The Van Buren press., 1896-05-30

Ing conversation fhaf enSued over the
subject Of Old Golden and his alleged
taking off. This was Ed Quick tof the
Blooming Grove country At East.
though, he reused himself and said:
eff you go down to Porter's pond n
about six weeks. when the Tee = GONE
out. and poke around on the bottom
nigh the outlet, the chances Is that
you'll find Old Golden. That's vhaF
Nose Coolbaugh says, anyways.
:. When did Alese CooIbaueh say
that2 asked Bill NYce.
sfFe didn't sat that. e'zac't9.' said
Ed Quick. but he said that three
months ago, when the ice just come on
the pond. who should come sneakins
out o. the woods on the east side o. the
pond bat Old Golden. Nose coalbaugh
and Bill 0verfeld was comm on the
west side. They seen him stop on the
edge o the pond and then start across
on the Ice, headin' straight for their
cabin.
That's him, sureir says Nose.
HIM" says Bill. Il should say
It wast@
Seems like terrible shame TO
lay for him and git him. says Nose
but it ought to be done.
Cant be done safe No other way :.
. : So 9TH they laid for % their cabin.
but they didn't git him Nobody else'H
never git him neither. Not unless They
dredge fer him. The ice broke with him
fore he'd gone 100 yareds, and down
he went under it and never come ug
ag'in. Nose nor Bill didn't dast go our
to try and save him, for fear they'd
break through too, and 50 I can't soc
how Jake BensIey eonld killed him
down in Lehman two weeks ago. AMI
If Marcus Kellam seen him last week
the old cuss' spook must be roamin
round the county. Nose Coolbaugh'a
up TO Sol Westbrook's now. heard
him only last night tell about seein'
Old Golden droWn'd in Porter's pond,
You mowt 90 up and ask him, if you
don't believe me-
% Well said woodsman. whether
Old Golden was drowned last fall Or
shot two weeks ago, it's a good red-
dance If he's gone.
Il didn't know what Red Drake would
have said to all this If he had been
there, for according to him this mFs-
terious and apparently ubiquitous ous-
law, or outeast, or whatever he was, was
even then In hiding in the woods hard
ny. | kept Reds secret though, AMI
after the men had gone I said to Sim
Lord.
".Who is this Old Golden, anyhow
And what has he done2'
"'Nho liz hep said Sim Why. HIS
the biggest and uglicst and toughest
and snartest buck that ever beszs.ti
things in anybody's woods. What has
he done? Hes done most everything
bnt kill folks, and he's come pretty nigh
to doin' that. For more than ten years,
off and on, he's kept pike county wor-
ticd most ont of her boots. Every time
he shows up in the district every con-
sarned other deer there IL in it gifts ont
of 1t as soon as he can. They cant live
in the same woods with him, he pitches
into 'em so. When he cant find his own
kind to rip and tear, he don't think moth
in o comm right into the settlements
and rippin' and tearin' folks cattle. He
skipped into John Kip's pasture lot once,
up In the Promised land neighborhood,
and Johns shorthorn bull. that was as
much ag'in bigger than him, made q
rush for the buck, to show him the way
out o the lot ag'in. One o Kip's boys
seen what followed. The buck danced
all around the bull and punched him 80
full o holes with his horns and his sharp
front hoofs that when they took the
hide of o the bull an hour or so later,
IL looked like u big fish net. Kip's boy
said II wasn't hardly no time fore the
buck made the BUN bite the dust-the
same dust he paved up 50 fierce when he
started in TO show the buck the highest
way out o the pasture
"Whcn Kip's boy run home and told
what had happened, and they got back
TO the pasture lot with the dogs and
guns, the old buck was gone. The dogs
took his track aud followed him. Only
one dog ever came back out Of the four
that started in on the thail The hunt
ers kept finding dogs on the trail, bored
through and through by the bucks
horns. When they met the fourth one
coming back on three legs and bleeding
considerable they gave up the chase.
"'That buck has been hunted from
the Susquehanna TO the Delaware and
back ag'in, and I'll bet that tons o.
powder and ball has been used up drin'
at him, but none of it hain't never laid
him low yit. Somebody give him the
name OF Old Golden. and his name has
been a terror 10 everybody, and some
thin TO scare young ones with ever
since. Seems TO me that three-wceks-
old baby, even, will stop bawlin' II you
tell IT Old Goldcnll kctch it II it don't.
Five year ago this rampagin' old buck
had drove the deer out a. the county 80
that some fellers Mt the county scat
offered $50 reward for his carcass. That
stands good yit.
'Dicky Hoffman says Jake Benslcy
killed him two weeks ago. Jake didn't
do nothin' o the kind. lie killed n
slammin' big buck. but il wasn't Old
Golden. Nose CoolbauPh says that him
and Bill Oycrheld seen him drowned
in Porter's pond three months ago.
They think they did. but they didn't.
A buck that's smart enough TO get the
best OF oil the hunters and dogs that
has chased It from Dan TO Beershehy
these ten years amt such lunkhead