The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1892-09-15
: a GREAT COON KILLING.
How Jack Once Got Great SCOOP on the
Old Man.

How Jack Once Got Great SCOOP on the
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 conf
tests as to which one would secure the
greatest number of pelts or kill the big
gest string of game in a 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 a splendid crop, but
the coons for miles and miles about had,
to all appearances, held council of
war. resulting in 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
outn 'sistence by shootin' or clubbin'
'em, dad. You jist stay away fun de
cohnfield, dad, an let me manage 'em,'
said Jack.
go ahead, young 'un; but I'll bet
ole Lead 1.-THE old mans favorite hound)
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 ! asst replied Jack, and he went to
work.
In the horse shed was barrel Of tsr
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 1t 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 a
fat piece of wood, and in the course Of
an hour or two he had plastered or
coated the top rail with the tar to q
depth of quarter or half inch. Over
the top and along the edges, to prevent
the tar from spreading and running on,
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.
lack gave the riders q 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
would carry off the whole crop of corn
| In an hour or two, and he wanted to 0o
out and frighten them off, but Jack
prevailed upon him to keep quiet.
They 'uns II not git away. dad. Not
fur, enyhow," said Jack. M
Old sat Jim down chatting and mad H.
hornet After waiting until near MID
night young Jack armed himself with =
hickory club, handed another to tho old
man, and said: KUN on, dad. an, let
the dogs loose, too"
When the party emerged from the
cabin and reached the field, IL looked
MS II all the coons between the Blue
Ridge and Alligator swamp had sprnnv
up In q minute in tho cornfield. The
ringtailed foragers swarrned toward the
fences in couples, p'ssoons, companies