Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-10-18
INTERESTING STORIES.
Uncle Jacob Relates a Few Thrill
ing Incidents.
a Green Dutchman's Coon Hunt-Trap-
ping a 5O7-Pound Bear-An I'm
pleasant Encounter With
Catamount.


When the writer drove out to Uncle
Jacob Griss' place on the Drinker turn
pike the other day to have another
talk with the white-whiskered octoge-
marian, the active and jovial old gentle
man was patching up some rail fence
by the roadside. 1t is a quiet country
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 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 greenDutch-
man who smoked the coon out of the
hollow tree? No? Well, then, III tell
it to you now. One winter We were cut
ting down some very large poplar trees
over the ridge yOnder toward lama
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 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 Datchman'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 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 good bit out of the perpendic-
ular and | came to the conclusion that
If the tree was hollow there was room
enough in it for whole family of
ooons. About twelve feet from the
ground there was curve in the trunk,
and | could see that it would be an
easy thing for animals to nest in il.
The Dutchman's cur continued to yelp,
and | didn't bother him, but went back
to work without saying any thing.
"a little after shutdown the young
Dutchman shOuldered his axe and said |
he would then go and smoke the coon |
out. told the other workmen to fol- |
low me, and We went to a spot within |
good sight of the Dutchman and cot |
behind trees to see how he was going |
operate on the coon. The cur kept
Telping and hopping about as though
ne was ready to tear the animal all to
pieces when it came out, and the
Dutchman soon started a little smoke
ire In the hole at the base OF the tree.
He put on some bark and leaves and
made a smudge, and then he stood |
opposite the hole with his axe I'D over
lis head and waited for the coon to
Jump out, expecting to split the coon's
head open at the first clip. The coon
iidn't make its appearance as soon as
he Dutchman had calculated that il
would, and while he stood there. with
lis feet braced in the snow and his axe
leld aloft, the fire worked up into a
blaze, hardly any smoke floating up the
rec
'Then the Dutchman. whose little
log stood off and barked, put down his
IKE and began to pile on stuff to
mother the fire. He had hardly piled
N the first handful when out of the i
lole plunged 250-pound bear. The
mol1e had rolled him, and he had got
iuged little on his way out, and he
7as so thoroughly mad over being dis
urbed that he pitched at the Dutch
nan and partly knocked him down. II
When the Dutchman saw whats an enor-
nous coon he had smoked out he ,
tarted to run, and the way he yelled ,
Or help, with the bear almost on his j
leels, was comical enough to make a ,
ackass laugh. He roared and beloved / !
good deal louder than the mad bear ,
i'd, and his little dog put his tail be- {
ween his legs and got out of sight in :
10 time. One of my men rushed down ,
nd split the bears head open before ,
4e mad done the Dutchman any injury, II