San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-01-04

back to the settlements" asked one o.
our party.
Parents don't trouble theirselve:
bout whose children they git. Wher
they want any they go out into the river
bottoms, set trap and ketch 'em.
wur ketched time O. the war. Then
they bout made clean sweep of the
woods tribes. They wanted all the men
they could get, so sot traps all round
| the bottoms. a
"I'l never forgit the time when me
and two others wur trapped. We wur
out in the woods diggin roots when all
at once we sInelt new smell. 1t wur
SIGH good smell that all our mouths
began to water. We slobbered like so
many hounds. What it could be that
smelt SO fine we did not know. We
tuck the scent and follered it up on the
keen run. In bout mile we come to a
queer lookin little house. In thar was
the stuff that smelt SO good. We dived
in and began film ourselves with the
good smellin stuff. when down fell u
door and we wur Gagged.
eyer see, gents, when they wanted to
ketch up any Nv us wild Missourians,
they made pen just like bar trap,
baited it with corn bread and sot it.
When the wind wur right one of the
woods breed could smell corn dodger
nigh on to three miles.
"Waal, when the trap fell we tore
round like mad, but couldn't escape.
Long bout shutdown some soldiers come
and tuck us out,n the trap. They tuck
us and put us inter the upper story of a
blockhouse bout fifty feet high. Thar
they left us in the dark.
"Waal, we soon seed that eff we had
rope we could git away. So then we be-
gan pickin ourselves-pulling out the
long har that covered our bodies-to
make a rope. 1t wur an awful sore job.
After all of us had been clean picked
we tried the rope and found it bout ten
feet too short. Then told my two pards
that they might take har enough out'n
the top of my head to finish the rope.
They tuck the har, and in less'n ten
minutes we wur all at liberty.
NON, SCulS, SCtlNl DlShg do OOlllC vi
yez may think I'm lyin bout this bust
ness, I'll jist show yez whar my mates
got the har to splice out that rope"
Then taking off his sombrero Buck
showed that the whole top of his head
was as smooth as peeled onion.
"Waal," continued Buck, latter we
got outn that thar blockhouse we cut
and run for bout five hours acrost
stretch of country we knowed nothin
about, for we wur lost when we struck
inter fields and fenced ground; besides,
we thought all the houses we seed wur
blockhouses.
"Bein now naked we had to keep
movin to keep warm, SO we travelled as
fast as we could all that night. When
the sun got up we sot on a. bluff bank
above the blessed old Mississippi, that
seemed mother to us. Thar we enjoyed
the sun like so many, turtles on log.
Gas we sot on the bluff we looked
down upon the river and thar on the
side next to us we seed a goodish sized
catfish laying a-sunnin itself near to
shore. The cat wur bout twenty-five
feet long-too big fur to snare-so we
looked about fur some other way of
ketchin him.
"a few hundred yard above we saw
a big rope stretched across the river. 1t
wur ferry rope, but then in our wild
state we didn't know as it belonged to
anybody. We went up thar and tuck
the rope, no one bein bout thar, One Of
us had to swim the river to cast the rope
loose from a tree ON the opposite side.
We'd got'r have the, rope because it had
on it at one end big iron hook.
Next we wanted some kind of good
live bait. While lookin bout for bait
long comes little niger boy drivin a
cow. We ketched him, and lashin him ON
| to the hook floated him down, swimmin
like frog, to whar the big catfish wur.
The cat snapped the little mig up like a
fash and swallered him down.
"All hands of us tuck the rope over
our shoulders, and maxim a dash inland
hauled the big cat high and dry. We cut
the fish open at once and tack out the
little Niger all alive and kickin. When
we unlashed and turned him loose lie
went off as timber as an eel, an the fust
thing he did was to hunt up his ole COW
and drive her along jist as gentle as il
we hadn't had the loan of him and used
him for few minutes. Hehad but one
little tooth mark on his back" f"'
'Was that the biggest catfish you evel
caught?' asked one of our party.
Buck eyed the man for moment
and then asked where he was from.
From Tennessee, just across the
river and little below where you go
your big fish" said our man.
: "Waal, as for catfish, said Buck, ''yoI