, 1896-12-17
TWO N \ SINK HOLE.
a KENTUCKY PRINTER NARRAves a
THRILLING EXPERIENCE.

While Following. the Cali of His Faithful
Dog lie Met with II N.i>I,ap-Ina bar,
Hoe With IA Fierce Wild Beast TIL,
Escape and Recognition.
Pretty muc! everybody in the crow,
had tod Il story of the gun or dog O
iishpole except a printer who locke,
about as much like IL hunter or fisher
man as he did like an angel.
Its your turn now, Muggins," Sale
the reporter.
II never hunted anything but board,
ing houses over in Brooklyn" he said,
with e wan and lodging kind of air, as
If people threw things at him whenever
he tried to ;cll II story.
But before you came here is what
we want TO know about" put in sew
eral, land you've either got to tell n
stony or pay for the drinks every time
anybody else tells one"
dc moved about ~uIcasily and pushed
his chair back from the table, drawing
1t close up again Immediately and final
ly resting his hands clasptd on the board
in front Of him.
"Well, gents" he said with the wan
and lodging look still in his eyes, "lct
me think II minute. Before | came here
l lived i'll Chicago. where | was hunted
instead OF hunting. Before that | was
III New Orleans. where l only hunted a
Job. Before that | was in St. Paul,
where l was hunting Il warm place all
the time. Before that | lived in Boston,
where it was too frigid to hunt, and be-
fore that, quite Il long time before that,
| lived in old Kentucky, and, gents, ]
did hunt there. Nc,hirg but II coon,
mebbc. or a fox or a rCssum or as little
rs Il squirrel CT only Il dove in the dusty
road, but it YVES finer than anything on
earth.
81 was only a boy, and perhaps that
had something to do with it, but | didn't
l:now any different then, like | do now,
Il 1t was just tic finest On earth ard
10 mistake" And his wan face lighted
Up as if he were looking through the
'ron gates Ct paradise. II recollect
had u dog that was considerable of a
hunting deg, but he was an unrcstlCss
kind CT u crss, and when he freed any
thing no would do a lot of barking at
first. but if somebody didn't come
mighty quick he would give it up and
60 mCscy!ng along after the next thing
in sight. One night l was out with him
after coons, and about 8 o'clock l heard
him bark like he was over in q clump
of woods about a half milo away. l
knew I was going to have to get to him
pretty quick if l found him there at all,
and l started across a field toward the
woods as fast as l could go. 1t was a
stubble field with sink holes like you
find all over Kentucky in the limestone
parts, and the place was dark, though
the moon was just beginning to show
above the woods. l was thinking more
about what the dog had than anything
else, and us I went banging through the
field, all Mt once I seemed to drop off of
the earth ard fall into a cellar, and then
| knew l had tumbled into n sink hole.
They are never very deep or dangerous,
and l wasn't afraid of being fatally
hurt, but it took the sand out of me
right quick, and l went down through
the weeds and stuff, not knowing just
what had happened. OF course l hadn't
much time to think, and when l hit
bottom ! had still less, for instead of
lighting OH the ground or stones OF
thickot, l lit Gil something alive. 1t was
a wild animal of some kind, l didn't
know what, and I was scared till my
hair began to feel funny Oh my head.
"Whcn went down, I went hard, |
and l kind Of knocked tho wind out of
the varmiEt ct first, but in a second it |
began to yowl and snap and snarl and to
twist under me and try to get out and
to raise tho dickens generally. In the
meantime l was yelling and squawking
and trying TO scare the blamed thing,
because ! thought it WAS Il wildcat, and
l knew n boy Of my size didn't have
any show with Il wildcat if the varmint
ever tCck q notion TO fight. IL l knew
pretty well that u wildcat was about as
sure to take u notion to fight as any
thing Gil Garth. | don't know exactly
what l did in that hole or how l did it,
but l remember it seemed about u month
Sundays that I was all mussed up in
there with some kind of u wild animal,
and finally tho thing got from under me
and scooted as fast as it could for the
top of tie sink ECle. l followed after it
as quick as l could, for l became Drawer
when l saw it run. ard when l got up
OIL tho level the mCon had come out,
and l Could see the varmint fairly skin
ming it cut 1Cr the tall timber. ] yelled
at it with all my might, though l didn't
run after it very fast. and began to call
my dog. On the second call the varmint
stopped. ard began to get ready to skin
out myself, when l get n better look,
and, by tho great horn spoon, gents, it
was my dog. l called him then, and he
came hack to me, and l could see for
myself that he had holcd something
down there in the sink, and his barking
had been smothered and sounded away
of to me and of course when l dropped
in on him unexpectedly like that he
didn't know anything about it, and nei-
ther did l, und there we was. III any
event, gentlemen" concluded the for
mer CCrncrackor. THAT cog ccmc trot.
ting back to me. and when we met face
to face i'll tie moonlight lie sorter look
ed at me, ard l sorter licked ut him,
and I don't know which one Ct us felt
most like apolcgiziLg. ! do know,
though, We beth Enct kod off for that &C. |
%casion, and OIL the way home we took
turn about sneaking nlcng behind each
other, me and the dog. New York
Sun.
Partisan Pagana.