St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-03
FIGHTING WILD OATS.
Thrilling Experiences of Connecti-
cut Valley Hunters.

MIDDDLETowN. Conn, Dec. Vivid
cats are remarkably plentiful III Con-
necticut this fall -big. ferocious, tawny-
colored beasts. A number of them have
been securing the thick woods about
Essex village on the river bank. twelve
miles south of Middletown. for week.
In one night they took fifty nice. fat
hens from the Niles Andrews farm, on
the "0ld river road" thirty more from
Ezra Post, forty from Thomas Post. and
forty from Farmer Graves. They have
den i'll cave in an almost inacces-
Slbie peak, in the midst of the wild
mountain region, into which they take
their spoils. No hunter has had shot
at one or them yet. They have wrought
such deadly havoc among the Essex
and Deep River hen roosts and so badly
frightened the country folk that the
farmers of Essex have hired the famous
trarper Elijah Sheidrick to take the
field against them with traps and fox
hounds.
Two ugly cats haunted the Businesses
OF the forests about Middletown, an
so bold were they that one Of them took
a lot of fowls out of a hennery in the
suburbs of the city one night. These.
too, had their home in a cavern at the
top of mountain ridge, few miles
from town; and a coon hunter, who,
after toilsome climb, reached the den,
found more than buShel of feathers
and chicken bones on the floor of the
cave.
A party of coon. hunters bagged one
of the beasts, after desperate rough
and-tumbfe fight i'll the depths of tn e
Mlddieto8p woods, the other night.
There were four men Ill the party, and
they, had tW0dogs. one of them faiEenS
coon dog he sportsmen, after the
fashion of coon hunters, carried only one
little rife. They came at about mid
dog, TO the foot of a giant oak, on the
edge of a swamp, in a rocky, wooded
valley, several miles from town.
The cat, crOuched on the Dough of an
oak, fifty feet above the ground, snarled
at the hunters, who hesitated at first to
attack such formidable game. Then an
eXcltable chap clapped the rife 10 his
Shoulder-a magazine rifie-and rapidly
cut five twIgs off the oak without one of
the bullets touching the beast. The
cat snaried derisiveiy. But cooler
hunter, JOHN Olson. took the piece and
put the sixth small leaden pellet in the
Wild cats head, almost i'll his ear Then
the cat came down out of the oak with
single spring. He shot through the
air with the Swiftuess. seemingly. of a
falling star, and, landing on the hind
quarters of the biggest dog, began to
tear him 10 pieces.
Dog No. 2 countered on the cats
withers. and then all four hunters fell
upon the writhing, growing. snarling
Knot of quadrupedS. and during the
ensuing fifteen or twenty minutes great
hgnt went. on III the wild, dark glade
under the oak.
Tufts of wild cat hide and dog skins,
with leaves, sticks and tufts, flew about
that forest theater. commingled with
scraps of red overall CLOTH; and above
the melee rose and fell geyser of
bucolic profanity, now and then. that
was shot through with yeilS and groWlS
of cat and dogs. The men fought with
oak cudgels, and it was give and take
all around, especially take" on the
part of the wild cat, which was rolled
most of the time i'll chaDgful cocoon
of flying ami furious men and dogs. At
times there were features of the combat
exceeding in grandeur and ferocity,
perhaps, those of an average South
American revolution, and suggesting IN
a tame way one of the familiar seismic
mud shocks of a THANKSGIVING day
Yale-Princeton football game.
The four men and two coon dogs
finally bagged that wild cat-the re-
mains of him-he weighed exactly
thlrty.two pounds. partly undressed,
not counting pound or two of fur and
hide that the dogs got in big sitting
mouthfuls, besides what was hung on
sharp-pointed rocks and in thorn
bushes. He was great, lean, tawny-
hued beast, mostly muscle. sinew and
bone. and with powerful forearm
equal in girth to mans. The dogs
were badly used up, but neither was
MORALLY hurt nor crippled. The hunters,
also, were scratched and bruised, with
lacerated and bleeding faces. and
curtailed in respect of their striped
Jumpers" and overalls by about a
yard of cloth. which the lynx took and
spat out of his jaws subsequently. HE
was the biggest and most formidable
wild cat ever taken in the Connecticut
Valley, and the scrimmage the hottest
one Of the sort in the annals of valley
cat bunting.
F. ID. Francis, the veteran hunter and
best markSman of Durham hamlet,
among the Connecticut hills. had a
thrilling encounter with Wild cat two
nights ago. which he made out to bag
very easily, however, in dense forest
farmhouse. For two nights the beast
walked the hills, bowling, aud once or
twice he lodged into the town and took
dozen choice fowls or so. His fierce
cries scared Durham people immensely
in fact several confirmed male s.gad-
derS" did not ''go out" once after
dark. but Rugged their own fireSides,
and the women folks were by no means
sure that the wild cats were altogether
bad thing, in mild doses, as a specific
against late hours. Francis alone in
Durham town was bold enough to go in
pursuit of the common enemy. and he
is no gadder either.
But Francis could not find the game
alield with his gun, so he set an
enormous steel trap at nightfall at the
foot of a great ledge i'll rocky defile in
the wooded hills mile or two distant
from his home. At daybreak next
morning, with his handsome setter and
light double gun loaded with duck shot,
he approached his trap. The woods
resounded with intermittent yellS of a
wild animal. evidently mad with rage,
and when the farmer was still dozen
rods away from the ledge. he heard the
sounds of small trees and brush snap
ping as if heavy body had been rolled
upon them.
Peering over the shoulder of a
boWlder, he behield magnificent wild
cat in his trap, held there by the mass
i've steel jaws, which bounded about
the earth snarling frightfnlly. clawing
at the ground and bushes. The trap, a
heavy Que, was securely fastened to a
tree by log chain. but so sinewy and
agile was the animal that he bounded
over the ground as easily as if the trap
and chain were of wood aud hemp.
Without word from his master, the
brave dog rushed upon the wrathful cat
and at that instant the latter, with a
powerful wrenching effort. freed itself
from the grip of the steel trap. and with
one stroke of its paw hurled its enemy
ten feet away OIL the ground. Over and
over the dog rolled, then diZzily regained
its feet and, terror-stricken, bleeding,
and bowling with pain, limped out OF
the forest. 1t paused not in its retreat
until it reached its kennel at home.
The cat, recoiling upon its launches,
after its attack upon the dog, instantly
nrenarpd 70 le6n uD0n the buDtnr hnt