The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-13
FATE OF THE LAST WOLF.
THE MATTER CLEARED UP BT THE
MAN FROM SINNEMAHoNING.

| ~ hAtNNhVAhoio HNNpN-
was There. ana 20 was Rcuben's Remark
nbis steer. which Gave Up Farming to Me-
cone mn AvenEer on the Trait OF wolves
ROULETTE, Pa, March lit don't suppose
there's a man on this side Of the mountain" said
the man from over Sinncmahoning way, that
hasn't heard all about how the last wolf In
Pennsylvania was disposed Of. I'll bet there
isn't one OF you who can't get up and tell just
how and when and where 1t was done and who
did 1t, and I'll double the bet that every one OF
you will have u different day and date for the
doing of IL, and a different way In which it was
done and give tho credit to a different man for
doing it. Sure! Why, say! Tho way you toll
IL on this mountain the last wolf in Pennsyl.
vania was killed In 30 many different years ana
In 80 many different places and In so many diff
fereht ways and by so many different persons
that IT doesn't seem 10 mt as IL there ever could
have been a last wolf at all. But there was.
There was, indeed. And l wish you could have
hoard my remarkable father, Reuben Pettlbone,
tell how 1t was got rid OF. There was but one
last wolf in Pennsylvania. History on this side
of the mountain says different, 1 know. But
history hasn't got anything to do with this
wolf. This wolf is in the clutch of fact. Reu-
ben Pettibone knew all about this wolf and
many \ time did he tell me about il. Hence IL
Is on record, because / haven't forgotten II and
1 will hand 1t down. But 1 wish you could
nave nehru reuben BottlDOnt tell ABOUT III.
Dear me! 1 wish you could! Then you would
know, indeed, when and how tho ,ast wolf in
Pennsylvania disappeared. Indeed you would.
My, my, my! What things Reuben Pettibone
could tell about! And how he could tell emf
And how well / remember EN-! Even to
things that happened when my remarkable
father was q boy. How well I remember 'emi
Amy Teller that kin recomembcr when his
father was a boy ouGh: to be able 10 recomem-
Der pretty nigh everything that over happened,
pears to met said the man in the red, blue.
pink. green, yellow and purple Mackinaw
jacket.
"Mackinaw," said tho man from over Slime.
mahoning way, my remarkable father, Reuben
Pettibonc, was a man Of the most painfully Be-
we're, conscientious scruples. His stock of ve-
racity would have filled a barn. He had a way
of telling things that was so simple and unvar-
nished that you could see truth stamped all over
1t US plain as the pimples on q picked goose. He
could put things before you SO vividly that you
would feel as If you were right in tho thick Of
what ho was describing. Wonderful man that
way! Wonderful! l have lain awake nights
thinking how lucky it was that he was born on
the Sinnemahone and not in ancient Greece.
Lucky for Homer, l mean. Because then tho
name of PettibOne would have ratified down the
slopes of time as that Of the boss thinker.up Of
the best way TO tell things, and Homer would
have tramped the soles Off his sandals and
twanged his Tyre for nothing. Why, sayl re-
member once my remarkable father was enter
tanning us one evening with the careful details
OF an adventure he had had with a wildcat, and
he did the thing all over again with such real
ls1c touches that just as plainly as l see you now
l saw that ferocious wildcat going for him 30 full
of business that l ran and got the old musket,
and would have blown the head Off of something
II just at that moment father hadn't shown how
he had grabbed the catanount bv the throat,
shut on its wind, and hurled 1t lifeless to the
ground. Even then the scene was 30 real to me
that 1 ran to yank the hide of the beast where it
lay, and only came TO the sense that l was sim
s~criptiye genius as | grabbed my elder brother
oy me hair and he punched me u the jaw. Thus
a siar 81 ngTp sea, f tSsI ? Ssv : ff sIIan Sncans were 81. 30
into the habit of treating them as personal REM
'niscences, and the incidents of even the earliest
that, truly, Maekinaw, i ACTUALLY feel that / re.
member when my remarkable father was a boy!
math Of genius. that's ali. Influence Of the won.
dertul genius Of Reuben Pettibone.
now; and offer big odds. that every one of you
Is thinking that 1 am going, to tell you how
forth to rid the Commonwealth Of that pestifcr.
GUS last wolf, and how he followed it scores Of
encolinte ni it 'i many Hit tim asu with thi3 aeEce fbS oidnps:;
until he was ripped and torn and wet with
thing. for you'd lose. Reuben Pettibone never
related anything OF The kind. because he never
kill II. He didn't even have q hand in its killing.
a heap. And he has handed 1t down. n' A"'"
When Reuben Pettibone started in to make
nest along the s~innemahone. The yell. OF the
panther. the howl OF the wolf, the growl Of the
bear. were more familiar sounds than the chirp
"'praIiteles. my remarkable father used to
soy to me, the life OF the husbandman in that
mart OF tho SiQnemnhOna in thOaa iu Va Wns D't
raising live STOCK It didn't depend so much On
whether the powder and ball held out. 1t took
four pounds OF powder and twenty pounds OF
Clearing 10, didn't inS'V feed ftnt 70 the { pig pR 0u t
fed, Il, to the four p~anthors, the nineteen wolves,
and the seven bears that came round now and
then TO geo how the pig, was getting along
do "w 8onSoS got ps So bad BY Sor and n by that al II the he
only an aggravation to EN-, they ate those dogs
up 20 fast, Remarkable as my father was. he
a way out Of the trouble those wolves We're roll.
inR. up for him II that remRrkablcness of his
h "a a. be been s=asGinina' So, SO to SPEAK; 1t turned II led
chicken pox; Just II time: 100: Mt q minute
Reuben Pe.tibOne was on the verge OF getting
"Ail he had left was the brindle steer. He
shut tho steer in the log barn. but the very next
wolves came down from the mountain. got into
the barn through a chink and started in TO take
the steer away with them. Reuben Peitibone
didn't know this until he heard tho steer bell
lowing and the wolves snarling.. Then he was
mad. Without waiting to think Of conse-
guences. he rushed for that barn. He flung tho
door open and then he saw a sight. A big wolf
had his fanRs sunk deep in Tho steers nose.
Another wolf, bigger yet, had his jaws set in
tho steers left flank and another one was hang
ing to the steers right flank. The steer was
wolves loose by slamming them against the logs
and at the same time was ramping beneath his
feet the carcasses of eight other big wolves that
he had kicked and hooked and butted TO death.
The barn had a small yard to II, Enclosed by
q log fence. Tho moment the steer saw the barn
door open he bounced out of II, with the three
!, ferocious and ravenous wolves hanging to him.
one to his nose and the others " his TANKS,
sticking straight. out In the air as the steer
dashed out into the yard.
81 saw at once, Praxiteles,' my remarkable
father used to say. that this steer had profited
, bv daily contact with me and was developing