Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-02-14
FIGHT TO THE DEATH.
a Panther Vanished and Devoured
bX Wild Hogs,

and trapper, who lives in cave of the
mountain in its deepest fastness, came
here few days since, and is still here.
/ have diligently piled him with ques-
tiOns and listened TO his stories until
have enough to fill an octave volume.
One of them, the story OF fight be-
tween wild hogs and panther, l will
tell in his own language Us near as pos
sible:
About ten years ago, nears i kin
rekollect, was huntin' on top ofNorth
Mountain, about twenty miles from
here. had killed big buck an had
jest finished skinnin' him when | heard
the squelin' NV "a drove of wild hogs.
You kin bet just hung that buck up in
tree quick as could, fur them crit
ters is the pryenest things an the
meanest We ever saw. Why, if they get
mad they'll tackle anything. Well, |
he'd jes' got my deer safe when | heerd
them cummin'. a-squealin' an a-grunt-
in. | he'd to hunt safe place myself,
fur there wuz no use a-shootin' one
where there's maybe forty. If killed
one I'd had to kali 'em all; they'd never
leave long Us one of 'em wuz alive. |
throwed the gun strap over my shoulder
an took to a goOd-sized tree about
Swenty yards from where l hung the
deer.
Them hogs put in an appearance
just as i got into a big limb about
fifteen feet above the ground. They
wuz led by two big bOars. and wuz
twenty-nine Nv 'em 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 / heard
something jumpin' from tree to tree on
the lower side of the rize, an purity
soon | saw the long, slim body of the
biggest painter ] ever saw Jump onto a
limb NV a tree about seven or eight
yards from the limb the deer wuz hung
on. Them hogs hadn't yet winded the
painter, an they kept up SIGH a racket
squeaiin' an gruntin' thet they hadn't
aeerd him. The painter didn't see the
Gogs until he struck the last tree, when
he wuz almost over them. He jest laid
himself out full length on the limb an
watched them, all the time slowly
wavin his tail back an forth an show
in his teeth. He know'd he had TO git
thet meat while it wuz in the tree or
hev the fight NV his life fur it if it got
to the ground.
a" After bit the painter seemed TO
make up his mird, fur he got his feet
under him an squatted. | tell We,
stranger, that wuz Il 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 squealin' and tcarin' round
and formed themselves in ring with
the body NV the deer in the center
above them. They began 10 foam at
the mouth an snap their tusks. What
a noise they made! They was the mad
dcst an awfelest lookin' animals | ever
saw. All this time the painter wuz
tryin to haul the deer up to him wit h
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 ii 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 lose. There's where the painter
made the biggest mistake of his life, 1
for he couldn't hold the deer when the
fastenin's was cut and in spite NV him it
tore loose from his claws an fell right
In the middle of the drove Of hogs.
They Jumped on it aud tore it into
pieces quickern' l kin tell ye.
1.-The painter was so mad that he
iost his judgment, or he wouldn't hev
done SIGH foolish thing as he did, for
he gave one snarl an wuz among them
hogs in second. knocking two NV them
over as he landed. Then there wuz n
light. The hogs quit the deer an went
fur the painter. Now he wuz down an
then up. Over went a hog ripped wide
open, here, while there another got u
wipe with that big paw which made
him see stars. But the hogs want
idle, by no means. They ripped and
tore tibet painter fore an aft. There
wuz dozen long cuts on his sides an
legs, an his body wuz covered with
blood. SIGH snarling. screamin', squeal-
in, rippin' an tearin' | never did see.
In less than l kin tell il, eleven Nv
them hogs wuz laid out an two or three
more wuz hurt; but the painter wuz
purity near knocked, too. He wuz lay
in on his back, an every time hog
pOJ IN rcdCn Ol MS CldWo nc Wuu give
him rip which wud knock tibet hog
out, at least for awhile. One hog
made lunge at the painters head and
got caught by the throat by the painter,
but thet wuz his last act, fur one NV
the boars drove his long tuslls into the
painters belly an literally ripped him
wide open from one end 10 the other,
an in less than three seconds that
painter wuz tore into pieces. The
hogs took up the pieces, bones an all,
an crushed an ground TIN EN- till moth
in could be seen of the animal big
enough to make a gun-wa1. Thet wuz
battle, sure. There wuz about fifteen
dead hogs and six or eight tore an
gashed from snout to tail. | don't be-
lieve single one escaped some injury.
But the Twin Cnes, whether wounded
or not. jis5 kept tearin' round till they
cleaned up what wuz left OF the deer
an painter.
al he'd set my gun on that limb an
watched the fight until IL wuz finished
an never thought of my gun, an IL |
bod I don't holiaun I .uttH bau ,tcnd IL.