The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-04-03
A REMARKABLE TEAM.


A REMARKABLE TEAM.
Demoralizes Circus-It Costs the Life of
Clown, Panic in the Town aad the Hun
Ter Loses His Team in Buffalo Bayou-He
Threatened Suit for Dalages-How the
Alligators Were Trained.
Every old settler in Eastern Texas
knows old Buck Stobbins, says CORES
p,mdent to the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
Stobbins came to the Lone Star wilderness
when the Republic was in its infancy. He
settled in the Big Thicket. not far from
Houston. and during his long career, he
has hunted bear, only varying the mono
tony of the sport by occasionally getting
drank and spending few days in getting
sober and resting the dogs. The old man
is an ironside, hard-shell Baptist, and a
iar-not mere novice in feeble and un-
polished mendacity, but wholesale arts
tic, rough-and- tumble liar Of gigantic pro-
portions. His word is pretty good on all
ordinary subjects, but when 1t comes to
bear. the AGED veteran varies, twists, dis
toEts and piles bear and hounds and gun
shots and butcher knives all together, and
makes a story worth listening to. Every
hunter goes to see him, and all leave his
cabin pleased with his extraordinary hos
pitality, and feeling that if there were
few more Buck Stobbinses in the world
the human race would laugh more and life
would be worth living after all
He has been making war on the black
bear of Texas for more than half centu-
ry, and killed every year. according to his
own candid statement, bear enough to feed
an army, and yet he can put you on
stand where you can get shot at big,
roHicking bruin any fine morning. Very
recently he has figured as the most con
spicuous character in an adventure that Is
without parallel in the history Of the world
The old fre-eater had one son, and when
this heir apparent to the Stobbins claim
and cabin in the wilderness was about 0
years old he captured pair of young ALI
gators two or three feet in length. Now,
Young Stobbins did not have any calves to
fool with. and SO he chained the young
alligators together and hitched them to
small slide. He put bull rings in the nose
of each gator, and then, by the dexterous
use of pitchfork, managed to extract
good deal Of deviltry and fun out OF the
wonderful team.
The boy was fast growing to manhood,
and The alligators-well. they were fast
growing to gatorhood. They were at
least ten feet long when the promising
youth took the swamp fever and died.
Old Stobbin was devotedly attached to his.
son. He expected to make famous bear
hunter out of the boy. His grief was not
of the common kind He tried to burn 1t
out of his s'inards' with moonshine whisk
ey. and possibly would have succeeded,
but the capacity of the still house was a
grade less than the old warrior endur-
ance and mettle. When the still went
dry he tried coal oil, and he soon drank
the country into darkness. The neigh
bors had to hide their oil cans OF transact
all their business between the rising and
setting of the sun. One day he concluded
to sober up and raise crop, but upon
discussing the subject with Miss Nancy
a net name for his wife-he learned that
during his long period of mourning he had
exchanged Buck and Ball, his oxen, for
mountain dew. His first impulse was to
90 over and shoot the still house man who
had taken advantage of his weakness, and
round up his oxen and hitch them to the
plow. but while he was loading his gun
the gators crawled out of the tank in the
lot and began to snort and below like
bulls.
can idea r exclaimed the thoughtful
Mr.. Stobbins. 'Get the pitchfork, Miss
Nancy, he shouted, land let us see if
we can t make them air varmints useful.
In telling the story few days ago to a
party of hunters Mr.. Stobbins said sit
Jest beat anything you ever saw. The
critters acted jest as if they understood the
situation, and when drove them out into
the field and hitched them to the pillow |
never popped whip over or stuck pitch
fork into a better team. They knew
whoa and gee just as well as any pair
Of oxen ever yoked together in all this
here broad domain of the land of liberty
called Texas put my crop in the ground
in hury-got away ahead of all my
nsighbors. They were the best pillow team
that ever straddle row of cotton. made
two bales and had it ginned before the
swallows and bluebirds got ready to fly
away to Mexico Said ] to Miss Nancy,
This here is fun, but it is only the be-
einnin' have sold the cotton at the
gin, and | have got the yalier boys iii my
pocket. Let us hitch up the gators and
90 down to Houston and lay in few things
ready for bear huntin'
. Done, dad, said Miss Nancy. ''and
no sooner said than done. She hitched
the gators to the cart and away we went,
bound for Houston with a pocketful of
rocks. No need to ask people to give the
road. Most peoples horses and mules
and oxen took to the woods as soon as they
got smell of u.s. We ratified into the
city, and you never seed no SIGH an ex
element. People quit sellin things and
utterly neglected Dusiuess W run alteT US
l was kinder dry, and stopped at saloon
and got jug filed. When l came out
people were starin' of their eyes out, and
a hollerin' and jest raisin' thunder. They
were a-rainin' questions at Miss Nancy,
and the varmints, being unused to sich
sights, and so much fuss, were cavortin
around and snappin' their jaws, wantin to
eat somebody or 60 There was band
wagon comm down the street with lot
of cussed fools in it BLOWN brass horns.
Then forty other wagons, all painted with
varmints sich as lions and tigers and beats
of the forests. was a-followin, and mixed
up with them was a lot of loose elephants
and camels and fools draped up in pritty
clothes. a-ridin' white horses. a circus,