The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-31
THESE GOATS FIGHT eEAas.
Hunsicker Propelled to Victory on Hi
Queer Farm.

A special dispatch to the New York
Sun from Williamsport, Pa, says:
Four years ago when Jerry Hunsicker
started his goat farm away up on the
mountains in the Pine Creek regions,
I he had no idea that one Of the worst
enemies he would have to contend with
| would be black bears. He leased nearly
1000 acres of mountain land, off which
the hemlock, pine and hardwood trees
had been cut. A growth Of under
! brush afforded excellent browsing and
as Hunsicker had raised many goats
down in the Schuylkill coal regions,
| where they had little else but laurel to
eat, he thought that the animals would
thrive on the fresh shrubbery of the
| Pine creek hills To-day he has drove
of $50 goats, among them being several
of the most obstreperous billy goats
| that ever paved dust or butted an ad-
| versary. And it is a good thing fer
! Hunsicker that these fighting goats
were on hand; otherwise his kids would
have suffered worse than they did from
| the bears.
Pine creek bears are famous for their
| trout catching propensities, and the
| small farmers back in the Puterbaugh
| mountains have suffered owing to their
| taste for lamb. Hunsicker's goats and
| kids were something new for the Pine
| creek bears. For the first season or two,
therefore, the goats were unmolested.
The flock flourished, and more than one
| half-grown goat was slaughtered and
| shipped to an unsuspecting customer
as the meat of fawn or doe. Indeed,
! people who know venison when they
| eat it declare that the meat from Jerry
| Hunsicker's goat farm has superb fla
| yor. But last fall the bears got onto
| the value of kid and Hunsicker's trou-
| bles began. Black bears have killed
and carried away at least dozen of his
| October kids, and before the winter is
| over he fears that the seasons profits
| will have been spoiled. He has had
! something more than trouble with his
goats this winter, though, and the bears
| have been the cause of it.
| The first winter that he lived in the
Pine creek region he did some trapping
for furs He captured several black
BEARS and from the skins of two of the
largest he had a great coat made. with
which to keep warm while out in the
| mountains taking care of his goats.
The coat comes almost to his toes, and
| with cap made of bearskin on his
head the big goat herder has more OF
the appearance of a black bear than
man. He is convinced of that fact him
self, since a week ago rousing cid
billy goat mistook him for a bear.
Hunsicker has one particularly pug
nacious goat that he has named Weyler
because of his ugly disposition. Weyler
has more than once stood between the
flock of frightened kids and she goats
and a marauding bear. The goats roam
at will over their masters preserve,
and since the SHOWS of winter have
fallen they have been forced to seek i'll
the rayines the moss and other tender
browsing that the high grounds no
longer afford. The other day Hunsick-
err missed one of his incest half-grown
goats, and made up his mind that 1t
had fallen victim to some bear. lie
determined to keep a lookout for Bruin,
and the next day when the goats wsre
turned out from the shelter shacks he
prepared to follow them to their brow
sing grounds. He knew the ravine,
nearly two miles away, in which tie
goats We're feeding at that time, and
he started to make a detour and work
his way down from the head of the ra-
vine, thinking that by SO doing he.
| might run across the bear. He was
armed with a heavy revolver. He was
never much of shot with a rifle, but
his comrades in the cavalry service
during the civil war say that as a piss
| toll shot he Is hard to beat. He does all
| his bear, fox and wildcat hunting with
a pistol, and even Waen making the
rounds of his traps he carries nothing
else in the way of firearms.
He reached the head of the ravlne
and was making his way down along
the little stream under the hemlocks
toward the point where he knew he
would find the goats, when ne dlscoV-
cred fresh bear tracks in the snow
There were the tracks of two bears. He
| had gone only short distance further
when he came upon the remains or one
of his kids. He was sure, then, that lie
was on the track of the thieving bears,
and he knew, too, that the fresh tracks
meant that the marauders were al
ready on their way to the flock for
breakfast. Half mile further he heard
the frightened bleating of his goats.
Gaining a slight elevation from which
he could obtain a view across the brush,
| he saw a good-sized black bear held at
bay by one of his billy goats, who was
prancfng in front of the apparently
| Enlightened bear much like ban
| tam rooster about Shanghai. The sec
| ond bear he could not see, and in order
| to get a still better view Of the situa-
| ton he crawled upon log, one end OF
| which projected over ledge of rocks.
| Picking over these rocks Hunsicker
caught sight of the second bear down
| in the ravine, acting very queer!y.
| Bruin appeared to be in distress, for he
| held his paws over his abdomen and
every now and then rolled round much
| as a schoolboy would do after session
with green apples. This bear interested
HunSlcker so mucn that ne IofBol tIe
| other Indeed, he was so wrapped up
| in the bears antics that he failed to
notice the approach of the pugnacious
| Weyler.
| Weyler was the cause of the bears
distress. Hunsicker's bearskin coat cx-
| cited the ire of the victorious animal,
| and he started head on for the supposed
| enemy And it was most unfortunate
| for Hunsicker, for without an instants
warning he received blow that sent
him flying over the ledge into the nem-
lock thicket below. He landed within
a rod of where the now partly recov-
cred bear was sitting. Luckily for Hun
sicker his big coat and the hemlock
boughs broke his fall, and when he got
himself together he found that he was
unhurt Above him, looking down ever
the rocks, he saw the triumphant Way-
| Ter. Then Hunsicker bethought him
| L. icto and tho newt Secn,ad