The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-02
HE HAD THE DOG MANIA.
A Nebraska Mans Experience in
Hunting Coyotes.
From the Philadelphia Times.

Ivy
From the Philadelphia Times.
Does your husband love dogs! That is,
does he have laundering after every
promising pup that he sees2 And when a
man has the dog mania, every pup looks
promising, from the mangiest little poodle
to the offspring of the big, mongrel cur
that is good for nothing but to bark and
aid in the consumption of home products.
When we lived on farm in Nebraska
my husband never had but one attack,
and that did not last long; but it was Sc
we're while it did last. You see, it was
that hard winter. The men didn't have
much to do, for they didn't raise any crop
to take care of. They were obliged 10
sell of the stock until they had very lit
tie to feed, and very little to feed them
with.
Money, too, was scarce, and my Tom
aud Jim Kelley conceived the idea of
hunting coyotes to pass away the time
and replenish their purses with the
bounty money. But as the coyotes did
not walk up and tender their scalps the
men concluded they would have to go and
fetch them. The most important factor
In the fetching business was dogs. We
already had one, a surly old fellow called
Watch. Jim Kelley had four, but there
was nothing remarkable about any of
them except Old Spring. She could really
catch a coyote if she wanted too, but she
didn't always want to; and it didn't seem
to worry the coyote at all when she did
catch him. She needed assistance,
that was certain. Our Watch
had the staying qualities, if dogs enough
could be obtained to interest the in
tended victim until he got there. Tom
found one dog down town that looked as
II he could run and enttced him home
Then he ran across superannuated old
greyhound, an almost exact counterpart
of kelley's Spring. To be sure. she was
too old to run and had 10 be kept in the
house in bad weather. Her teeth were
poor and she must be fed on soft feed, but
Tom was certain she would raise pups
that would pick up coyotes like a bird
does bugs; so I babied old Dolly with
pretty good grace for his sake. Dealing
in futures didn't fill the bill for the
present, so Tom cast about again and pro-
cured two nearly grown hounds, and he
and Jim Kelley, who had been equally sue
cessful, started out with a force of ten
dogs. ...-.
COYOTES SEEMED SCARCE.
The coyotes were making night hide
Gus with their bowls and living fat off our
poultry, but some way they didn't seem
so plenty in the daytime. Surely the dogs
could catch one if they saw 1t and kill it
after it was caught, but several1day
passed and not a coyote was sighted. Evil
IDENTIFY something was lacking. After
much deliberation the men concluded it
was trail hounds.
A week later and two more dogs had
been added to the force. One was young
and undeveloped; that is, nothing had de-
veloped but her voice. A pack of coyotes
was nowhere where noise was concerned.
The other was genuine, mature trailer
Tom and Jim expected some rare sport
when they again set forth The old hound
soon struck trail and off he went bel
lowing enough to scare every coyote out
of the county. Dogs and horsemen fol-
lowed
Isn't it grand2"
"That's good work"
"He's getting it down fine now"
just hear him! He must be close onto
it." Such were the frequent exclama-
tions Of the enthusiastic hunters.
ONLY RABBIT.
From the noise they could tell that the
chase was circling. and soon they came in
sight-pursued and pursuer, the dog was
some twenty rods belinda big Jack
rabbit.
They tried to call him of and then ran
in ahead of him. Confused by their in
reference, he turned back on the trail
and Hoped, baying away.
"Confound that dog" said Kelley
'"He'll run himself to death and follow
that track back to where we started. >"
They spurred up their horses and inter
cepted him again. but he only went off in
some other direction. Then they set the
other dogs on him and ran their brag
trailer down, roped him, and thoroughly
disguised, ar5ed for home.
The winter wore away with frequent
repetitions of that days chase. The men
couldn't see what was lacking, unless it
was dogs, and whenever they found a
new one they took it in. There were
gray hounds and yellow hounds and
spotted hounds and black hounds and
dogs that were not hounds at all, and
there were old dogs, young dogs and lit
tie pups and big pups, and pups at all
ages. One couldn't open the door but
they came in the house. Couldn't go out
of doors after night but he fell over one
or two. If one barked, they all barked
especially the trailers. If they were left
loose they fought, so they had to be tied,
some with ropes, some with chains and
one with the clothesline, If it showed
they were put in the barn, In the hen
house or in the house.
FOOD FOR THE DOGS
1t was slightly inconvenient. and things
were becoming uncomfortable; the at
mosphere in the house grew warm oc-
casionally, and when Tom came home,
and, as usual. told me of another fine pup
that he could get, | quietly suggested
that it would be conducive to that pups
health to stay on its native heath.
Mrs. Kelley felt very much as did on
the dog question, and Jim and Tom CON
sidered themselves much abused men to
be deprived of a legitimate and profitable
sport Just for the lack of dogs. 1t would
have taken the entire product of Il good
sized ranch to have kept those dogs had
not fate favored them. Many cattle died
around the neighborhood, and as what
was fun for the boy was death for the
frogs" so what was death for the stock
was fun for the dogs. They grew sleek
and fat, and so did the coyotes.
/ grew more and more disguised as the
hen house grew less crowded every week;
and when the hounds began to gather
what few eggs the hens did lay, spoke a
little piece that ] had been preparing for
some time Tom listened meekly, and
the dogs soon began to disappear The
men were forced to own that they had
never chased but one coyote, and that got
away from them, but they would not ad
nit that it was the fault of those 'Ornary"
dogs. They blamed themselves, the
horses, the weather and even the coyotes,
but we women were skeptical, and stead
ily the canine force diminished.
PARTING WITH THE DOGS.