The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-11-16
HIS LITTLE RATCHET
WITH 1T IKE PRATT OF VERMONT
HAS KILLED MANY BEARS.
As. collation. With This Weapon and His
Modesty Have Made Him tho G. w. of
Bear Hun.ers-How He Sets and Bats
His Traps For Unsuspecting Rruin.


Ike Pratt of Bennington, VT, is the
man who kills bears with Ratchet. He
does not go still-hunting them In the
woods with this domestic weapon. He
| waits until he gets them into a trap before
ne begins splitting them but, considering
the number of bears he has converted into
meat this way and the fact that at 70
years ne Is still. IN the business, his speciality
as bear MIL is worthy of special note.
When he goes out to empty his traps, he
carries gun with him for safety, and oo-
casionally when he finds some unusually
| quick tempered and uncompanionable bear
he has to use it. Occasionally, too, when
he hasn't his Ratchet with him he uses a
stout club. But his regular bear sticking
outfit consists of his Ratchet and big
jackknife with blade like an eighteenth
century pirates cutlass, which he uses to
do the final carving. Ike doesn't think
his method Of dispatching bears Is remark
able. Apparently no regards bear stick
Ing in much the same commonplace light
as pig sticking.
The success which he has been able to
Dchieve in his long career of bear Staying
has been due, 1t seems, to his careful at
tention to details When he runs across
his bear, caught in his trap, he always
| makes sure first that he is in tight. III he
had almost torn his foot off, or was so
slightly caught that he might at last break
away, he might put the hunter in an en-
barrassing position. Having assured him
self of this, Mr.. Pratt gets out his hatchet
or his club, sticks his knife in tree near
by and goes to work.
With bears, as with men, Mr.. Pratt
thinks, it makes difference how they are
approached. Most people rush up to them
too suddenly and get them all excited, and
then there is trouble. He himself walks
up in u calm and confidential way and
waits around, he says, just outside of the
reach of the tethered animal, until the
bear gets sort of used to him. Then no
draws up his Ratchet and waves it around
in front of the bear, and when he sees
chance no raps him, either between the
eyes or OH the nose. That stuns the bear,
and before he collects his bruised and
wandering thoughts Ike has jumped in
with his knife and emptied his remaining
life through his jugular vein. Bears are
good boxers, he says, but he never missed
his blow yet.
1t makes difference, however, just how
bear is hitched To trap. With only his
hind leg caught it makes the problem
moro intricate than when he is held down
by front paw, and often in the latter
case no has TO go to the expense of shoot
ing Them A bear that is quite old, too,
| will discourage too close acquaintance
on the part ot any one. But then it is all
IA matter of knack. There was man in
Pownal few years ago, he says, who
didn't have the knack. In fact, it was his
first bear that he tackled. He heard it
yelling back of the house and started
| out with his ak. The first blow the bear
countered and knocked the AK out of the
mans hand. Then he turned complete
somersault, and when he came up again
he carried the mans shirt and vest, and
also considerable of the superficial area of
his abdomen, on his hind claws. This
made the man somewhat more cautious.
He waited around a good while and took
u good deal of lively exercise, but finally
he got in first class hit, which raised his;
batting average considerably and won the
game. But no had a good day. bear hunt
ing out of it when it was all done.
Mr.. Pratt has another distinction. For
reasons best known to himself, perhaps
from his long association with his little
hatchet, he is the George Washington of
local bear hunters. He is not an magma
tive, poetic sportsman, like that inspired
autobiographical bear hunter of Williams
town, John Barney Wright. On the con-
trary, no is just u fine workman with
bears, who enjoys his work from the
standpoint Of an artistic workman, but
takes it more or less as matter of course,
without any fuss or self advertisement.
For instance, when asked how many
bears he has killed in his lifetime, he fig
ures the number at about 90. Now, as he
! hac haan frapninr cinea ha %
old, or for 4o seasons, almost continuously
and has taken out Of the woods from two
to six bears every year the probability is
that his score is fully 100 by this time.
But not only does he probably underesti-
mate the size Of his catch, but he claims
that in all his experiences with his bears
he has never had any particularly exciting
times.
Mr.. Pratt comes by his sporting in
stincts naturally, for both his grandfather
and his father were the greatest hunters
of their times and used to chase the deer
about the hills to the eastward of tho vii
lage when deer were more plenty than
foxes are now Ike thinks, however, that
in his long experience he has improved on
tho methods OF his ancestors and says he
would like to try trapping with them now.
His father, he says always thought 1T was
necessary to set his traps in spring hole,
but he has found he has fully as good sue
cess on bare ground. He generally tries
to find "a place where the animals cross
through the woods. Sometimes they have
beaten paths, he says, just like cattle. In
these paths he sets his traps. He Is great
man for finding traces and "dents" OF
bears. ''Dent" is early nineteenth GEN.
fury for tracks" Ike never says tracks.
In batting Mr.. Pratt prefers sleeps head,
but no also uses other meat and honey oc-
casionally. He doen't think much OF bait
ointment, for he says when bears are look
ing for food they generally find the trap,
and when they don't want it you can't In
duce them to touch your bat anyway. In
tho summer when vegetable food Is plenty
and in winter when the bears get through
eating naturally he thinks 1t generally
small use to trap for them.-Springfeld
Republican.
Uniform Spelling.
A discussion having been raised In the
columns of The Times as to the correct
spelling of certain words DIR. Il. A. Abb
bott expressed strong opposition to rigiC