Old Towze there never
fooled me once on a coon hunt, and he's just
as good after fox or bear Do you see
them five skins over there9 Well,
l got them all in one batch the
other night, and a mighty big
load they made for me to bring in hunt
the critters mostly for the fun of it, for
their skins amt worth much and always
get sick of coon meat about this time of
year. I've seen the time though that coohs
was coons even in these parts. You can't
remember when old Bill Harrison run for
President in 1910, but do. for that was the
first time | voted. That was bad year for
cOons, for everybody wanted skin to make
a cap, or nail on his door, or something of
that sort. 1t just seemed as though every
body went crazy over coon skins and log
cabins. Well, l got mixed up a little
bit in that lection myself and | beat
all the other young fellers by making
not only coon skin cap for myself but
a coon-slKin suit that covered my whole
body. My rig was the boss one and it
couldn't be beat by anybody in jefferson
county in those days l went down to
Watertown one time with that suit to a big
political meetin', and L never had such
time before or since. Everybody just went
wild over it. | just wonder that all the
coons wasn't cleaned. out of this country
that year, but they wasn't, and there hasn't
been any such call for them since. In that
campaign of 1910 YOU could get anything
you asked for coon skins got as high as
IS for a single pelt. Now you can't get
more than so cents.
'WelI, after that time when old Tippe-
canoe was elected l kinder dropped out of
politics, and | amt done much at it since.
1OD3 III tnb SuulIueT d ltIJOT WdS up mere
fishing, and told me old Bill Harrison's
grandson was running for President this
year. / didn't know but that would make
a market fer coon skins again, but l reckon
it's no 60 Folks don't go crazy on them
things like they used to. As | was sayin',
the teller that goes out to hunt coons with
a dog that don't know his business has
funny time. Some young bucks came up
here once with dog that they thought
lpaur auarUfbincr and St 1fad ont 10 Eil1 a1l
the coons there was in the town. Well,
knew by the looks of the animal that he
wasn't worth the powder that it would
take to blow him up, but let them alone.
The boys went out two or three miles from
here, where there was a clearing and a
cornfeld that coons had been coming into.
After roasting corn and telling stories until
about o'clock in the morning they put
that dog out in the cornfleld to stir up the
coons. He hadn't been there more than an
hour before he struck something and off he
went across the lot and into the woods.
The boys thought it was a coon sure, but |
didn't go cent on the dog. AS soon as
daylight came we went out in the woods,
where the dog was fairly making things
ring. When we came up to him he
was pruncing around a fallen tree
and making terrible fuss. If
anybody had told the owners of that
dog that there wasn't coon within a mile
Of him they would have been mad as hor-
nets They thought that hollow log was
full of coons. A few minutes work with
the ak made hole big enough for the dog
TO get in and drive out the game. In he
went after it, but he came out a darned
sight quicker than you can say Jack Robin
son, and the air thereabout at that minute
strongly indicated the presence of some
thing besides coons inside the log. The
boss coon dog had been chasing a skunk.
Well, a more disguised lot of hunters you
never saw than those young fellows. They
quit then and there and haven't seen any
Of them up here on a coon hunt since.
Then another time a couple of chaps
came up here from Syracuse who thought
they had dog that wouldn't smell any
thing but coon track They went out
and the dog struck fresh track and off he
went. Petty quick they heard him yelling
and k-yi-ing as though he was being killed
Them Syracuse fellows thought the dog had
struck whole drove of coons and that he
was engaged in deadly fight with them,
so they rushed TO the rescue. When they
got where the dog was he was still yelling
and whining for all he was worth, but he
wasn't fighting coons. The critter had at
tempted to take u chunk out OF hedge
hogs back and got his mouth so full OF
quills that he couldn't begin to get it shut.
Well, they got the dog back here to my
shanty, and it took them more than two
hours to pull out the quilts with pair OF
pincers. Now my dog Towze won't notice
hedgehog or q skunk, and he won't miss