Omaha daily bee., 1889-05-12
BLOODHOUND WARDENS.
How the Wonderful Animals are
Kept in Practice.

Kept in Practice.
Crossing the yard one comes in full
view of Jim Stewart, Il colOred trusty,
who has charge of the penitentiary
pack, says the Little Rock Gazette.
Here are five bloodhounds-the white
bitch Nellie and four dark-colored dogs
that outrival any fetters or any walls
in the matter OF restraining convicts
from running away. Out at the camp
at Palarm the other Sunday Il convict
jumped and managed to get clear two
hours start before his absence was
noted. He swan the creek, and, bv
diligent running, had covered nine
miles or more in the two hours. Two
men followed him-the guard of the
gang to which he belonged and the dog
man ana four dogs. He was tracked,
Overtakeu and brought back. Next day
he was wearing heavy iron spur, some
thing that will prevent any display of
agility as long as it is worn. But with
the spur on the convict could not chop
wood. The spur was removed, and the
convict told, while the. howling of the
hounds interrupted the words, that he
could take another run if he wanted
to-" You let man swing an axe every
day, eating pound and half of bread
and meat at Il meal. and turn him loose,
and 1T takes pretty good horse to keep
up with him. With an hours start he
will be gone eight or nine miles before
you can catch him. The man who said
that was fully alive to the value of his
dogs, his bloodhounds, or man trailers,
as some folks might call them. And
now the dogs are to go through their
usual daily run, for bloodhounds, like
pointers and settlers, need to be con-
stantly kept in practice. At The Walls
and at each one of the camps the dogs
are given daily run, longer or shorter,
harder or easier, as circumstances die
tate. In the present instance a trusty
is started out from in front Of the hos
pital building. He darts off around
the corncrib, goes down along the gar
den fence, climbs the fence, jumps the
ditcn on the other side and makes sun
dry devious windings in the immense
field called garden, going round three
sides and coming back to the haybarn,
climbs up post and stands in posi-
tion of safety. Meanwhile jim Stewart,
a 1.-THE young fellow, wearing IL slouched
hat, whose band is Enthusiastically adorned
with metal buttons, is holding four dogs
in leash with one hand and keeping the
bitch, Nellie, back with the other. At
the proper moment Nellie is loosed and
the leash slipped from the other four,
and as Stewart winds his horn away go
VIC ooSo, ANOiiiO ~ p'iN bSspu' ANOiiiO hsto
seen the fugitive go down by the corn
crib, and follows apparently by
sight. Almost before you know
it the whole pack is punched at
the fence, and in an instant Nellie is
up and over plank and tearing down
the garden. Her nose is first down,
then up, and never held particularly
close to the ground. A few feet from
the fence she strikes the scent, follows
it through the turnip patch, turns back
where it doubles, and keeps on till she
comes swinging down underneath the
south wal, and then noses closely along
five minutes from the time that the
trusty had climbed into his perch of
safety Nellie has him treed and is bark
ing at him with all her might. The
other dogs got little confused in the
turnip patch, but rallied admirably,
going back on the back track till the
live trail was struck, and soon COM
ing into the haybarn. 1t is all interest
ing enough to look at, but the way the
hounds bay as they give cry isn't very
reassuring to the man who is being
chased. Few of the dogs are given to
biting, though some of them will bite
anybody when they get excited on the
run; but il isn't the dogs teeth that the
fugitive convict breads; it is the nose
that can follow man through almost
any tangle of underbrush or wood. For
a second run the dogs follow on the
trail Of the trusty around the work.
shop, the cell-house, behind the wagon
shop and across the yard. The scent
doesn't lie SO we'll on the hard macadam
of the yard, and is, moreover, confused
with that of the other trails; but the
dogs keep at it and soon come up to
where the trusty in safely ensconced in
the barn.