Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-12-18
A FIGHT TO THE DEATH.
WHAT OLD NICK SMITH SAW FROM
 HIS PERCH IN A TREE.

Tor Deer-Fifteen Porkers Laid Out stiT and Cold, bu. Their Side Won. &Nothing Left of Deer or Panther.
 Nick Smith, the old North Mountain hunter and trapper, who lives in Q cave of the mountain in its deepest fastnesses, came to Big Cherry Gap, N. O., a few days since, | and is still there. His life in the woods and mountains of the old 'North state" has been varied and adventurous enough to satisfy | half dozen men, but Smith still remains true to his natural born instincts, his father been noted hunter and trapper in his day. For the past few days, or ever since Smith has been here, have diligently piled him | with questions and listened to his stories 1 until have enough to fill an octave volume | All Of them are doubtless true, certainly l most of them interesting, One of them, the l story of fight between wild hogs and & l panther, will tell in his own language as near as possible:
 About ten year ago, hears as ken rekol- | lect, l was huntin' on top of North mountain about twenty miles from here l had killed | big buck an he'd jest finished skinnin him when heerd the squealin' uv drove of wild | hogs. You kin bet l just hung that buck up in tree quick as could, for them critters is 1 the pryenest things an the meanest ye ever saw. Why, if they get mad they'll tackle anything. Well, he'd jes' got my deer safe when heerd them cumming a-squealin' an | a-gruntin.
 NICK TOOK TO TREE.
 | 1T he'd to hunt a safe place myself, fur ther wuz no use a-shooting' one where there's, maybe, forty, If killed one I'd he'd to kill
 'ern all; they'd never leave long as one of lem l WuE alive. l throwed the gun strap over my shoulder am took to a good sized tree about | twenty yards from where l hung the deer. Them hogs put in an appearance just as got | onto a big limb, about fifteen feet above the ground. They wuz led by two big boars, l and wuz twenty-nine oy lem all told They smelt the blood an the deer, rooted up the | leaves and ground with their long noses an tore around generally until they found the tree where the deer wuz hung. Just about this time l heard something jumpin' from | trec to tree on the lower side of the rise, an | purity soon saw the long, slim body of the | biggest painter ever saw jump onto limb l uv tree about seven or eight yards from the | limb the deer hung on.
 Them hogs hadn't yit winded the painter, an they kept up such & racket squealin' and gruntin' thet they hedn't heerd him. The painter didn't see the hogs.until he struck the
 last tree, when he wuz almost over them. He
 jest laid himself out full length on the limb,
 and watched them, all the time slowly wavin'
 his tail back an forth an showin his teeth, | He knowed he he'd to git thet meet while it
 wuz in the tree or hev the fight uv his life i fur 1t Ii 1t got to the ground After bit the | painter seemed to make up his mind, fur he l got his feet under him an squatted. I tell | ye. stranger, thet wuz purity jump Thet painter jest sailed through the air an landed
 plump on the limb over the deer. When the
 painter struck the limb the hogs quit squeal-
 in an tearin' round and formed themselves l iY1o vii, tl,a holxr 0E $lo
 center above them. They begun to foam at
 the mouth an snap their tusks. What
 noise they made! They wuz the mad
 dest an awfelest lookin' animals
 ever saw. All this time the painter
 wuZ trying to haul the deer up to him with
 his paw, but every time he'd git the deer
 swung partly 'round the sinews with which
 he wuz fastened to the limb wud make it slip
 back. Purity soon the painter seemed to see
 the trouble, fur he grabbed the buck with
 one paw while he reached down and bit the
 deer loose, There's where the painter made
 the biggest mistake of his life, for he
 couldn't hold the deer when the fastenin's
 wuz cut, an in spite uv him it tore loose
 from his claws an fell right in the middle of
 the drove of hogs. They jumped on it, an
 tore it into pieces quiekern kin tell ye. The
 painter wuz so mad that he lost his judgment,
 or he wouldn't hev done such foolish thing
 as he did, fur he gave one snarl an was
 among them hogs in a second, knocking two
 of them over as he landed. Then there wuz
 a fight. The hogs quit the deer an went fur
 the painter. Now he wuz down an then up.
 THE HOGS WERE NOT IDLE.
 "Over went a hog, ripped wide open, here,
 while there another got wipe with that big
 paw which made him see stars. But the hogs
 wuzn't idle. By no means. They ripped an
 tore thet painter fore an aft. There wuz a
 dozen long cuts on his sides an legs an his
 body was covered with blood. Sich snarlin',
 screamin', squealin', rippin' an tearin'
 never did see. In less time than kin tell it
 eleven uv them hogs wuz laid out an two or
 three moro wu2 hurt, but the painter wuz
 purity near knocked out, too. He wuz layin on his back, an every time hog got in reach of his claws he wud give him rip which . wud knock thet hog out, at least fur while. One hog made lunge at the painters head an' got caught by the throat by the painter } but thet wuz his last act, for one uv the boarS
 drove his long tusks into tho painters belly . an literally ripped him wide open from one end to the other, an in less than three seconds thet painter wuz tore into pieces.
 ''The hogs took up the pieces, bones an all an crunched an ground them till nothin 2 could be seen of the animal big enough tc r make gun wad. Thet wuz battle sure ! There wuz about fifteen dead hogs and six or
 eight tore and gashed from snout to tail
 don't believe a single one escaped some in
 jury. But the livin' ones, whether wounded
 or not, jist kept tearin' round till they cleaned , up all that wuz left of the deer an painter. q he'd set on that limb am watched the fight until it wuz finished an never thought of my gun, an if I he'd don't believe wud hev used it; but now that it wuz over knew I'd hev to kill the rest of the hogs or stay or tho tree all night, so I commenced on them } an' killed the last one of them. After the first shot the living ones surrounded my tree ) and tried to get at me, an they stayed al ; night there till I keeled over the last one After he'd cleaned them out l started fol
 home, an for the first time in long while ,, got there without any meat. t."-Cor Cincin , natl Enquirer