Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-28
NATURE OF BLOODHOUNDS.
Not Mt All Likely to Hurt Their Flee
ing Victim.
From the Omaha B

From the Omaha Bee.
1T is a peculiar fact" said Detective
Frank D. Mitchell the other day, that the
general public has an entirely erroneous
idea as to the nature and characteristics
OF the bloodhound. The popular opinion Is
that he Is a beast Of giant frame and I'M
usually ferocious, with a penchant for eat
ing the criminal whom he has brought to
nay. Another common error is that he can
follow scent Indefinitely, through a thou
sand sinuosities, though it may be inter-
sected by any number of other trails.
The average bloodhound is no more to
be dreaded so far as his fierceness is con-
cerned than pug. He is a gaunt, raw
peak: sleepy eyes and long. pendulous ears.
AS to disposition he is lazy. His useful
ness lies chiefly in the keenness of his OIL
factory nerves. enabling him to follow
fresh scent many miles. He seldom touches
his quarry when run to earth, however,
and never does unless starved to it. The
bloodhound differs from the English fox
hound, in that he never gives tongue or
bays while following scent.
''Boodhounds are not of much use in
tracking criminals in a city, or where there
Is comparatively dense population, as the
numerous cross trails confuse them. This
was demonstrated last winter when We
were hunting two nigroes named Will Tony
and Sam Barnette. The people of Benson
had been complaining Of chicken thieves
Almost every night some hencoop in that
suburb of Omaha would be looted. and
finally Detective Drummy and 1 were de-
tailed to work up the case. We put in
several days on 1t without landing our
man. and the aggravating part of 1t was
that the thefts were going right on even
while were hunting for the criminals.
Well, eventually we decided to adopt heroic
measures. We had a consultation with
several prominent citizens of Benson. and
the result was we sent to Beatrice for a
pack of bloodhounds.
1--WE kept the dogs in hiding until there
was another foray on a hencoop. and then,
bright and early one morning, the hounds
were put on fresh trail. They followed
1t about a quarter Of a mile and finally
came to a standstill on the front porch Of
a house in the outskirts of the village.
THE family that lived in this house bore
good reputation but we decided to go IN
anyhow and make investigation. We
searched everywhere, from cellar to gar
ret, but there was no sign OF stolen
chicken. Not even feather could be
found on the premises. Then we took the
dogs back to the starting point and had
them go over the trail again. and again
they wound up on the front porch Of the
same house. Try as we would we couldn' t
get the beasts to leave that place; me
trail seemed to end there. If the thieves
had gone up in balloon al that point they
couldn't have obliterated their tracks more
efTectually. So the dogs were declared a
failure and were sent PACK TO beatrlCs.
Later we succeeded in catching Tony
and Barnette red-handed with the evil
dence of their guilt upon them, and they
confessed l have never been able to ex-
plain to my own satisfaction why the trail
left off so abruptly on the porch Of that
particular house. There Is a tradition
comes up from the south, survivor OF the
te-bellum days, that II a fleeing slave
tied sliced onions upon the soles Of his
feet the hounds could not track him Per
haps that Is what Barnette and Tony dld
on the piazza Of that house, don't know