Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1899-04-12

his cousin, is six feet two inches tall,
and weighs perhaps. $50 pounds. Big
Jephtha Hounds is SO years old, Little
Jephtha is 90 years younger.
To emphasize the anomaly, Little
Jephtha Hounds. the s~iX-footer, was
never anything but a retiring, entirely
unobtrusive person. content with his
fiddle, his little farm and his glass of
sweet cider in the kitchen before going
to bed. He never owned o gun, he never
spent a day in the lumber woods. he
never was one night away from home
in his life. Whereas Big Jephtha
Hounds, with his five feet of stature
and his 100 or so pounds of weight,
steered a raft from pretty near the
keadwaters clear to Pittsburgh before
he was 90, and never struck so much
as a snag. That same season he
whipped Injin Ben. who had whipped
pretty much everybody on the Broken
straw. Cider wasn't good enough for
Big Jephtha, unless il was terribly hard
and plenty of it. Rum and tansy was
his favorite tipple. He would take a
bear track on a Monday and follow that
track night and day until the follow.
ing Monday, if he didn't get the bear
sooner. II the bear led him a chase
longer than that he would say he didn't
want ii, because a bear that kept ahead
of him a week would he too much "het
up and too thin for healthful use
If a panther made its presence known
anywhere in the neighborhood, Big
Jephtha Hounds was the first TO go
out to hunt that terror down, and his
success rs a panther hunter was great.
Long after the panthers were gone he
was a terror to bears and a great slayer
of deer. Twenty years ago, while on &
bear hunt, he fell over a high ledge o.
rocks and broke his leg. lie Dragged
himself four miles to the Bridge settle
ment, where DR.. Balloon told him that
his leg would have to be amputated.
"If that's the best you can do" said
Big Jephtha. "cut her Off"
The doctor cut the leg off below the
knee, and Big Jephtha watched him do
it without a quiver. Little Jephtha
was there to see what he could do TO
help Big Jephtha during the ordeal,
but when the doctor began The opera
ton Little Jephtha tainted dead away,
and they had to carry him out of the
room. Big Jephtha was around on
clutches in a month or so, and by and
by he got a wooden leg. He was just
us full of snap as ever, and declared he
wouldn't hesitate a minute to go after
a deer or bear Just the same as of old,
but he'd "be darned if he thought he
could stand seem bears he might be
follerin' turn round and laugh at Big
Jephtha Hounds for carryin' a clog"
1t is the custom of bear trappers to fas-
ten a wooden clog to their traps, and
frequently when a bear is trapped he
will prove smart enough to pick the
clog up and carry it. Big Jephtha
compared himself and his wooden leg
to a bear carrying a clog.
About that time they built the Mil
ler's creek toll bridge, and a tolltaker
was necessary. They chose Big Jeph-
tia Hounds for the place, built him a
snug little house at The end of the
bridge, and there he has sat for nearly
81 years, taking toll and telling stories
of his long life in the woods. There /
Visited him, and there he said to me as
above:
"I'm sorry you wasn't here 60 years
ago and better. Then you'd q know'd