The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-28
I|HE COONs CAME DOWN.
An Experience That Would Have
Delighted the Hear. Of
DayY Crockett
But thu Old Trapper Would not
Have Taken Such Unfair
Advantage.
IN Old Mans Hoy Jack Could Give Him
several Points and Then Beat
Him Out

Jim Fall, an old grizzly hunter and trap
pes Of ths Big Smoky mountain wilderness
North Carolina. has 4 boy - Jack-nov
farming his sixteenth year. whose ipgsnu
Ivy has led 10 many contests as to which on
would secure ths greatest number Of pelt
" Kill The biggest string Of game in a give,
Aane. III biggest SCOOP Jack ever got or
= old man was last fall. says the st
III avis Republic. The crop Of corn had beer
M and shocked in the ten-aors deld. Il
was I splendid crop. but ths coons fo'
miles and miles about had to all appear
Ancss held = council Of war, resulting in q
grand charge upon the field. For several
nights eoons Of all sizes, ages and oondi-
tions ovsrran tho 1,s!d. and although old
jim thinned ont the ranks, having killed
over ! dozen in ono night, they returned in
reinforced numbers until the old man be-
canas dospondent, end forgot TO smoke his
pipe for The first time in his life.
mo use tryin' TO wipe them ARE coona
out'n 'sistsnce by shootin' or ciubbin' 'em,
dad. You iiat stay away frum de cohn-
field, dad. An let me manage 'em," said
Jack.
""Cso ahead, young 'un: but I'll bet ole
Load THE old mans ~favorite hound) that
them coons'il kerry of oohn, stalks an all,
Afore you kin put a stop to it,"
ssYou'me ja stay way frum the fields all
I ast." replied Jack and he went to work.
In the horso shed was a 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 OK
termination. snake fence, built of rails,
extended around the cornfield, which at
one corner touched the deep forest. or came
70 near to it that there was not more than
100 yards between ii and the woods. Jack
had noticed that the army Of coons, when
alarmed. would invariably break
ing and running along the top rails
Of tho fence. Jack got an old bucket and
= fiat piece of wood, and in the course of
nm hour or two he had plastered or coated
the top rail with the tar to a depth of a
quarter or half inch. Over the top and along
ing and running off, he sprinkled a 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 to
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 would carry off the whole
crop Of corn 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 III not git away dad. Not fur
enyhow." Jack said.
Old Jim sat down, chaing and as mad as
= hornet. After waiting until nearly mid
night young Jack armed himself with a
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 cabin
INT reached the field it looked as if all the
coons between the Blue Ridge and Alligator
swamp had sprung up in a minute in that
cornield. The ringtailed foragers swatmed
toward the fences in couples, platoons,
companies, and battalions, and lined the
sop OF the fences, each coon with an ear of
corn tightly grasped in his paws. Old Jim
at the back line, whooDing, yelling, and
barking. and away they went. Before they
reached the woods, in fact when they were
= couple of hundred yards distant, coons
began to tumble Oft the fence, or to stick
where they were, and such snarling 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 COW
cred 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 tho clubs swished through
the air. killing a coon at every blow. until
the chargers came to the corner of the fence
In the edge of the woods. There the tan
Gled and tarred coons were 80 thick that it
became dangerous to go among them.
After a few nips from the sharp teeth of
the animals old Jim, Jack and
the mass and banged away until
rhsy were literally worn out. The ground,
which had been covered with drv Iea veg
was a rolling, tumblinR mass of living but
helpless animals. covered with tar and
leaves. in some cases 80 thickly that the
coons couldn't even see, their ewes being
covered with leaves and twiQs. For half an
hour the death dealing clubs descended,
and at the end of that time the hunters and
their dogs had killed oil the coons within
reach. Some had escaped by climbing tbs
trees close to the fence, but their escane
was only temporary, as it was evident that
they couldn't get far away. They we're let
alone until daylight, when old Jim and
Jack returned with their guns and found
them still there. They soon made short
work of the dozen or so of coons which had
succeeded in getting into the trees. Then
the work of counting and sklnning the game
began.
There were lib full-growa coons in the
bunch, and 1t was no slight contract to SIX in
them. After SHINING the game the hunt
ers found a narrow but deep eulch in which
they threw this bodies, mixing with them
hrmfuls of dry brush and leaves. They
poured hAlt a barrel of tar on the mess and
SET 1t Oh fire, c1emating more coons than
were ever seen before in one crowd. Tao
hunters gathered up the corn which Ind
been dropped by the fleeing animals and
stored il away in their cabin loft. WHARF
made u pile measuring several busbels.
From that day up to about a week aon
when old Jim told the story and shnwaH
the big pile of coon skins as evidence ba
says not a solitary coon has been seon or
heard of within fifteen miles Of his place.
Some Of old Jim's trapper acquainta nces
demurred and charged old jim With rnin-
ing She business by DISCRIMINATING Tho
soonH, but when they saw the big pile nf
kim and went over the field they admitted
that they would have lone just az old Jim
had II they had owned such u big field of
corn and had had as ingenious a boy "A
Jack.
Guaranteed Cure.