Evening star., 1899-03-17
A BATTLE ROYAL.
FerOcfous Texas Peccaries XIII Three
Bears and Puma.

SoWooss OF Spangler ranch mad three full-
grown bears captured at one time OF other
IN the Santiago mountains. The bears
wandered about the ranch and stables.
eternally in some mischief. but nobody feared
them, as they were always good humored
and playful. Over at Tom Ray ranch, near
Los Chisos, the boys owned a two-year-old
Mexican lion. or panther. That sort of pet
VIII always become dangerous by the time
1t is two years old, and this particular one
was ABOUT the meanest lion ever caught in
that section, and the boys of Tom Ray
ranch concluded to fight him, IL n battle
could De arranged. with the bears of Spang-
ler.
Before arrangements could be made MexI-
can Pepe. hunter for Spangler ranch, dis
covered a den of peccaries, or wild hogs as
the Texans call them. The band discovered
by Pepe had for its headquarters a cave in
foothill OF the mountains The mouth of
the cave was Less than two feet in diane
ter, but the cave itself was fully forty feet
wide and sixty feet long Pepe was hunt
ing at the time, and the musky odor of the
peccaries betrayed them. Luckily for Pepe
the band must have just returned from
some excursion, as they were asleep at the
tfma, and before they awoke Pepe had
corheo up the entrance to the cave with
rocks, which were thickly streyn about
When Pepe returned to the ranch and
told his story the cowboys proposed a bat
tle royal They sent word to Tom Ray
ranch ana the COWBOYS of that ranch
whlle the boys had built a heavy rail fence
about 100 feet square and ten feet high
above the cave. The next morning thsre
were fifty boys of Tom RAY ranch as many
or more from the Eockett ranch and ne.rly
Ioo OF the Spangler ranch bows gathered
together. The ground within the rallied in
closure was cleared of every obstacle ex-
cept four good-sized stumps to each of
which a bear or panther was chained uitb
d tWenty-foot chain. Each of the stumps
nad been squared off three feet above the
ground. "
AT l o'clock all was ready for the hattie
except the peccaries This part of the work
was delegated to Red jim an Indian COW
| Doy OF Spangier, with the betting at . 10 /
that Jim would get nipped before he could
get out of reach of the infuriafed ,,accaries
But Jim knew his business h first Tnlled
stones ard placed them several feet from
| the mouth of the cave to impede the brutes
sr should they get out too quick for him.
| Then he slipped a lariat aroun6 tho hi,,
stone which corked I'D the mouth of th5
cave. Retreating fifteen or twenty feet he
gave the iariat strong pull and out came
| a stream of raging wild hogs. They DIDN'T
! eaten Jim, but they came close enousb 10
spring at his heels as he scaled tho fence
lhen IulIy 100 mad and swapping pecraries
stood a minute and looked around In
front Iorty or fifty feet away, were three
Dig bears and Mexican lion Most naorle
would think that such sight would b,i,.a
sCared the peccaries but it did nothing of
me sort oh the contrary, the bears ard
.ne non n began to display signs of unaasi-
| ness The bears quickly climbed ia the ton
OF the tree stump to which ;ba,, W.
chained and the lion squatted and showed
| its teeth. 7-''"eu
Betting was about even. Bronchos. sad
dies, brides, Winchesters and cowboys nos
sessions of all sorts went up on fhe re
SUIT until the ground was covered with niles
OF traps The peccaries didn't wait. bur
with general squeak of rage Charged
their adversaries. Squads of something like
equal number attacked each bear and lion
ana then followed fight to the death The
pears stood with all four feet on each
stump and as the peccaries sprang AT them
they struck right and left knocking the
pusnacious brutes yards away Half a
dozen peccaries had received severe injuries
from the claws and blows and IL began TO
| look like a win-out for the bears when
suddenly two of the wild hogs sprang up
Deh1nd one of the bears while his attention
was attracted in front and in a second
they had severely npped him in the rear
turning too quickly the bear slipped and
| fell from his pedestal. In second there
was mass of reddish brown bristles and
pear Iur mixed inextricably at the foot of
the stump, rolling, tumbling, grunting and
squeaking with rage and pain. Bruin man.
aged to regain his feet once and endeay-
ored to get back on the stump but the
peccares would have none of it, They
charged him in 'front.' ripped him in the
| sides and rear and he fell back into the
Wr1thing mass. minute more and one
bear was lifeless. shapeless mass. with
INTO ribbons and cracking his bones like
pieces of glass
While this was going on the remaining
bears and the lion had their paws and laws
| full of business. The bears still safely
perched on their respective StumDs but
We're kept busy knocking off the peccaries,
which We're doing their level best to dis
lodge them. Half dozen were lying on
| their backs dead while others were jump
| ing about wounded, yet mad and uncon-
querable as ever, while the bears them
serves had not escaped scot free. A num-
Der OF scarlet spots on their black hair
showed where the peccares had left inn
prints of their scimitarlike tusks. One of
| the peccaries caught a grip on the hind
quarters of one of the bears and hung on
| like grim death. The bears foothoId
was lost and he fell squarely into the laws
OF the swapping mob below. Then followed
another battle on the ground, with the
bear underneath, and the wild hogs in a
yellow bank above, swapping and strug-
CLING to get at their enemy The bear be-
gan to work his hind feet and bodies of
wild hogs began to fly upward and out
ward, ripped from end to end by the claws
of the bear. The bear at last got on his
feet and backed up against the stump. He
sat there and beat the peccaries away
knocking fully a dozen into kingdom come
before the hogs succeeded in overcoming
him.
Meanwhile thirty or more of the peccaries
not mixed up in the fight with the bears
We're either strung out over the field try
attacking the Mexican lion. The long
1.-the body of the lion had thus far escaped
| serious injury. having received only a few
gashes from the tusks of his enemies while
tour or five of the wild hogs were lying
at the foot of the stump on which the
panther very early in the fight found IL
necessary to take refuge. But as the rag
ing peccaries drew off from the dead bears
they turned their attention to the lion
swarming about the stump four or five
deep.
The lion soon saw that with enemies
jumping at him from all sides he could not
| much longer retain his position. Suddenly.
with an ear-piercing scream, he sprang
out and into the midst of the swarm of
hogs. where. slashing right and left. he
cut a swath, ripping open and killing a
number before they recovered from their
surprise. In second the lion was out of
the mass and back on the stump. Twice
was the same feat performed. Each time
the lion dashed downward, knocking and
slashing the life out of number and then
jumping over their backs out of reach, and
1t began to look though IT would end
in his whipping the lot and getting away
without great damage, but when he sprang
down the third time his chain became en-
Iad in ha hnd nf nd