Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-30
PENITENTIARY BLOODHOUNDs.
The Fierce Brutes Used to Track Escap
ing Convicts I'm Arkansas.
From the Little Rock (Ark.) Letter.

From the Little Rock lark - Letter
Crossing the yard, one comes in full view Of
Jim Stewart, colored trusty, who has charge
of the penitentiary pack. Here are five blood
hounds-the white bitch Nellie and four dark
colored dogs-that outrival any letters or any
walls in the matter of restraining convicts from
| running away. Out at the camp at Palarm the
other Sunday, convict dumped" and man
aged TO get a clear two hours start before his
| absence was noted. He swan the creek and,
by diligent running had covered nine miles or
more in the two hours. Two men followed him
the guard of the ''gang" to which he be-
longed-and the dog man and four dogs. He
was tracked, overtaken, and brought back.
Next day he was wearing a heavy iron ''spur ~
something 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 bowling of the hounds interrupted
the words, that he ''could take another run il
he wanted to-"
ing pound and a half of,bread and meat at a
meal, and turn him loose, and il 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 IMAM
trallers," as some folks might call them
And now the dogs are to go though their
usual daily run, for bloodhonnds. like pointers
and settlers. need to be constantly kept in prac-
tee. Az The Walls" and at each one Of the
camps the dogs are given daily run longer
or shorter, harder or easier. as circumstances
dictate. In the present instance trusty is
started out from in front Of the hospital build
ing. He darts off round the corn-crib goes
down along the garden fence, climbs the fence,
hl Itch H. 90. l.
sundry devious windings in the immense field
called garden. going round three sides and
coming back to the hay-barn. climbs I'D a post
and stands in position of safety. Mean
while Jim Stewart, 1.-THE young fellow wear
ing 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
for the other four, and as Stewart winds his
horn away go the dogs. Nellie in the lead
Nellie has seen the fugitive 90 down by the
corn-crib, and follows. apparently by sight
Almost before you know it the whole pack are
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 1t through the turnip patch, turns back
where 1t doubles. and keeps on till she comes
swinging down underneath the south wall, and
then noses closely along till she is on the home
trail. Within five minutes from the time that
the trusty has climbed into his perch of safety
Nellie has him freed and is barking 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 coming into the hay barn.
1t Is all interesting enough to look at. but the
way the hounds bay they give cry isn't any
way reassuring to the man who is being chased
rev OF the dogs given to biting thouph
some of them will bite anybody when they get
excited on the run; but it 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 second run the dogs follow on the trail
OF the trusty around the workshop, the cell
house, behind the wagon shop and across the
yard. The scent doesn't lie so well on the hard
macadam Of the yard. and is, moreover, con-
fused with that of other trails, but the dogs
Keep at 1t. and soon come up to where the
trusty is safely ensconced in the barn. The run
is declared success.