The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-24
Fox-4uNrINe DOWN soUTH.u
Hunting Parties Fashionable Among the
Young People,
(From the Chicago Times-Herald.)

FROM U0B OulCesSOa L444l6S-f1BTalQs J
Musical are the sounds that come from
eheyvalleys andEfoat through needles of
the pine and the cedar in the Southland
these crisp nights in November. Strains
sweeter than the notes from Asutalian
flutes mingle with the disturbed screech
owl. Long ago. the whip-poor-wi ceased
to ask about Jack and his widow. Bull
frogs have many moons since hunted up
winter homes and have gone to them.
No longer do guineas and peac0oks make
the night air discordant with their cries.
Night hawks are. too sleepy to send shiv-
ere up the. spines of men walking in the
forests. Bright CLEAN the stars from
above, and crisp is the air in the gulf
states. Everything seems to be tuned for
the fox hound. No other voices mingle
with his in the evenings. He barks.
There are three Glasses of hounds in the
South. One is the deer dog, and is
trained to pay attention to no other ami
NAL. The next is the fox hound, and
when puppy he is fed on fox meat and
made to understand that chasing the red
fellow will be his future. II at any time
one of these dogs should chase after
wildcat, postum, coon or rabbit he is
whipped. Two or three sound applica-
tions of switch will cure him. Then
there is the hog hound, a dog that is
bought to pay attention only to wild hogs
that roam in the forests, and by this time
of the year are fat enough to kill. He
does ibis work inEa peculiar way. he will
I1r,1 r,1J -
has them all bayed Then he bristles up
and makes like he is going to eat them
up there and then. But he is only bluff
ing. Usually no is coward. The hogs
resent his barks and start for BIN. The
dog backs-back until he has trapped them
in pen that has been constructed some
where in the forest. Then he goes home
and sleeps until it is ready TO go into the
swamp again.
A deer hound is shorter of wind than
his brother whose business is with foxes.
A deer chase rarely consumes more than
three hours. A buck will fool around
neighborhood with the. dogs until he finds
out that he has got to attend TO business,
andsthen he. ups and does it. He makes
q line for a river or some big body of
water and plunges in. BY the time the
hounds have arrived at the waters edge
the game is in swimming. AS there
never was hound dog that loved water,
ne uO6sn Q 1OlloW, DuG SoeS nome. Duu
with the fox hound, he is supposed to
stay IN the field until the chicken thief is
captured. l have known dogs to run for
20 hours. 1t is not infrequently the case
in the Virginias that fox will elude his
pursuers for "a hours, avoiding holes end
steeringasclear of hollow trees. rTheyssseem
to know that If they ever stop it's all day
with them.
A fox lever runs in straight line for
more than couple of miles. He circles
about. He will get to mountain and
wind his trail around it, going higher
aud higher toward the topsWith each revo
luton, something on the order of buzz
card in the air, until he gets TO the top.
Then he makes & cut for the valley and
commences the same thing over again. A
fox. isiann shreWdsa las everybody tells
us, but I never could understand why,
when jumped by hounds, he didn't go
somewhere. He plays about, as il think
ing all along that the dogs would stop IN
a moment or so and let him alone. If he
were to pick out a star and go in its
direction he would outstrip the dogs and
make life for himself much easier. No
hunter ever shot a fox as long as it was
ahead of the dogs. That would forever
bar him from the respect Of his fellow
men. 1t is proper to give him show for
his life. If he can out-general the dogs,
or find hole long enough, and with an
giles in it enough to defy the dogs +, he is
s)fe.
In Georgia and Alabama he is found in
greater numbers than in any other part
of tie country. Once upon time he was
quite prominent in the Virginias. but of
late years he is known to but few locali-
ties there. Foxes breed rapidly, and arc
Us hungry for chickens. For that
T. son it is said that the plantation
darkey and Mr.. Reynard are related, but
l guess that's mistake. Anyhow, it is
toss up of coin as to which is the
most harmful around fowl roosts. A fox
will get into a chicken coop and unless
disturbed will remain there until every
fowl has been slaughtered, and he can
kill chicken much quicker than cat
can rat. He grabs it around tho neck,
gives his head sudden jerk and it is all
over. His particular delight is to be
turned loose among flock Of goslings.
He won't tackle a rooster.
Fox hunting parties in the South are
fashionable among young people in like
manner as is lawn tennis in the North
and East. Your southern cousin doesn't
care any moro for tennis, golf and such
like than Chinaman does for baseball
But she loves to follow the hounds, and
II her father owns pack she has horse
that she has trained and knows the bust
ness. 1t is no uncommon sight in the
country districts where fences are made
of rails and the woods are open to see
dozens of young women galloping on
horseback with the swiftness of the wind.
trying to get as near the dogs as possible.
! have known them TO remain in the sad
die for 10 and IL hours and then 20 home
and cook breakfast for the party