The Press., 1897-04-22
TWO IN A SINK HOLE.
A KENTUCKY PRINTER NARRATES A
 THRILLING EXPERIENCE.

While Following the Call of His Faithful
 Dog He Met With a Mishap-In 8 Dark
 Hole With a Fierce Wild Beast-The Escape and Recognition.
 Pretty much everybody in the crowd had told @ story of the gun or dog or dshpole except a printer wbo looked about as much like hunter or fisher man as he did like an angel.
 ''It's your turn now, Muggins," said the reporter.
 "I never hunted anything but board Ing houses over in Brooklyn, he said, with wan and dodging kind of air, as if people threw things at him whenever he tried to tell story:
 But before you came here is what we want to know about" put in sev- ] sral, "and you've either got to tell 8 story or pay for the drinks every time any body else tells one."
 He moved about uneasily and pushed his chair back from the table, drawing it close up again immediately and final ly resting his hands clasped on the board ip front of him.
 "Well, gents," he said with the wan and lodging look still in his eyes, "let me think Q minute. Before came here lived in Chicago, where I was hunted instead of hunting. Before that I was in New Orleans, where I only hunted a job. Before that I was in St. Paul, where I was hunting a warm place all the time. Before that I lived ill Boston, where it was too frigid to hunt, and be- fore that, quite long time before that, I lived in old Kentucky, and, gents, did hunt there. Nothing but coon, mebbe, or fox or possum or as little as squirrel or only dove in the dusty road, but it was finer than anything on earth.
 "I was only boy, and perhaps that had something to do with it, but didn t know any different then, like do now, and it was just the finest on earth and no mistake" And his wan face lighted up as if he were looking through the open gates of paradise. "I recollect I had dog that was considerable of a hunting dog, but he was an unrestless kind of a cuss and when he treed any thing he would do lot of barking at first, but if somebody didn't come mighty quick he would give it up and go moseying along after the next thing in sight. One night was out with him after coons, and about O clock heard him bark like he was over in a clumr | of woods about a half mile away. knew was going to have to get to him pretty quick if found him there at all, and I started across field toward the woods as fast as could go. It was g 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 as went banging through the field, all at once I seemed to drop off o1 the earth and fall into cellar, and the1 I knew I had tumbled into a sink hole They are never very deep or dangerous and I 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 hadn't much time to think, and when I hit bottom I had still less, for instead o1 lighting on the ground or stones ol thicket. I lit on something alive. It was a wild animal of some kind, didn't know what, and I was scared till my hair began to feel funny on my head.
 "When I went down, I went hard and I kind of knocked the wind out O. the varmint at first, but in a second il began to yowl and snap and snarl and tG twist under me and try to get out ana to raise the dickens generally. In the meantime was yelling and squawkins and trying to scare the blamed thing because I thought it was a wildcat, ant I knew a boy of my size didn't hay, any show with a wildcat if the varmin ever took a notion ito fight, and knew pretty we'll that a wildcat was about a. sure to take Q notion to fight as any thing Cn earth. I don't know exactly what did in that hole or how did it but I remember it seemed about montl of Sundays that I was all mussed up il there with some kind of wild animal and finally the thing got from under m' and scooted as fast as it could for th' top of the sink hole. I followed after i as quick as could, for became bravel when saw it run, and when I got ul on the level the moon had come out ana could see the Varm1nt fa1rly sk1n ming it out for the tall timber. I yelled at itwith all my might, though l didn' run after it very fast, and began to cal my dog. On the second call the varmin stopped, and began to get ready to skin out myself, when get better look and, by the great horn spoon, gents, i was my dog. I called him then, and h. came back to me, and I could see fo myself that he had holed something down there in the sink, and his barking had been smothered and sounded ava, off to me, and of course when dropped in on him unexpectedly like that h. didn't know anything about it. and nei ther did I, and there we was. In an. event, gentlemen concluded the for mer Corncracker, "that dog come trot ting back to ne, and when we met fac to face in the moonlight he sorter look ed at me, and I sorter looked at him and don't know which one of us fel most like apologizing. I do know though, we both knocked off for that oc casion, and OH the way home we tool turn about sheaking along behind eacl other, me and the dog. ''-New Yorl Sun.
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