Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-12-03
A TIGER HUNT

a TIGER HUNT
In Costa Rica, With Plenty Of Sport,
hut Little Game.
Big preparations were being made
for our Christmas dinner OF roast pig
with apple sauce, ver4son chops and
other dishes, and 1t was impossible to,
escape the odon from tfme to time
wafted IN fragrant breezes from the
outside kitchen. All the doors and
windows were, Of coarse, wide Open,,
because In Costn Rtca we do not know
what winter Is. and there is hardly any
change in climate the year round. AS,
1 was sitting at my desk thinking of
oil the good things for dinner, one Of
my men ann hurrying in with gun
e shoulder and dog at heel, to tell
me he had that very morning, and not
q half hour before, seen a tiger pass
through the bottom Of the farm aud
enter the bush about a mile from the
house. He had see the tiger carrying
a young n in its mouth. Would I
get my dogs and gun and hunt her?
Well, yes, I would, and pretty quickly.
too.
My neighbor, MI. s., was easily in
duced to Join the party, also a friend
OF his, who was staying with him. So
In all We were a party of four, includ-
ing the man who had seen the tiger.
Mr.. s. had q repeating shotgun, his
German friend a rifle which would not
go OF, our guide a double-barreled shot.
gun, and myself a "a rife. 1t took us
about three-Quarters Of an hour to
reach the edge of the forest, where
the tiger had been seen. Here the dogs
became very excitable, taking the
fresh truil with spirit. No one who
has not hunted in a tropical forest a
realize how hard it is to make ones
way through the bush; 1t is a matter
OF patience and machete work. Our
German friend concluded to SIT him
self down on a log and await develop
merits, while the rest Of us followed
after the dogs. We supposed the old
tiger would not travel far, and this
proved to be a good guess. What with
the barking Of the dogs and the noise
we made cutting the way with u
machetes, the Old tiger must have been,
badly frightened.
AT about this time we heard our Ger
man friend, whom we had left on the
log. calling us at a great rate, aud, az
we made o circle back, could hear him
calling, II hear the tiger" and there
he sat on the same log, with his old
rifle that would not go Off cooked, and
looking pretty expectant. We all lis
tened. and. sure enough, we could hear
a crying and splitting about Is yards
of in the bush. We followed up the
sound tin we came to q snarl Of an old
tree trunk and vines. We cut away
the vines as best we could with our
maclletes, and there, squeezed up as
close as he could get to a big tree was
o young tiger, scratching and splitting
away at a great rate. and doing it well,
too! I crnwled In and grabbed him by
the back Of the neck.
There were no signs of the old tiger:
she must have been too scared to stay
and e what was going ON. Our Ger
n was very mad when told that his
gun would not shoot, and, in fact.
threw the gun down on the gronnd
and said that he would be bowed IL
he would carry It home; and so a peon
was sent out for 1t. I took the little
tiger home with me and kept him some
time, but the facts are that the cook
overfed him, and he died from the Of.
fecN.
We all enjoyed our Christmas din
ner that day, including the little tiger.
who had his share.