The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-10
A GREAT PANTHER HUNTER.
The Famous Jose Browns Varied
KSpeciences.

HARRISBURG, NOV. d read IN the
Times the other day about man seeing
three panther5 in the Shawangunk noun
tains. in Orange county, and was afraid to
follow them and run them down." said an
old Perry county hunter, land about two
hunters then starting out to make amends
for the mans lack of courage by fetching
in one or two OF the fierce animals them
selves. np undertaking they gave I'D after
following the trail a few hours. am not
surprised tbat they did. Panthers are
scarce, nowadays, and none of the new
tangled hunters know how to hunt them
ANYHOW. If some of the old-tine rifle
shooters OF Perry, or lycoming, or Sullivan,
OF Clinton county, in this state, had got on
track Of t1ese painters it would only have
been question of time when these nan
TIERS would have had to yield up their
skins. They might have travelled great
many miles and tried all kirds Of strata
gers to throw their pursuers eff, but tina
would have simply prolonged their sus-
pense They would have been as good as
dead as soon as any of those old-time pan
tber killers started in on their trail.
Take old jose Brown, for instance. He
was TIE most famous OF the great panther
hunters OF our region He's dead row, but
he left record that can't die He lived
wears ago way up in the forks Of the Loyal
sock, in what is now Sullivan county, five
miles or so on the other side of Lew is
LAKE. flo didn't do anything but hunt, as
he had DO family. He lived alone in cabin
in the woods. Only few enterprising set
tiers had sought that part of the country
vet, and to them the panther was a great
destroyer. The loss OF q sheep or a cow
YVES greet loss to these bsckwood farm
ers, ard Jose Brown was such a panther
scourga that he was looked upon by
the scattered settlers as a great
go La or.F -
lost mucb-treasured sheep or COW to some
proving panther, Browns cabin was the
first place that was visited the visit being
to beg him to come and rid their particular
locality of the marauding beast. Browns
adventures as panther hunter would make
a book that would go ahead of anything of
the kind ever printed. Hundreds of we'll
authenticated tales of his proves are known
to every household in that region, but the
favorite one is the account of his great
twenty-mile panther hunt through swamps
and tangled woods, and over high and rocky
ridges which only occupied six hours of his
time, and yet It's results were unprecedented
in the records of panther hupting.
Zone morning late in November, a neigh
Dor Of Browns, whose clearing was five
miles from the hunters cabin, appeared in
great excitement at Browns. He an
nounced that the night before a panther
had got among his sheep and carried off a
highly-prized ram. This settler was a good
panther hunter himself, and he was all
rugged up for giving this particular one
chase, but he implored Brown to go along
so that there might be no doubt OF the sue
cess of the hunt. Brown was just prepar-
ing to 90 out tor little recreation in the
woods himself 1t was one of his eccen-
tricitieS that he never hunted III company
with anybody. If he was in the woods
although it might be a particularly favor
its hunting ground of his, and he found
another hunter working the Same field, he
would leave that locality to the other and
seek his fun elsewhere So he refused to go
with his solicitous neghbor in search of the
sheep,stealing panther, but he turned the
mans disappointment to pleasure by telling
him to 60 back home and attend to his
farm, and that he would go out himself and
kill the panther. The man went home feel
ing sure that the panther's fate was sealed
anu old Jose took his gun and went his way,
probably feeling as sure in the matter as his
neighbor did.
"Therc was a light snow on the ground
that had fallen the night before. The
neighbor had told Brown that by the tracks
the panther had made in the snow it was
evidently a large one, and that the tracks
had led in the direction of the creek.
Brown went straight to the creek, and there
he struck the fresh track Of a panther in
the snow. The footprints being very large,
and drops of blood appearing along the
trail, as having fallen from a wound in
some animal the panther was carrying,
the hunter knew that he had located the
big sheep stealer that had despoi ed the
settler OF tie head of his flock. Brown
followed tbs trail for long distance,
and finally, N the edga of a dense laurel
thicket, found where the panther had buried
tGe sheep, d the remnants of the feast,
8 tor the manner of the cat family, and
something TIE hunter had expected and was
looking for, Is be had only then to hide near
the spo5 audwait, when he would be sare to
ges a shot not only at that particular
panther whel it returned to exhume the
carcass and ct again, but more than likely
at its mate. AS he was about to select his
hiding placebrown happened to glance I'D
among the ops of the tall trees bordering
the swamp nd discovered the panther, iys
huge lengJtstretched along limb near the
top OF one Ii the trees and its eyes steadily
Hxed on tb hunter below. Brown raised
his rife fire, but the agile animal
sprang to another tree top, and so swift
were its Invements that it ESCAPED from
the sight offs pursuer, who could only fol- |
low the lineDf the great beasts retreat by
the swayinaof the trees as the panther
Ieaped froi one top to another The
course the inther took was toward Doub-
ling run, ad the hunter made his way as
=
thicket, an when he reached the run he
discoveredhe tracks of the panther in the
snow, begmlng a. the foot Of big hem
lock- Thtrail now led in the direction of
Lewis laI body of water high among
the noun ins FIVE miles distant.
''Browtid not hesitate a moment about
followlnhe panther, for he was tireess,
aud he ner gave up chase after he had |
started Jpn one. The trail led through a |
dense fcst, and on reaching the lake |
turned al followed the southern shore two |
miles faher. There Brown discovered |
the objedof his pursuit drinking from the |
lake. Bwn sent bullet into the panther,
but it d not diable the animal, and the |
panthertrang into the laurels and again
disappesd, leaving the echoes of its yells
reverbeting about the rocky shores of the
lake. Tlcourse of the panther lay toward
the outtof the lake, and the hunter fol-
lowed through the thick laurels. When
he car to the outlet he discovered
his ge half buried in the soft
mud the edge of the water
IL W, treating the wound it had
receix as is the instinct of all wild ami
mails PTS kind. Brown did not wait for
the pther to reap the benefit of the heal
ing n, but sent another bullet after his
frstkgain the tenacious beast sprang
intob thicket. The old panther hunters
quidye saw that his last shot had been an
effete one. The trail was now we'll
maf with blood. From the direction