The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-30
Niger MOUNTAIN NIMBoD.
How q Days sport Made Pellet Pang'1
hoy n Bigger Man Than His Dad.


BEAR CREEK, Pa, Aug. 2e.-Barney
Pang, although only 49, lays claim now
to being bigger man than his father, Pellet
Pang, the "Davy Crockett OF Niger Noun
tain" and folks generally are willing to ad'
init it,
! Toward the close of the hunting season
last year Pellet Pang shot and wounded a
big buck, which thereupon attacked the
hunter so fiercely that II was only after a
| desperate struggle Of more than a quarter
Of an hour, during which Pang's clothing
was stripped from his body and serious
wounds were given him by sharp hoofs
and horns, that the hunter succeeded in
killing the deer and then only by luckily
getting possession OF stone with which
he smashed the animals skull.
Pang was injured badly and dragged
| himself nearly mile to lumber camp.
On the way, while was lying by log, a
doe came Looping along through the brush.
She passed him at distance Of few rods.
| BY an effort he got his rifle across the log
and dropped the doe in her tracks.
This days work made Pang a bigger
man in the district than ever, although
he was already regarded as the greatest
hunter thereabouts. His boy Barney
had come to be something of hunter him
self, and he was Jealous of his fathers rep
utation. Ever since the old mans ex-
plot with the buck and the doe Barney
had been seeking an opportunity to get
even with him, and now he claims only
to have done it but to have beaten him
point or two.
Last Tuesday Barney discovered signs
Of bear in Swoop's Hollow, and started
out with his dog and his rifle to follow the
signs. On the edge Of the swamp in the
hollow he came to marks in the soft
dirt which he recognized as wildcat tracks,
made by two Of those animals, one larger
than the other.
Barney thought that this might be an
opening for him in getting even with his
father, and he and the dog went along on
the trail Of the wildcats. Barney is hun
ter who can't let go a chance to shoot any
thing that challenges his skill, and when
he saw an enormous hawk sailing over
him, high above the trees, as he was fol-
lowir & the wildcat trail he sent rife bullet
skyward, and the hawk came tumbling
down, almost at the hunters feet. II was
the biggest hawk ever seen in this neigh
borhood; the shot was wonderful one;
In the meantime the dog had gone of
into the swamp, and the shot at the hawk
had scarcely been fired when Barney heard
a great commotion in the thicket, in which
the voice of the dog was taking leading
part. The next instant out sprang a big
wildcat. Barney fired his remaining load
at it. The wildcat was hit, but not dis
abled, and it turned and sprang at Barney,
who met it with a blow with his dubbed
gun and knocked 1t to the ground. In an
instant the hunter had his foot across it's
throat and finished it with another blow
from his gun, but not before the wildcat
had torn one of Barney's trCuser legs of
and lacerated his leg badly from the knee
down.
Barney had no time to shove another
cartridge into his gun before the companion
to this wildcat, pursued by the dog, came
rushing from the thicket, and, as if instantly
compromising that the man confronting
it had made way with its mate, 1t took up
the fight. A fierce struggle ensued, in
used up-so badly that hut for an oppor-
tune blow with a club that the hunter had
managed to get his hands on. which broke
the wildcats back and made it helpless,
Barney would have had TO abandon all
hope OF bes ing his father that day, and
fed the field to save himself.
As the cat lay helpless with broken
back Barney killed it with the club. The
battle with the two wildcats had placed
him so nearly hors de combat that he con-
cluded to put on adding the bear to the
days bag, satisfied that the wildcats alone
would be sufficient to fetch his record up
pretty near to the old mans. SO he rested
a while, loaded up his rifle, and although not
in any too good condition TO get himself
home even II urencumbered, shouldered his
wildcats and the hawk, and started.
He had staggered and stumbled along
about half mile when he found that he
would have to take the bear, after all, or
plenty of sporting blood in him yet, not
outstanding all that the wildcats had
drawn from him, had secuted around and
Bruin in the swamp, and the
ugly old pig stealer had come out and
shown fight.
Barney dropped the hawk and the wild
cats. and sent bullet into the bear. But
the bear came right on. Barney drew a
bead on him agaid and the gun snapped
The bear was then 30 near that the hunter
could almost feel his breath Barney
turned to run, and the dog grabbed the
bear in the rear. That caused Bruin to
whip around at the dog and gave Barney
a chance TO slip good cartridge into his
gun That one brought the bear down.
Another shot finished him.
Then Barney went on home with his Wild
cats and his hawk He wasn't able to 60
back and help in with the bear, but he
commended that his days outing had made
him a bigger man than his father. Folks
generally admit IL, and none more willingly
than Pellet Pang himself