Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-09-01

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 q
couple of hundred yards distant, coons
began to tumble off 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 covered with tar and
dirt and leaves SO thickly that their
every step was difficult Some of them
turned fsomersaults 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 to the
corner of the fence in the edge of the
woods. There the tangled and tarred
coons were SO thick that it became dam
gerous to 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 out The ground, which had been
covered with dry leaves, was a rolling,
tunbling mass of living but helpless
animals, covered with tar and leaves,
In some cases so thickly that the coons
couldn't even see. their eyes being COW
cred with leaves and twigs. For half
an hour the death-dealing clubs de-
sceHded, and at the end of that time
the hunters and their dogs had killed
all the coons within reach, Some had
escaped by climbing the trees close to
the fence, but 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 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
s4zinning the game began.
There were one hundred and eight
cen full-grown coons in the bunch, and
it was no slight contract to skin them.
After SHINING the game the hunters
found narrow but deep gulch in which
they threw the bodies, mixing with
them armfuls of dry brush and leaves
They poured half barrel of tar on the
mass and set it on fire, cremating more
coons than were ever seen before In one
crowd The hunters gathered up the
corn which had been dropped by the
fleeing animals and stored it away in
their cabin loft, where it made pile
measuring several bushels. From that
day up to about week ago, when old
Jim told the story and showed the big
pile of coon skins as evidence, he says
not a solitary coon has been seen OF
heard of within fifteen miles of his
place. Some of old inns trapper &C.
quaintances demurred and charged old
Jim with running the business by ex.
terminating the coons, but when they
saw the big pile Of skins and went over
the field they admitted that they would
| have done just as old Jim had if they
had owned such big field of corn and
| had had as ingenious boy as Jack
| St Louis Republic.