The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-01-21
THE BIG, UNRELIABLE BUCK.
TALES or FRANK DEvfNE By BAF-
FLED ARKANsAs HUNTERS.
v.,,o., SAY lie IL Haunted md Only y
.,ly.r Bullet Can XIII Him-Instancos of
u. speed and Cunning In Playing With
al. Hound. Many Vain shots at Him..

.tlxeF Bulltt ~ ~ ssh va
u. sp~ed and Cunning In Playing With
a.. Hounds Many Vain shots at Him.
vn,sryIIF, Ark. Jan. frank Devins.
A.. upkillahle deer, still roarns the forests OF La
att. county. Still the bsllmouthsd hounds
~, an his Trail In tho early morning when the
10 d,n. like tears. from tho boards OF Spanish
~,s. and hts great sides stream with tho wet
I,,. hs crrshcs through tho underbrlsh. Still
~. Ae,heS past, antlers back tilted and tail
80 h,gb the shotgun roars It's hoarse threat
.nJ ,he uindiugs Il the hunters horns spur him
- ,,..h Effort still he Is monarch Of all his
AN. herenbont,, and the likelihood Is that he
.n ,ouunue for many years 70 defy the best
.,.,,on, Of his pursuers Things have reached
,.ss where 70 kill Frank Devine would make
an c.lel rated from here 70 Little Rock and
.rart Hundreds Of dollars have been spent
,..h,s,pv him The hes, dogs have been brought
Tom counties 200 miles away. Men
.noxpa As deer slayers from the woods Of Louisi-
80, and Te,ns have come 70 !oin In the hue and
,r The neetest horses that ever leapcd q log
.,.,s,hiyh. or dashed into the wide and tawny
% River a, II Il, were q creek. have Numbered
.ns, him. belly 70 the ground. The boldest
,Isrs that ever swayed in saddle have clustered
ruo, hs rack from tho rising Of the sun unto
,ss going down Of the same, but without avail
n. Nose, tho black fisherman Of Boncau, says:
sI.,usbvl Dat bucks er liant Do speriA
.v'rv bad deah in disher woods done got inter
h..s h!de Dogcat him. That expresses the
general belief,
There used to live within three miles OF Frost
,1Ie an old fellow who ran a mall general store
T., which the negroes OF the ~neighboring farms
T. .Il. ,,,latpr IIta arna m . EvapH
n.v,ne. and he was the most unreasonable, cam
t,nkerous. incalculable villain In three States
lie fought when there was no fight coming; ran
when he should have maintained his rights:
shaved sober on Christmas and Fourth Of July
and 20, drunk on Easter Sunday; would not
srcep, paper money In payment for goods: was
s,ric,ly union all through the war, because ev-
ervbody else he knew was widely Confederate;
,s,rsed TO marry because he was well of and
-chullun might git wat l been workin' fur
nil, salt into his coffee and sugar into his soup
and. in general. conducted himself as a cross
between a lunatic and a Yankee Of Scotch de-
seen, might be expected To conduct himself, When
the grip came through the country he declared
tina, II was necessarily fatal. He had vast but
vague ideas Of the germ Of grip and used TO pic
turs It as a sort Of Numidian lion, with the skin
ola rhinoceros and the appetite Of a gorilla, Plenty
Of people had the grip and got well. which he
REGARDED as distinctly a swindle. In order To prove
that they had suffered from an imitation dis
ease and had no, come within a mile Of the genu-
Inc article, he took it and turned up his toes, leav-
ing his estate 70 his dear friend, William Bul-
lock Of Plain Dealing" whose leg he had shot
of in a drunken fight five years before.
HIS memory lived after him. II is a sort Of
Local stock in trade and will last probably
as long as Arkansas lasts Six months after
his death there zane rumors Of a remarkable
deer that had been seen by farm hands in the
upper part Of Lafayette county. He was descrih-
ei as being Of size and strength. with
great spread OF antlers and phenomenal speed.
He was first identified BY his track, which was one
and a half times as long as that Of the ordinary
deer and nearly twice as wide. Later he was seen
by an excited negro. who declared him to be
'biggerp a yearlin' mule" Several white men
went after him and did not get him. They did sec
him however. and they brought back corrobora-
ton Of the darby tales az to his size and the size
Of his tracks Hunts upon larger scale with the
same results were organized, and gradually
the animals celebrity spread. Because he seemed
20 disdsin the ordinary tactics Of the driven indi-
viduals of his kind and TO work out his salvation
In his own way, never by any chance doing the
thing he was eHrected to do. he was named one day
BY A disguised hunter In q IT Of inspiration. "old
Frank Devine,- and the name has stuck TO him
Partly because Of his name and partly because
ri his seemingly charmed life. not a few Of the
negroes have come 10 believe, not thatthe spirits
Of had deer have entered into him, but that he is
Inhabited by the astral body Of old Frank Devine
himself, whose physical bones rest in the little
cemetery at Walnut Hin This belief has tended
somewhat 70 the presery alton of the deer, for no
negro holding ii would fire a muz,le loading
shOtg un, or "lnfiel' nile at him for hatred or
money The animal has done his best to live up
70 his name, SO that ne has become even more
widely known than the cross grained old rufian
whose name he bears.
ItiS the habit Of the ordinary deer TO follow GER
tain well defined rlnways and 70 affect certain
limited regions Of country, In time their habitats
become known, aud people acquainted with them
are always able to Jump one for the benefit Of the
visitor When jumped they leave their beds
by one or two OF three established routes Thus
Il is possible for other members Of the patry 10
take stands with a fair chance Of a kill. Frank
Devine does nothing OF the kind. lie Is as likely
70 be found in one part Of lafayette county as in
another and il AS apt to be beyond the Louisiana
line as in Arkansas. He has never been known
70 leave his bed by the same runway twice in sue
cession Indeed, he cannot be said 20 have any
rlnways, more often than not going straight away
through IN UluNS anu ptSIbhhS, nv lHdlNfI Nud'
the Obstacles ahead Of him. Swamp, river and
hill open field and dense canebreak arc all one
70 him There is no soil too treacherous for his
sharp feet, and there IL no bar, apparently, erected
by hands that is too tall for him to leap With
twenty dogs carolling within 800 yards Of him
and the echoot helast shotgun ringing In hisears,
he has been known to double and go straight back
atfull speed, within fifty yards Of his former path
way, and 10 dash by the astonished hunter who
could know ofhis arrival onl by the crash Of some
smi,ten limb and the shrill snort Of defiance
Conversely, he has leaped up at the first sound
o.theioremost dog and buckled down to a straight.
away chase that tirelessly took the pack across
two counties, until they gave u up and h"bbled
homeward, as we'll as they could upon three legs
apiece The testimony Of people through whose
farms the pursuitled has been always to the effect
That Frank DeviDe was running as strongly nj
The ending as at the beginning. He has gone
without check ~ pause from the lower end OF
BoSsler parish, in louisiana, 10 beyond Lewis
crossing the Shreveport and Nicksburg, the Cot
tonhelt and the Iron Mountain Railway lines in
doing ltand when last seen, according 10 the negro
spectator was les er long brindle streak, wild er
Vite splash at de- hInPrd eend," IL stands TO rea'
sOn that no band Of hounds on earth can hope to
fang a buck Of this character II is hoped that
he vii be killed some day, but nobody can say
exactly how
There is no dependence to be placed In the word
oi n negro cotton picker regarding the size OF
any beast seen by him, To him circus elephants
Or" larger than houses and n tiger is forty feet
long Many white men have seen Frank Deyine'
however. aud they agree that he is larger than
any deer ever skinned in this part Of the world,
4 buck will weigh $50 pounds dressed II OF good
sL2" From that they run up TO l75 pounds.
The lowest estimate placed upon the weigh, ~
Frank Dovlne Is 225 pounds and there are some
enthusiasts who say that II he IL ever hung head
dlvnWerd from a tree and ripped open, he Will
w m" branl At 800 pounds. He Is asserted 70 De