Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-03-27

effort, he pulled himself up and lay
quietly down, quite unconcerned at
having made perpendicular leap of
twelve and one-half feet, as it after
wards proved when measured.
A party of Cleveland sportsmen who
chanced that way were given an ex-
hibition one day which raised their
enthusiasm to such a point that they.
offered me a price, which to me then
seemed fortune. But twice or five
times the amount offered would not
have purchased Lead
The party was standing on a bluff,
overlooking the bottom lands of the
Mahoning river, when Lead jumped
rabbit in the dense brush on the rivers
bank The rabbit started for weed
chuck's hole which was in the center of
a pasture, between the river and the
bluff, and between his starting place
and the hole were three high board
fences which divided the bottom land
up into small sheep pastures. The rab
bit had good lead, and just succeeded
in reaching the first fence before the
dog overlook it. The rabbit went under
the fence, and the dog with one of
those easy bounds cleared it. The rab-
bit turned and went back to the other
side, and the dog quickly followed, but
Lead had no sooner done so than the
rabbit again went through the fence
and started on his course for the hole.
By this maneuy9e he gained good
start, but none too good, for the second
fence was barely reached in safety.
Here again the rabbit repeated the same
strategy, and by doubling through the
fence he gained the same distance, by
leaving the dog on the wrong side of
the fence For third time but few
feet were to his credit as he gained
third and last fence This time he
lodged backward and forward through
the fence a number of times before
leaving it for the coveted burrow, but
the rabbit finally made dash on his
race for life. He came to the hole, but
the dog was there, too, and fearing to
risk running directly into it, he ran
around and around the hole on a short
circle, the rabbit being able to turn
faster than the dog, but he soon leaped
into the hole. This particular hole was
very large at its beginning, and as the
rabbit pitched into it, so also did the
dog. Each went entirely out of sight
for time, but soon the hind part of the
greyhound was seen slowly backing
out, and in its mouth was the luckless
rabbit
One day while standing on Hill with
Lead at my side, red fox was seen
running up a ravine two hundred yards
away. He was evidently crossing from
one strip of timber to another, as he
was then three-fourths of mile from
cover. Lead saw him instantly and
lost no time in deliberation, for he had
three-fourths of mile of bare frozen
ground for race track, and large
fresh fox for pace-maker ahead.
Now Mr.. Fox might have had little
concern hadit.been slow running fox
hound behind him, and he evidently
made the mistake of believing that some
common eur was after him, for he did
not seem to realize thatit was necessary
for him to run until Lead had gained
over one hundred yards at the first
dash. Across the long level pastures
they then flew, and as they were going
out of sight over raise of ground, it
could be seen that every one of those
powerful leaps of the greyhound were
rapidly shortening the remaining dis
tance between him and Reynard
Mounting a horse and going in pursuit
in few minutes, / reached the raise of
ground which had cheated me out of
observing more of the chase, at the side
cf pasture, standing on the top of
rail fence, at the foot of leaning tree,
which the wind had partly blown down,
| saw the hound, and fifteen feet from
the ground in a fork of a tree sat Mr..
Fox. | had some difficulty in dislodg-
ing him, as he evidently preferred his
reserved seat to any further experience
with his swift black enemy. | finally
pushed him out with rail- but he had
made his last run, for he scarcely struck
the ground before the jaws of the
hound, after fierce short fight, ended
his life.
Some miles away from Princetown,
coal was discovered, and mining town
sprang up. To it came men who had
English sporting blood in their veins
and money with which to back their
opinions on prize-fghts, cock-fights,
dog-fghts, and everything else of inter
est to the sporting fraternity They
soon heard the tales told by the farmers
of great running dog, owned down in
the country, by farmers boy. Some
of them finally suggested that they
could furnish a dog which would run
rings around anything Princetown or
vicinity could produce, and straight
way match was arranged to be run
on the following Christmas. We We're
there promptly at the point of time, the
farmers having implicit faith in Lead,
and the miners looking upon their
ignorance of coursing and coursing
dogs with undisguised amusement.
They had sent away to a city and
secured pack Of FIVE trained coursing
greyhounds, owned by aoal magnate
who was interested in the mine above
mentioned. Two of these dogs mad
been run in the great coursing events
of the west, which are there held annu-
ally. This of course we did not know,
nor do presume that any of those far
mers present knew that such organized
sport was in existence. 1t was, how
ever, easy to observe that the five dogs
were all in the best running condition,
and they likewise came in well-made
crates, which indicated that the miners
I