The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-09-17
A GREAT COON KILLING.
How Jack Once Got . Great scoop ON tn,
Old Man.

|
Jim Fell, an old grizzly hunter and
! trapper of the Big Smoky mountain
| wilderness, North Carolina, has boy
| lucknow turning his sixteenth year,
| whose ingenuity has led to many con-
tests as to which one would secure the
! greatest number OF pelts or kin the big
| gest string of game in given time.
The biggest scoop Jack ever got on the
old man was last fall The crop OF corn
had been cut and shocked in the ten
| acre field. 1t was splendid crop, but
| the coons for miles and miles a bout had,
TO all appearances. held a council OF
war. resulting in a grand charge upon
the field. For several nights coons of
all sizes, ages and conditions overran
the field. and. although old Jim thinned
out the ranks, having killed over dozen
in one night, they returned reinforced
in numbers until the old man became
| respondent, lost his appetite, and for
got to smoke his pipe for the first time
in his life.
mo use tryin' to wipe them ar coons
out'n 'sisteuce by shootin' or ciubbin
'em. dad. You jist stay away fun de
cohnfield. dad, an let me manage 'em, ,"
said Jack.
Go ahead, young I'm; bu. I'll bet
ole Lead (the old mans favorite houBdl
that them coons'll kerry off cohn, stalks
an all, afore yu kin put stop to it"
''You'm jis stay way frum the fields
all l asst, replied Jack, and he went to
work.
In the horse shed was barrel of tar
which Jim and Jack had made in the
pine woods some time before, and Young
Jack proposed to make the tar figure in
the determination. A snake fence,
built of rails, extended around the corn
field, which at one corner touched the
deep forest, or come SO near to it that
there was not more than one hundred
yards between it and the woods. Jack
had noticed that the army of coons
when alarmed would invariably break
for the woods in a long line, jumping
and running along the top rails of the
fence. Jack got an old bucket and
fiat piece of wood, and in the course of
an hour or two he had plastered or
coated the top rail with the tar to
depth of a quarter or half inch. Over
the top and along the edges, to prevent
the tar from spreading and running off,
he sprinkled little dry earth mingled
with leaves. The trap was in shape
for business before shutdown. After
covering the center stretch of top rails,
Jack gave the riders a touch of the
same stuff and then went to the house.
The family at his suggestion retired
into the cabin at an early hour, and
took the dogs into the house with them;
before 10 o'clock the noise that came
down from the field was SO great that
old Jim thought the army of coons
in an hour or two, and he wanted to 60
out and brighten them off, but Jack
prevailed upon him to keep quiet.
''They 'uns II not git away, dad Not
fur, enyhow," said Jack.
Old sat Jim down chatting and mad as
a hornet After waiting until near mid
night young Jack armed himself with q
hickory club, handed another to the old
man, and said: 'Kum ON, dad, an let
the dogs loose, too"
When the party emerged from the
ca bin and reached the field, it looked
as if all the coons between the Blue
Ridge and Alligator swamp had sprung
up in minute in the cornfield- The
ringtailed foragers swarmed toward the
fences in couples, platoons, companies
and battalions. and lined the top of
the fences, each coon with an ear of
corn tightly grasped in his paws. Old
Jim and Jack with the four dogs,
charged the fence at the back line,
whooping, yelling and barking, and
away they went. Before they reached
the woods, in fact when they were a
couple of hundred yards distant, coons
began to tumble off the fence or to stick
where they were, and such snarlipg and
swapping of teeth was never heard in
that section as the men and dogs charged
them, knocking them over with their
clubs The coons couldn't run on the
ground with any speed. Neither could
they put up their usual tough battle
Their feet were covered with tar and
dirt and leaves so thickly that their
every step was difficult Some of them
turned somersaults in their rage, while
others squatted down or sat on their
launches and snarled and snapped.
Right and left the clubs swished
through the air, killing coon at every
blow, until the chargers came 10 the
corner of the fence in the edge OF the
woods. There the tangled and tarred
coons were so thick that il became dam
gerous 10 GO among them After few
nips from the sharp teeth of the ami
mails old jim, Jack, and the dogs hung
around the edges of the mass and
banged away until they were literally
worn ont The ground, which had been
covered with dry leaves, was rolling,
tumbling mass OF living but helpless
animals, covered with tar and leaves,
in some cases 50 thichly that the coons
couldn't even see. their eyes being Gov
cred with leaves and t~igs For half
an hour the Geath-dealing clubs de-
seended, and az the end Of that tIH2o
the hunters and their dogs had killed
ali the eoons within reach Some had
escaped by climbing the trees close 70
the fence. bat their escape was only
temporary. as it was evident that they
couldn't get far away. They were let
alone until daylight when old jim and
Jack returned with their guns AID
found them still there They soon MADE !
short work If the dozen Or SO % coons
which had succeeded IN getting Into IN.
trees Then the work OF counting and
skinning the game began
There were one hundred and eight
cen fail-grown coous IN The bunch sad +
fssE .rEE