Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28
HUNTING A CONVICT.
An Exciting Chase With Fox Hounds
After an Escaped Negro.
TRAILED AMONG SPONGY SWAMPs.
Up TO the Neck in Mud He Pats the PurSu-
ing Dogs on the Head.
ONLYAFEW SHORT HOURS OF FREEDOM

Under the much-ta lked-of Southern lease
system, where convicts are worked in the
open air, men will escare occasionally.
There is no help for it. Some desperate
fellow is always watching for an oppor-
tunity, and when il offers will risk the Win
chestcys Of the guards and dash for the
nearest swamp or woodland. Then the
sport begins.
One pleasant morning, rot long ago, a
convict "rrustv" from Scuffle came breath
less into the Welaune camp with the infor-
nation that such an event mad taken place,
Fays a New YORK Tribune man writing
from Monticello, Fla. He was after
Captain Powell, the chief of the
system, and in few hurried
sentences he told how one Joe"
johnson, negro under a years sentence,
had run an hour or so before. Captain Pow
eli received the news calmly. He had not
been in the business II years for nothing,
and it requires more than an ordinary escape
to upset his equanimity.
SADDLE mulei" he called to one of the
convicts working about the yard, and tax
ing down horn from its place beneath a
shed, blew 4 long, staccato blast. Instantly
another note responded, q melancholy,
ouivering bay; there was an eager scamper-
Ing OF feet. and four foxhounds came dash
Ing out Of an ineIosure near at hand.
BLooDHoUNDs TOO EXPENSIVE.
There is a popular impression that con-
victs NOWADAYS and slaves in old times were
chased with bloodhounds. but this is great
mistake 4 bloodhound is too costly and
too delicate for such work under the hot
Southern sun; ne is neither quick enough
nor keen enough of scent, and fox
and deer hounds are invariably employed.
They 90 not attack the human game
when brought 10 bay, another general error,
but are guides onIv for horsemen that al
wass follow cl Sc behind, and for that rea-
son the foxh tund is preferred, the deer
hound being too rapid far the horses and
too apt to get out of sight in the heat of the
chase.
OF the four hounds that responded to the
captains horn, two were full-grown old
trailers, and two mere puppies, but all of
them knew what was coming, and leaped
and bounded as eagerly as a well-trained
bird dog at the sight of a sportsman's gun.
Another animal, a huge white bulldog,
looked on wistully, and when the captain
jumped into the saddle quietly took his
place by the stirrup. He had no nose for a
trail and ne knew it, but he didn't want to
miss the fun.
TAXING TO THE TRAIL.
Five minutes hard gallop and Scuf1e was
reached, where the huntsmen of human
game were gathered in an impatient group
The captains laconic inquiries drew out
the fact that the convict had been sent
little distance Tor plow and had not re-
turned. When it became evident that he
had leyauted the Scutfle pack of iour
hounds esssycd to take the trail; but, as
sometimes occurs, for no asSignable reason,
they were unable to follow it and ran back,
yelping and confused. Captain Powell,
without waiting to debate the question, dug
the rowels in his mule, the rest of the party
following IL a group that soon became pro-
cession.
All were armed, all thrilled with the ex-
ciJement of the chase, Tor the slyest fox or
hare that ever doubled on track is paltry
game in comparison with man, neryed to
all the strategy OF desperation and strung 10
the highest tension by the hope of deliver
ance from bondage. There is q smack of
danger about it, too, that adds
zest to the adventure, for such game
as this Is capable of anything
Presently the spot was reached where the
flight began, and the hounds, that had run
steadily before the riders, shifted the air
AEl lNOASlg duA lueu, VIII scarcely q
moments hesitation, settled down to the
loug.swinging troE that told palmer than
words that they had struck the trail.
TERROR IN EVERY FOOTPRINT.
For The time being their services were
scarcely necessary, Tor the tracks of the
fugitive were plainly discernible in the soft
loam OF 4 field he crossed on the way to a
thIcklv wooded, swampy belt, little dis
Fg- hp II
the camp he was double shackled," as
the prison phrase goes. That is to saw, hfs
ankles were manacled together with a stout
iron chain, long enough .or q short stride.
bat in some way he had snapped link,
ard his footprints, almost two yards apart
indicated the speed at which he ran. There
was terror written in every one OF those
Intaglios.
When the swamp was reached the tracks |
disappeared; the quagmire swallowed them |
up, but it was poweriess to etface that mvs-
terioUs effiuvia by which a trained hound
tracks its prey, ard the animals kept right
on, ploTghing through the dark water
weeds, toundering through the mud, SWIM !
ming lagooGs and scrambling over fallen
tree trunks, but never once hesltatinC in ,
the pursuit. The riders followed as best
they could, sEirting the more solid edges of
the swamp wherever practicable, but now |
and thea forced into its recesses.
HIS RACE FOR LIFE.
Johnson ran well. lie had about su hour
Rud hairs start, it is true, but it is terribly
slow work for 4 man 20 force passage |
through one of these sub-&queous tropical |
iungles. His course trended to the south
east aud lay for many miles within the
limits OF the plantation. How far ahead he I
might De 1t was i'm possible to say, and the
puTsuers were stimulated by the possibility
that he might appear at any moment. as
mile after mile rolled of behind them.
Captain POwelPs steed must surely have
been blood relation of the illustrious mule
that Sheridan is said to have dashed to
Winchester upon (poets to the contrary NOT
withstanding), for he outran all the rest
and keptwell in the lead. But he was sill
a mule, and had some broncho habits: for at
intervals he gave a vicious stiff legged lean |
and "bucked" after the most approved
Wild West fashion. However, the caDtain
kept his seat, and, muddy and blown, the
party emerged at last in a fertile depression
known as "Thompson's Valley" There
the two puppies gave out Up to that time
they had faithfully kept the trail, but thew
lacked the bone and sinew for so sustained
an effort, and fairly dropped in their tracks.
painting with fatigue.
THE OLD HOUNDS STILL FRESH.
The two older hounds had not turned
hair, and the party kept straight on, for NOT
far beyond lay the dense fringes of a wild
norass called "Beasley's Swamp" through
which they foresaw that a long pursuit
must be well-nigh futile. The big BULLDOG
still ran by the Captains stirrup, his white
coat stained with slime aud his red tongue