The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-22
A BEAR HUNT IN LOUISIANA.
BRUIN'S SAVAGE BATTLE IN THE
HEART or THE SWAMP.

Manuel, a negro of Cuban extraction,
has a reputation that extends all through
Central louisiana for the superlatlvely
excellent way in which he cooks bears
meat The heather have been known to
fry bears meat, but they never met
Manuel or tasted any of his stew. Ger
tain parts of the bears carcass, the ten
derloin and the shortest of the short
ribs, are not bad to take when broiled
on the Goals, but all the other edible
portions of him should be treated as Man
uel treats them. d.
This is the way he does 1t: Getting
u three-legged iron pot, capacity dour
gallons, he places it on the fire, half
filled with water and hominy. When the
water has come to a boil he put in two
whole pods of the red bell pepper and
half dozen Of the minute chile paths.
The chile patin is the small, round, red
berry from which Tabasco sauce is made.
1t is a little hotter than fire. A belt of
this pepper, singularly enough, extends
from New Iberia, La, to within fifty
miles of the City of Mexico, well defined
all the way. The berries turn red when
| the frost has fallen on them, and al this
stage the wild turkey is fond of them.
The bushes are not more than three feet
| high and turkeys will walk twenty live
miles in day going from bush to bush.
| When killed on the Nueces river in west
| ern Texas, their flesh is frequently so hot
| that it is unpalatable. MeNcans deVour
| chile paths from babyhood. DR.. Taylor,
| at one time connected with the health de-
| partment of New York city, bought a
ranch in the Devils River country. He
| found thirty sick cowboys on it when he
| took charge. They had been living on
| -four bread bacon, beef ana black coffee
| He gave them beans with chiles, goats
! flesh with chiles, beef with chiles, corn
| bread, venison with chiles and chiles
| straight, to be taken like small pills, three
of them before breakfast. In three
months every Rough Rider in his employ
was able to whip his weight in wildcats.
| The chile patin is one of natures com
| pensations. 1t is grown In tropic coun-
| try because il is the greatest liver medt-
| cine ever found by man. No one who eats
| it ever suffers from bile.
| When Manuel has put his hominy and
| bell pepper and chile paths and salt, he
| dumps into the bubbling mixture bears
| meat. cut in cubes of a half inch. When
| done, the mess is Of the consistency of
| thick soup and is served in bowls Ii IS
| too good for the gods. 1t Is a singular
| quality of bears meat cooked in this way
| that the amount of it that can be con-
| sumed without i'll effects is enormous.
| An ordinary man can put six pounds or
| the fat into his stomach and sleep like
| en- infant. This quality belongs also to
the flesh of the 'possum, but to no other
| animals, and the doctors have never been
| able to account for it.
Manuel goes along as cook with all the
| bear-hunting expeditions organized here.
| Around camp he is an autocrat. He or
ders mis- white employers as if they be
longed to him, reversing the old Spndition
when he belonged to one of them. They
bear with him because he is chief of his
| kind and he has his tempers. They dare
not risk spelling the stew. A bear hunt
in this part of the country is like bear
| hunt nowhere else. One occurs not often
er than four times in a year. and 1t
| is an affair of preparation. A dozen or
| half dozen planters, or sons of planters,
having agreed to spend ten days in the
woods, begin six weeks before hand to
| steal every dog they can lay hands on.
1t matters not whether IL be young or
old, large or small, male or female,
pointer, setter, deerhound, foxhound, mas
tiff bull fee, cur. poodle, spaniel or ter
rier so that it be dog. The object is to
get a pack of size, not of quality. Num-
| bers are made to count for more than
nose or ferocity. Every plantation negro
| owns from one to six dogs of varying
| breed, and he would rather part with his
| wife than with any one of them. The
| stealing is thus necessary.
! AS fast as the animals are caught they
/ are put into one general pen, built on the
| edge of the swamp, which runs up TO the
| edge of the plantation, and here they fight
| furiously for days and nights and weeks.
| They are fed better than at any other
| time in their life and grow fat. This
| rofla of
house" on the plantation of their deten-
| ton, because the noise coming from 1t Is
| some thing too weird for words. 1t Is a
sort of impromptu pound, only more
| beautifully bedogged than any other
| pound ever was, and hired hand of the
| bear-hunting gang guards IL ever for fear
! that some of the dogs owners may seek
| 10 recover their property. The pen in
Itself is an interesting thing to watch II
| a man can stand the noise, because, from
| first to last, it is not anything except
| dog It's interior Is solid mass of squrm-
| ing bowling dogmeat. Every color OF
| four-egged yelper born since the world
| BEGAN is shut up inside of IT, When the
| start is to be made these dogs are thrown
| into two or three huge cane wagons, which
| have bars across their tops, and every
body in the countryside hears them as
| they jolt along.
Fifty miles south Of Alexander is a dis
| trict known as the Big Caney. Through
| the middle of the Big Caney runs slug
! gish bayou. wide and deep, and for five
miles on either side Of 1t stretches an
almost inpenetrable swamps Of expresses.
water oaks and canes, which reach some
| times to a height Of forty feet Many
| pools are in this swamp, round and ark,
| s+agnant and foul smelling. Green scum
aoats along their edges, and their sur
| faces are dotted with lily pads large
enough to bear the weight Of a man. On
| these pads the bullfr0g squats while pro-
| frndo notes saw their way out Of him,
the deadly water moccasin lies curled in
! sunny slumber, and on decayine logs the
| hardsh4ll turtles doze in hundreds Strange
/ vividly-colored birds fit in the meshed
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