The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-06-03
TRAINED TO HUNT MEN.
Points on Education of Bloodhounds
Used for Tracking Criminals.


The first attempt to track a criminal
in the city of Washington with blood
hounds was made last Wednesday
night, when Detective Trumbo set his
two hounds in pursuit of the murderer
of Mrs Kate Jordan in Anacostia, a
ington it has been thought that blood
hounds would be of little service. and
it is found that they can pick up the
scent on asphalt pavement only with
the greatest difficulty. Conditions in the
Anacostia case, however, were different
The hunt for the murderer was going on
with promise of swift success until
fall of snow covered the trail so effec-
lively as to make it impossible after the
scent had been lost on one side Of the
river. to pick it up on the other
Detective Trumbos bloodhOunds are
ugly animals, but their looks belle their
intelligence as well as their aristocratic
lineage, for which their owner prizes
them. The dogs now grown to be large
were puppies that he slid into his over
coat pockets when he bought them
down in Tennessee Now they are
months old and have graduated from
a course of education in Washington
The first thing they learned was to re-
spond to their names-RaymOnd and
Mainland then to a peculiar whistle
that the detective composed for the puf-
pose Afterward came a course Of kim
dergarten work in the ordinary dog
DtaN OF locating InlISS DN SCCAAA.
The dogs after sport with ball,
were taught to hunt for it. Name from
the start seemed to have the keener oil
factory sense while her companion was
/ inclined TO become tired after the least
work After the hounds had been edu-
Gated to locate objects with which thy
were familiar they were allowed TO
/ smell of an unfamiliar object and then
told to hunt it. They became proficient
/ in returning the objects of their quest
n
took weeks of patient toll 1t compile
/ ted their grammar school course
Finally they were taken out in the
country for college education. They
were held while Detective Trumbo would
take a run off out of sight 1t was easy
for them to follow one With whom they
! were SO familiar as their master, espe-
cially as the scent was in the open ar.
Their final lessons came in their being
! allowed to follow colored men hlred 70
/ travel across the country
When the dogs are permitted to follow
human beings they seemed to be IN thelf
! element. They have been very accurate
in following the exact path taken by
men, On one trial the trail led along a
creek bounded on both sides BY steep
+ banks. The man pursued was fully an
hour ahead of the dogs and their master
Suddenly as the dogs We're following
the scent they left the creek and started
/ I'D the bank to the CONSERVATION OF De
tective Trunbo. who had ordered me
fugitive TO 1OlioW tnS CT l. -
hounds went to the summit of a bull
but returned to the creek again. When
the man was found Detective Trumbo
asked him why he went up the BLUM
At first he denied it, but, after thinking
said: .'Oh, yes, 1 went up there to tie
my shoe
Christmas eve when the dogs were
taken TO the scene of the Anacost1a
murder the work of tracking men was
not new to them. They obtained 2
scent of the criminal from a chair OF
which he had been seated and followed
his tracks directly to the river.
The ancestors of the dogs are said t
be the coolest nosed inbred breed IN tbs
United States. Last July their mother
owned by J. W Mccall of Knoxville
Tenn. earned 8. 600 reward by running
down a criminal eighty-three miles
away and on track % hours old The
sire of the dogs is also well trained ane
the pair have been valuable in locatinE
several criminals in the south.-Wa sh
fngton Post.