The Colfax chronicle., 1888-12-15
INTERESTING STORIES.
Uncle JACOB Relates a Few Thrill
ing Incidents.
4 Green Dutchmsn's Coon Hunt-Trap.
ping . 5O7-Pound Bear-An Un-
pleasant Encounter With
. Cstamount.

Cstamount.
When the writer drove out to Uncl,
Jacob Griss' place on the Drinker turn
pike the other day to have another
talk with the white-whiskered octope
marian, the active and jovial old gentle
man was patching up some rail fenct
by the roadside. It is quiet countr,
place out there, and whenever any body
who likes to hear interesting nara
tives about life in the wildwoods comes
along. Uncle Jacob willingly drops
his work and accompanies his callers
to his residence near by, which was
once the famous old Buck Horn Tavern.
After they had been seated and a dish
OF fall pippins had been passed around,
Uncle Jacob leaned on his crooked
cane and said,
LET me see. Did l tell you, when you
were here before about the green Dutch
man who smoked the coon out of the
hollow tree? Mop Well, then, I'll tell
1t to you now. One winter we were cut
ting down some very large poplar trees
over the ridge yonder toward Tama-
rack Swamp. Many of the trees were
five and six feet in diameter, and it
took good deal of chopping and saw
Ing to get one of them to the mill.
Among the party Of choppers there
was a stout and tough young Dutch
man who hadn't been in the country
but few months, and he owned a lit
tie dog that he had fetched into the
neighborhood with him. The dog
tagged the woodchoppers wherever
they went, and remained out in the
woods from morn till night. The axe
that we let the young Dutchman work
with was two-bladed one, and, as it
was the first axe of that kind that he
had ever seen, he felt very proud of it
and took great care of it.
''On one of the coolest days of the
winter the Dutchman's little dog wan
dered away from the choppers and set
up continual yelping near the foot of
an immense poplar tree twenty or
thirty rods from where the men were
working. After the cur had howled
for half a day the young Dutchman
tramped over to the tree through the
deep snow to see if he could find out
what the dog was yelping at, and when
he got back he told us in the plainest
way he knew how that there was a
coon in the tree and that along toward
night he would smoke the coon out.
kill it, and give it to me. then went
near enough to the tree to see that it
leaned a good bit out of the perpendic-
ular and l came to the conclusion that
II the tree was hollow there was room
enough in it for a whole family of
coons. About twelve feet from the
ground there was a curve in the trunk.
and / could see that it would be an
easy thing for animals to nest in it.
The Dutchman's cur continued to yelp.
and / didn't bother him, but went back
to work without saying any thing.
"A little after sundown the Young
Dutchman shouldered his axe and said
he would then go and smoke the coon
out. l told the other workmen to fol-
low me, and we went to a spot within
good sight of the Dutchman and got
behind trees to see how he was going
operate on the coon. The cur kept
yeiping and hopping about as though
he was ready to tear the animal all TO
pieces. when it came out, and the
Dutcnman soon started little smoke
iire In the hole at the base of the tree.
ne put on some bark and leaves and
made smudge, and then he stood
opposite the hole with his axe up over
his head and waited for the coon to |
Jump out. expecting to split the coon's
head open at the first clip. The coon
didn't make its appearance as soon as |
the Dutchman had calculated that IL |
would and while he stood there, with
MS feet braced in the snow and his axe
neid aloft the fire worked up into n
blaze, hardly any smoke floating up the |
tree.
Then the Dutchman. whose littla
1og stood of and barked, put down his
Axe and began to pile on stuff to |
'mother the fire. He had hardly piled |
~ the first handful when out of the
lole plunged 250-pound bear. The
poke had rolled him, and he had got |
inged little on his way out, and he
rs - thoroughly mad over being dis