The times., 1900-12-27
THE NATURE OF BLooDHouNDs.
As Likely to Rend and DevOur the
Fleeing Victim us is The Pug.
HrOIn the Omaha Bcc


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 Re is a beast of giant frame and
unusually ferocious, with a penchant for
eating the criminal whom he has brought
to bay. Another common error is that he
can fellow scent Indefinitely, through a
thousand sinuosities, though it may be in
tersected by any number of other trails.
'The average bloodhound is no mere TO
be dreaded SO far as his fereeness is con-
cerned than pug He is gaunt, raw
boned creature, with head running TO a
peak; sleepy eyes and long, pendulous
ears. As to disposition, he is lazy. His
usefulness lies chiefly in the keenness of
his olfactory nerves. enabling him to fol-
low 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 a scent.
"Bloodhounds are not of much use in
tracking criminals in a city, or where
there is comparatively dense population.
as the numerous crcss-trails confuse
them This was demonstrated last winter
when we were hunting two negroes named
Will Tony and Sam Barnette. The people
OF Benson had been complaining of chick
en- thieves. Almost every night some hen
coop in that suburb of Omaha would be
looted. and finally Detective Drumn1y and
/ were detailed TO work up the case. We
put n several days on it without landing
our man, and the aggravating part of it
was that the thefts were going right on,
even while we were hunting for the Grim
inals. Well, eventually we decided to
adopt heroic measures. We had a ccn-
sultation with several prominent cit
iZens Of Benson, and The result was we
sent TO Beatrice for a pack Of blood
hounds.
I'VE kept the dogs in hiding until there
was another forey on a hencoop, and then,
bright and early one morning. the hounds
were put on a fresh trail. They follow
ed it about a quarter of q mile, and
finally came TO 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 an investiga-
tion. We searched everywhere, from cell
lar TO garret. but there was no sign of a
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. The trail seemed to end there If
the thieves had gone up balloon at that
point they couldn't have obliterated their
tracks more effectually. So the dogs wera
declared a failure and were sent back to
Beatrice.
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 of so abruptly on the porch cf
that particular house. There is a tradi-
tisn that comes up from the South. a sur
vivor of the ante-bellum days that If a
fleeing slave tied sliced onions upon the
soles of his feet the hounds could not
track him. Perhaps that is what Barnette
and Tony did on the piazza of that house
don't know"