Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-12-31
ONE OF A VANISHING RACE.
He Hunts Over Wide Areas and Is q
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He Hunts Over Wide Areas and Is at
Home Wherever There Is Wilderness.
The professional hunters and trappers
who at one time comprised the whole of
the white inhabitant class in this sec
ton are becoming so few that real old
time solitary woodsman who plunges
into the forest and dlvests himself of
human companionship is becoming a
rare sight. Joe Thomas is one of the
best examples that remain of these men,
and study of his characteristics is in
teresting.
Thomas is man of about forty. He
is slightly below medium height and is
not heavily built. He appears like a full
blooded negro, although he says that his
mother was half breed Indian. He has
sparse, tightly curled whiskers and does
not look like a Nimrod and mighty
man among coons and deer. Thomas
follows as near the life of the red man
as any one can in these days, and has an
antipathy to human society, though he
is nothing of a misanthrope, and talks
well to any one who questions him.
In the summer time Thomas works at
whatever he can get to do about the
cities in this vicinity and through to
Ohio. When the squirrel season opens
he is in Ohio, and puts in the first few
weeks of the autumn shooting squirrel.
As the deer season opens, he emigrates
northward, and for the rest of the Win
ter lives the life of the solitary hunter,
stunning human habitations and sleep
ing in the woods in the most inclement
weather. His domestic outfit consists of
a tent, blankets and a. small stove, and
he declares that he is more contented in
the woods than he would be in town.
When the night is cold he lights his fire,
chains his dog up in the tent and sleeps.
While the deer run, Hopkins follows
them tirelessly, and when night over.
takes him on the trail he lies down in
the woods to sleep, confident that the
deer is as tired as he and will not move
during the night unless disturbed, and
in the morning will be so stiff that the
second days chase will be compara-
lively easy matter.
After the deer season is over Thomas
starts for the open, and traps skunks and
otter and all other fur bearing animals
for the rest of the winter. At all times
he is ready in case old Zip Coon comes
racking around, and his dog he alleges
to be one of the best coon dogs in the
country. The animal is liver and
white hound, slightly larger than a fox
hound, and with no more fat on him
than is required to grease his joints.
Thomas said that the dog got him more
than fifty dollars worth of coonskins in
one season, and he would not part with
him for three times that amount. Joe
tells story to illustrate the sagacity of
the dog.
He says that one winter the dog treed
a coon in big tree. Joe always carries
climbing irons, and he skinned up the
tree. He followed the coon out on
branch and shook him off, and he heard
him squeal as the dog nabbed him.
When Joe got to the bottom of the tree
there was no coon in sight and no dog.
He heard the dog running and called to
him; the dog came out of the bushes
moment and then ran back. Joe fol-
lowed and found that the dog was run
ming around a skunk, keeping it from
going into its hole. Mr.. Dog did not
want to interview the skunk closely, but
the skunk was not sure of that, and he
kept his eye on the dog, circling around,
and the dog was gradually getting him
away from his hole. Joe killed the
skunk, but he could find no trace of the
coon, and concluded that the dog had
lost it.
The next morning he reproved the dog.
saying: "You didn't do right about that
coon last night; you lost him. Now you
go get him." The dog looked kind of
ashamed and moved off. Joe followed
him. and they went back to the place
where the trouble occurred on the pre-
vious night. After nosing around
while the dog unburied the coon from
where he had buried it, having been
afraid to leave it while he went after the
skunk, SO he buried it, leaving the tail
sticking out of the snow so he could find
it again.
Some one asked Thomas if he was not
afraid that the bears would eat him some
night. He said that the only thing that
made him mad was that the bears kept
away from him and didn't give him
chance. Joe says that the houses are
getting altogether too thick, and when
he meets up with house he wants to
get as far away from it as he can and as
quick as he can.-Oil City Derrick.