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

How Jack Once Got Great Scoop the
Old Man.
Jim Fell, an old grizzly hunter and
trapper of the Big Smoky mountain
wilderness, North Carolina, has boy
Jack-now turning his sixteenth year
whose ingenuity has led to many con-
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. It 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 has life.
mo use tryin' to wipe them ar coons
out'n 'sistence by shootin' or clubbin'
'em, dad You jist stay away FUN de
cohnfeld, dad, an let me manage 'em,''
said Jack.
go ahead, young 'un; but I'll bet
ole Lead (the old mans favorite hound)
that them coons'll kerry off COIN, stalks
an all, afore yu kin put stop to it"
'"You'm jis stay way frun the fields
all 1 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 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 a
depth of quarter or half inch. Over
the top and along the edges, to prevent
the tar from spreading 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
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 corr
in an hour or two, and he wanted to &C
out and frighten them off, but Jack
prevailed upon him to keep quiet
''They 'uns IL not git away, dad No
| fur, enyhow," said Jack
Old sat Jim down chatting and mad a:
| q hornet. After waiting until near mid
night young Jack armed himself with /;
hickory club, handed another to the OLE
man, and said: ssKum on, dad, an Lei
| the dogs loose, too"
When the party emerged from the
| cabin and reached the field, it looked
| as if all the coons between the BLU
Ridge and Alligator swamp had sprung
| up in q minute in the corn6eld Tn,
| ringtailed foragers swarmed toward tn.
fences in couples. platoons. companie