The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-01-22

@ @ swampers down about
n where l live call me "AX
i TCE handle Ike" But my chief
occupation is rapping-trapping coon
and mink and otter. All the swampy
country of southeast Missouri still
abounds in fur-bearing animals.
Besides my trapping and handle
making, l usually try to preach on
Sundays. My matchmaking goes on
all the year round, but trapping be-
gins and ends with cold weather. Ma
ture never clothes an animal with good
fur except when it's absolutely needed.
When / have accumulated q consid-
cradle stock of furs and handles, l
get somebody to haul me and them
then l run up to ST. Louis and sell my
stock. l have been going to st Louis
for years now, and the shops and fac
tories that use my handles know they
can depend on them.
There's still some large game in the
swamps-deer and turkey and bear,
and good many panthers. 1 remem-
Der one time when a big panther came
up out of the swamps and terrorized
whole settlement for a few months.
That brute caused as much trouble and
excitement as any four-legged thing
ever got acquainted with. Because
he was so big and fierce we usually
called him the tigcr-tle swamp tiger.
1t happened a good many years ago,
when l was boy living with my uncle
on q tongue Of land that ran out sew
eral miles into the swamps. The up
land was too rocky and the swamp
too sloppy to cultivate. But the few
families that lived there were settled
along the edge of the ridge, and had
little farms between the two.
One day toward fall my aunt sent
NE over TO Simpsons to borrow some
bacon, | was still going barefoot, and
had my trousers rolled nearly UP to
my knees, I recollect. l was seventeen
years old, and as big as l am now
But everybody that felt like it went
barefoot there in warm weather, even
men eighty years old. s~~~9<v-
y I crossed the ridge to Simpsons, and
after talking with the boys till rather
late, l borrowed a side of bacon
middling, we called it-and started for
home, carrying it on my back. The
middling was long and wide, but thin
and rather light. Our gaunt, slab
sided swamp hogs never make thick
meat The bacon had been hanging
in Simpsons smokehouse by two hicE-
DRY withes, and l was carrying it by
the same withes, one over each shout
der. There was piece of tow cloth
wrapped round it to keep it from
greasing my shirt s2..s;, ~ l'ssSls@
'~ Dusk Caught The three-Quarters of a
mile from home, and I heard what |
thought was woman calling. / didn't
recognize the voice, but l had no
doubt that it was Aunt Mat screaming
at me. / had tarried longer at Simp-
sons than l ought to have done, and
l felt certain she had got out of pa
thence and started after me.
"Yes'm, I'm a-comingw I shouted
back. Then I hitched the bacon a
little higher and hurried along the
rocky road at a trot The screams
sounded angry-Aunt Mat didn't have
a very gentle voice when she was
out of temper.
Before long l heard another scream
Looking down toward the swamp. l
saw not Aunt Mat, but some big
animal coming up the open slope to
meet me. He looked like a cat, but
cat as big as q COW. The curve OF the
land made it impossible for me to see
him while he was on the ground, but
whenever he jumped 1 could see him
plainly enough. Every jump must
have carried him eight or ten feet into
the air. and now and then he would
stop and give one Of those loud, wom
anish screams.
| started to run back along that |
rocky road as hard as l could. /
couldn't step far enough My hat flew
off. but it never occurred to me to
drop the bacon.
Not far back the road ferked. One
fork crossed to Simpsons, the other |
led up our side Of the ridge to Uncle |
Jimmy Whites. 1t was two miles
back to Simpsons. and only mile to
where White lived. So took the fork |
to Uncle Jimmy's.
don't recollect feeling that bacon |
touch me after 1 got well underway.
/ guess is stood out straight behind,
I flew so fast. The country was part
~ covered with scattering bushes, and |
the road was rocky and soon got dark;
but little time did lose for rocks or
darkness. ~
The panther kept right after me.