San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-09-26
SOUTHERN BLOODHOUNDS
The Clever Work Done by Them
in Tracking Criminals.
An Instance of the Remarkable sagacity
of the Animals in Following the
Trail of the Fleeing Ne
grOes.

groes.
BloodhoundS are coming to be con
sidered in the south as indispensable to
the complete equipment of good pc.
! lice department. Time was when such
brutes were the terror of the negro
slave, and the animals deep-toned, dis.
NAL howl as it scented the trembling
darby in the thicket was to the fleeing
slave more ominous of evil and more
dreaded than the sharp cry of the
''paterole" in pursuit, or the crack of
his pistol. To this day one of the IA
vorite songs of the old-time darby as he
moves about his work is:
Run, niger. run,
or the paterole will ketch yo'
But the paterOle, or, in correct Eng
lish, the patrol, has disappeared with
slavery, to be replaced by the modern
policeman, who, assisted by the blood
hound in another and more lawful and
humane capacity, now chases criminals
rather than slaves. The most cele-
brated and most valuable bloodhound
in the south is owned by Patrolman
Phipps, of the Chattanooga police de-
partment, and is used constantly by
the department in chasing criminals
and running them to earth. This ami
NAL has the unassuming name of Jude.
Jude is only eighteen months old, but
her record is Incompatible. She is
twenty-six inches high and weighs
siXty-four pounds. As in all blood
hounds, the animals ears are her most
prominent characteristics. They are
twenty-four inches long and flap about
the head in a most remarkable man
nner. Jude has done some marvellous
work. She will take trail twenty
four hours old and follow it with ease.
A few days ago the police department
employed negro to run through the
woods and fields of Hill City, a suburb
of Chattanooga, fer the purpose of Civ
ing public exhibition and demOnstra-
ton of the dogs sagacity. A large
crowd witnessed the run. After the
negro had been given twenty minutes
start the dog was put on the trail.
The negro had been instructed to take
a route about mile in length, which
circled and doubled so that nearly
every foot of the ground could be seen
by the spectators, who were standing
on a little knoll.
When the negro had been given half
a mile start the dog was turned loose.
The sagacious brute at once took the
scent and away she went with her nose
to the ground, yelping at every jump,
closely followed by her owner and the
Louisville Courier-JournaIs correspon-
dent. On went the dog until fence
was reached. On the other side was
broad pike. At that point the dog lost
the trail for moment, made quick
circuit and soon found it, starting out
again at a more rapid pace than be-
fore. After running about one hun
dred yards across an old cornfield she
suddenly turned to the left in an en-
tirely different direction and made for
the river, still giving forth her sharp,
but rather musical bark Reaching
the river, Jude ran along its bank for
a quarter of a mile or more. and, with
out another loss of the trail or mo-
ment's hesitation, brought up under a
large sycamore tree, where, sitting
down upon her launches, she began to
bay loudly in evident satisfaction.
Seated securely among the branches of
the tree was the negro, showing his
teeth in broad grin. He was told to
come down and the dog wouldn't in
jure him, but he hadn't got his foot
on the ground before Jude made dash
for him, and the way he Skinned back
up that tree was caution.
After this very successful chase the
negro was instructed to run across a
common over which fully one thou
sand persons had passed during the
day going to and from shooting
match. This was to show that the dog
would not follow any trail except the
one given her at the start. A short
time after the start the negro jumped
a wide ditch and it took Jude several
minutes to find the trail on the other
side, but she found it by persistent
nosing, and despite the fact that the
rest of the ground was covered with
newly made tracks of hundreds of per-
sons, the animal never wavered after
that until she freed the negro again
about a quarter of mile away. In
following this trail the dog passed sew
eral other negroes, but did not pay the
slightest attention to them.