, 1889-09-19
SOME sToKy-TELLING.
a Match Between Bill Arp and
southern Friend.
From the Atlanta Constitutional

seen hard service in his youth while
wandering in the far West among the
indians. He was our guest for awhile
before We moved TO town, and knowing
how reticent he was about his youthful
adventures, Nabor Freeman and ! de-
termined to draw him ont one night,
and as we sat smoking on the great
veranda | told about Killing the big
crane with my long English gun that !
had had for forty years, and how !
measured the range and it was exactly
1856 wards. Good shot" said Captain
Dick. Then Nabor Freeman told about
a conchwhip that come out of rocknilo
for half an hour, and they finally killed
him and stretched him out by u fence
rail and lie was three feet longer than
the rail "Long snake" said Captain
Dick. Then | told about going with
Cicero Strong to rob n bears den
ON Snwnec mountain, and how We
got her cubs while she was away from
town, and how she overlook us in the
suburbs and killed two of our dogs and
wc had to drop one of the cubs to save
the other and she came back again that
night and we killed her in the back yard
and Cicero raised the cub as a pct and
sold him to u show company for $40.
Good trade said Captain Dick. Then
l
that was killed at Rowland Springs that
had seventy-two rattles and live buttons
and his skin held two bushels of wheat
bran and his iangs were three inches
long. Long fangs," said Captain Dick.
Then told my famous wolf story about
how Judge Trippe was holding court at
LAFAYETTE in 1850 and Joe Waiklaw and
Newt Garmeny and lot of their nabors
lad run "a she wolf for two days and
nights with forty hounds and finally
| treed her under u milldam close to town
and the Judge adjourned the court to
take part In the frolic, for tie wolf was
the terror of the nei&hborh ood and had
lived on calves and limbs and young
niggers for several years and as how the
dogs couldn't be persuaded to 60 under
the dam after her and finally Joe Ward
law shucked his clothes and took II
hatchet in his hand and butchcr-kniie
between his teeth, and like old Israel
| Putnam, wen; behind the waterfall
alone and killed her in hand-to:hand
fight and dragged her out, and she
measured six feet from the end OF her
nose To the end of her tail.
smart wolf said Captain Dick. We
stopped awhile to rcst-thc nabor and ].
| Captain Dick looked round at the child.
rem with q sympathetic glance, ana
Knocked the ashes out OF his pipe.
"Shooting thut crane" said he, reminds
me of some good sport had on the
South Platte river before that country
was explored. We we're camped in Il
beautiful valley right on the border of u
| lake that was about five miles long and
half Us wide When the wild geese be-
gan to come they always came in u "
| shaped column witR'a'b big old gander in
/ the lead, and for awhile they would cir
Gle round and round to reconnoiter but
soon would become satisfied that there
/ "A, thnn fine lpa, lar
would dip his course, and one by one
the rest would incline downwards, but
/ always keeping the lines perfectly
straight. had long bored rifle that
! was made to order In London, and my
/ sport was TO get the old gandcr in line
with one or tue other of the rows OF
geese behind him and put ball through
| the water When the other half OF the
/ flock would reform and make Il second
| V, and sail round awhile and see
\ ing their companions down OF the
| lake would begin 10 dip down
again, and | would catch them in line
| again and fire and drop another half in
| the water. | would keep ON that way
until | got the last goose of Al flock. But
we soon got tired Of that, for it was just
IL waste OF powder and ball. There was
another lake about five miles away, and
/ IL was Kind of intermittent gcyser
! About ten days in a month there was Il
/ slight commotion in the water ana soon
it began to warm up and III twenty-iour
hours got hot, not boiling hot, but nearly
so, hot enough to scald goose and
| loosen his feathers so that he could not
| iiy. | used To get awful sorry for the
poor things when | saw them by the
| hundreds settle down in the dcecitiul
waters and give shrill scream and try
to rise and would get up little and
drop back and finally give up the ghost
and float of with the current down into
the Platte. One night ii struck me that
this was an awful waste of goose lives,
that knew would be worth two dollars
case in st. Louis, and | conceived the
| idea of making some money out of II.
The liver of goose boilod alive would
make Just as good pate Gle fol gras' as IL
roasted alive and so ! wrote to friend at
st. Louis about the chance OF specula-
tion. | sent the letter by Wells Il Far
go's overland pony express and III course
of time got un answer of my friend say
! ing that he had sent mo IA train of ten
| wagons loaded with tin plate aud solder
and two timers with all the necessary
apparatus. The wagons came along in
the rear of an emigrant train that pro-
tected them from the Indians, and, after
two months trip, reached us on the
lake. The wild goose season was then
at its best, and we began work right
away There were ten of us besides the
| teamstcrs and timers. We had two lit
| tie boats that we made of birch bark, In
dian fashion, and II kept them busy
pulling the scaldcd geese to shore, Just
as iast as they came they were cut open
with ono sweep OF tho knife, and the dis
tended liycrs taken out and put into the
| cans and the top soldered on. In three
weeks time we had ~, 900 cans OF as fine
''pate de fol gras' as over was made in
| France, and VIC reloaded tho wagons
and sent them back to St Louis
and sold out for II net profit of
$4,000. But we didn't care for the
moncy-inoney was not of such coIise-
quence to us then. We wanted advcn-
turc--srort that was mixed with peril.
so far as money was concerned, we
found a better thing three years after
wards while hunting in Florida, near
Indian river inlet, about the twenty
eighth parallel. One day we stumbled
on tcrrapin ranch about twenty miles
| from shore. II was narrow. loalny
ridge. and was covered with n Kind OF
wild cactus that tcrrapins are very fond
of. There were thousands OF them
there, and some OF the largest ever
saw. Terrapins were then worth $40 q
TO work to get them there. There was u
| sloop anchored at the inlet, getting up n
cargo OF cocoan,ts. An old Spaniartl,
who lived near by, told us that tcrrapins
were fond OF music, and that he could
call up n hundred in half an hour
by ringing little silver bell that he had