Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-04-09
Old Times.

L
| Ed. RegiSter-
| In your last number, | saw an article
headed, "A Wild Boar Hunt in South
east MissOuri.'' As soon as | read the
| heading, it went ali over me like an elec-
trio shock. How eagerly | read every
word, and how it warmed up my whole
| body, and set the blood rushing all
| through me. | could feel it to my fin
| gers ends, and how many of those old
fellows | have met in the woods. And OF
| all wild animals a wild boar is to be dread
ed and avoided There is no safety in
their company. Talk about panthers,
bears, wolves: all put together they
have not got as much of the "Old Harry"
and all the meanness, as much deadly
fight in them. as one old boar. They will
fight anything that can walk, or run, or
fly. or swim, it don't matter who or what
it is. If it gets in his way, it is fight to
the death.
In the early days of this country set
element every man of a family, or house
hold, would own lot of hogs that lived
il the woods, Sometimes in large herds.
In every herd there would be one old
leader or master. A monster in size,
with great tusks so long you could lay a
stick on the points above his nose and
not touch his nose. | have had some
pretty bad scares to come suddenly on
one of those old fellows in his lair The
sooner you get out of his way, or the
quicker you shoot, the better. When
one of those old fellows gives a"waugh!'
and starts after you, there is no time to
stop and light your pipe.
lIemember | was out hunting, just up
the creek above the Arcadia College;
''Old Tige' had followed me without nv
consent. The first | knew he had fol-
lowed me, he ran into a lot of wild hogs.
and, as they charged on him, and was
about to tear him to pieces, the old whelp
came running to where | was standing,
with one of the biggest old rusty boars |
had ever seen running after HIM. AS
luck would have it | was standing but a
few feet from a large porphyry boulder,
higher than my head. l tell you it did
not take me more than a month of Sun
days to get on the highest part of that
rock. ] hadn't more than made it than
the old dog was up with me and all the
old boars in the herd were trying to get
up, too, | was so mad at ''Old Tige, - |
kicked him off the rock right among the
hogs, and the way he streaked it for
home and every hog after MIN. As soon
as meeting had broken up, left in the OPP
posite direction. How far they went to-
gether [ don't know, but whtn n l got
home after my hunt, l found "Old Tioe'
with several long scratches in his hide,
and with a look of reproach on his coun-
tenance. as much as to say that was not
the way you should treat dog. / said
TO him "neXt time you had better stay at
home; when / want you | will call you.'
That was ohe the greatest objections |
had to hunting with dog.
The first fight. the one that gave me
the greatest satisfaction. was between
two real old pioneers. | don't know
what the fuss was about, but | was out
in the mountains hnnting, miles from any
house. | heard II noise different from
anything | had ever heard. | wondered
what under the sun that was making
such noise across the ridge. Hunter fash
ion, | was bound to know, so | made my
way along towards the noise with my eyes
and ears on the alert. After going about a
,fa 1 frli of
large animals, just going round and
round. rearing up and tumbling over
each other, They were so mixed up
could not make out what they were for
quite n while. At first | thought from
the color they We're panthers, but they
made too much noise for that. | could
hear their long tusks clang, clang to-
gether. | slid up little nearer and
little until got good look at them and
found it was two of the oldest, toughest
boar. I had ever seen. As they didn't
know | was there | thought as it was a
free fight, there was no harm done if |
didn't buy ticket to the circus. So
Just crawled upon big rock near by,
and took in the scene. How long that
fight would have lasted don't know.
but, by some good cnance, one of them
got chance to put one of his tusks in the
under side of the other. That fetched
such a howl from him, and away he
ran with the victor after him. That was
the last | saw OF them as | did not care to
follow them.
In hunting, whenever / came to part
of the country where there was a good
deal of hog signs. would get out OF that
part of the woods as fast as possible, for
YOU will not find much game where the
hogs range. They don't seem to neigh
Dor, or take TO each other. One year in
roasting ear time was detailed to keep
the coons and squirrels off of the corn.
One evening | went down to the lower
field in the bottom. AS got over the fence
| saw some great tracks. They looked as
large as a yearling steer track. Soon
saw where the corn stalks were torn