The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-11-30
VAGARIES OF
THE POSTUM DOG

From the New York Sun.
II have nevensbeen able to decide In my
own mind" an exiled Tennessean said.
whether the perfect 'possum dog ought to
be reekoned a canine anachronism or a
canine idiosyncraey. You see, his evolu-
ton is a thing defying- all rules. It is not
in the least matter of breed Neither has
heredity much to do with it. In litter
bred from famous hunters you may get one
'possum dog or none. or five out of six.
1.-The very finest dog 1 ever saw upon a
night was Sport. an imported English set-
ter, tremendously well-bred, and at first
as fine a bird dog as was ever shot over.
His master, the captain, didn't hunt much
save in the first week of the open season.
but he did ride and walk lot about tha
fields and woods. Sport was always at
his heels. and after little while taught
himself to be a 'possum dog. How ne
did it I know no more than you or any
other man knows what makes a 'possum
dog unlike any other dog. Sport soon got
to the pass of dlsdaining anything but
'possum. He would walk up to a covey of
quail, never turning a hair A rabbit in
plain sight he passed disdainfully by. But
once in the woods or along the edges of the
old fields he began shifting, shifting, never
giving tongue until he had followed the
trail home. Then he sat up and howled
and barked for all he was worth. When
You heard him you might get your axe and
light your torches. He had freed and no
mistake. Another good thing was that he
would not tree a coon or a squirrel. There
in he was unlike any other dog | ever
knew.
He was particularly unlike Reps, who
ranked next to him in 'possum excellence
Reps was a little black flee. He did not
stand over twenty inches nigh, and was
ridiculously light and small But if grit
and nose were ponderable, he would have
weighed nearly a ton. He would nose a
rabbit, and run him twenty yards in pure
wantonness, then fling up his head and
come dashing back to the hunters, with as
near resemblance to a grin dogs
face could possibly wear If he ran fur
Their you could be certain it was either a
coon or a 'possum, and you could gener-
ally tell which by a peculiar but indescrib-
able infection in his bark. For he barked
all the while ne was trailing, in little
snappy yelps With now and again a deeper
half-howl. 1t was only when he freed that
ne let out mis- voice fully and hearing it
you wondered where he had room for such
a volume of sound. He was as honest as
tie was little. In 200 runs with him 1 never
knew him to make but one mistake. And
then when the tree came down, with moth
ing in the top of it, it was funny to see
Reps stick his nose here and there through
the branches with the most innocent won-
dering air Really, what is all this aboutg
ha oil 10 ho 81; h.
found twenty-pound coon or big fat
rascal of 'possum, he would nave been
UP and at him in a twinkle never minding
teeth or claws.
But the oldest pair of ,possum dogs
within my knowledge were litter brothers,
brindle ours, rejoicing in the names of
Right and Wrong. Their masters both
black, were both Sans, distinguished in
plantation mouths as Bull Sam and lobe
Sam. Bull SAM who weighed two HIN
dred odd and was correspondingly sleek,
owned Wrong, and hunted with him four
nights of each fall week. 1t was his boast
that in the matter of 'possums Wrong
never failed to be right, while Right was
wrong almost half the time. But both were
dogs very much out of the ordinary though
they came of stock utterly without hunt
ing instincts. Their dam hardly ever left
the door yard, their sire was shot for
killing sheep. The dogs themselves had
equally good noses for coon or 'possum 1t
was not uncommon for Bull Sam and
Wrong to fetch in half a dozen of either.
Bull Sam indeed had a regular trade in
ceon-skin caps and waistcoats, besides
selling some raw skins to help in the mat
ter of Christmas money and putting tassels
OF coon tails upon the brides of every mule
he worked He believed most black
teamsters do, that the coon tails were a
charm to drive away 'conjure and make
the animals wearing them thrive and pull
And certainly he did have good-looking
teams always, no matter how SCARED and
scrawney they may have been when they
came into his charge.
"Tobe sam said it was all luck; that
Right was really much the better 'possum
dog, but it generally happened that he
started hunting when de sign want right
But We boys who went along at last made
up our minds it was Right, who wasn't
right. OF course, we never said So nor did
we try to reason it out. Looking back at it
all. 1 have decided that poor Right. like
so many other dogs, lacked something
some quality of delicate differentiation he
tween the scents of nisGat running beasts
He was good dog for all that. away and
above the mass. Eut no cur that ever
whelped deserved to be named along with
Sport, the thoroughbred, who by all rules
should not have been 'possum dog at
ALL"