The sun., 1893-12-17
oLD-TIMB VIRGINIA FOX HUNTING
The Twenty-four Hours Run or /. Hound an d
Foz, sud the Man Who Followed Them.

The Twenty-four Hours Run or Hound an d
Foz, aud the Man who Followed Th.m.
SCRANTON. Dec. 1a-"we had some memor-
able fox chases down In the Bra andywine re-
gion when was young man." said a Scran-
tonian. Every farmer kept pack Of hounds
and one or two hunting horses. and it was not
an uncommon thing for fox to be chased by
forty or nifty hounds aud q score OF men and
women on horseback. The hunts began Just
before the holidays and continued once or
twice week until March, None OF the hunts
men ever shot fox. and 1t was a local
saying that the more the foxes were chased
tho better they liked to live around there. and
the thicker they became. II an outsider had
the audacity to kill fox with shotgun or
rife he was hooted out OF the neighbor-
hood and made to understand that Il
wouldn't be we'll for him to show
up again. The farmers chased foxes
for the excitement and sport alone and
II the hounds cauRhe fox and tore II to pieces
It was all right. Many OF the runs were after
foxes we had dug out OF holes and turned
loose with start OF half an hour. but occa-
sioually we put the hounds on the track Of a
fox that had apparently been lurking around
In the expectation OF being chased
"One OF the most amusing features OF the
hunts was the antics and tribulations Of the
young hounds Whenever the leaders lost the
scent and were circling around to pick It up,
the young hounds would lie down and care
fully nurse their tender feet. but the moment
the leaders began to yelp out that they had
recovered the track the inexperienced dogs
gave tongue and were up and away as though
they thought they amounted to something In
the search for the fox. When com pletely tired
out and iootsore the young hounds would lie
for hours in the field where they had fallen hy
the wayside, and would whine and howl till
they plucked up courage enough to get up and
The greatest worriment we had was over
the loss OF valuabls hounds. At the end OF an
unusually long chase. especially when the fox
had taken il into his heal to race of into an.
other township or county, some ones best
hound was generally missing. Sometimes the
lost hound would return to his owner In the
hound was never heard from. even though the
a fox will hole up In certain kinds OF weather
before he has been chased half day. and why
tiIl iii he dies before he win run to cover. have
never heard explained satisfactorily.
mThad SNYDER lean an n. kh.Tyandsr. was the
Snyder never rode horse behind the hounds,
but he took part in nearly every chase we mad
and II the chase lasted long enough he would
be sure to outwind all the horses and q. good
runways and the know ledge enabled him to
hounds; He was almost Invariably with them
brush. He ran with tho hounds because he
liked to- and the brush always went to the nrst
horseman or woman to arrive after the dogs
had caught tho fox.
,'snydeE,s most romarkable fox chase took
place in February. 1852 More than twenty
hounds and dozen riders started after the
fox In the early morning. tho ground being
bare and frozen. The fox followed the regu-
lar runways until about IL o'clock. when he
left the nelghhorhood and set out for the
northwest by noon all the riders gave up the
chase, but Snyder didn't Toward dark the
hounds began TO come hobbling home, one at
time all tuekered out. and BY midnight every
hound but one had returned to it's kennel.
The missing hound didn't turn up during tho
night and neither did snyder. A searching
party started out In the morning. traced Sny-
der for twenty miles. and then returned.
Along In the evening Snyder came back In
wagon as sound rs nut. lie brought the
hound with him. but 1t was dead Snyder had
chased the hound all day aud night, Soon
after daylight he got sight Of the fox and
hound in a large meadow below him. Both
were on their last legs. They were only few
feet apart, and the hound went no faster than
the fox did, Snyder was so nearly played out
that he couldn't run. and while he was watch
ing the weary pair the fox crept through
rail fence and lay down. The hound staggered
up to the fence and also lay down. and
when Snyder got to the spot both were dead.
II was i!ty-seven miles from where the fox
had been started. and Snyder must have tray-
elled 100 miles in the twenty-fou hourA"