The sun., 1910-01-09
WHERE TRAPPING IS NO FUN
MAN FROM MAINE INCLINED
TO JEER AT PENNSYLVANIA,
GettIng Lost with Night Coming On In
q snow Filled Forest Is an Tx.
Derience Likely TO Bring Terror 10
the Heart Of the Bravest Mau.

UertGnCe AlArty 10 nrhuW Terror 10
tho Heart Of the Brayest Mau
HARRISBURG. Pa, Jan. - Css..
Pennsylvania trappers think they've go
woods to do their trappin' in," said Sims
Carey. formerly a Maine woodman
now numbering on the Susquehanns
waters, sbut they don't know the A Be
OF how Il feels to be a trapper where there's
real woods. like we have down in Maine
Why, there's times in the life Of Maine
| woods trapper when he'd rather ketch
sight OF that old log cabin O. his'n than to
run up ag'in' a gold mine.
Maine trappers usually work in pairs,
an have two camps or cabins. an it's no
uncommon thing to haSe 'em fifteen miles
apart. Leadin' from one o these CAMPS
to t'other the trappers will have two lines
OF traps. one to the right, over the hard
wood mountains. where there's good
range fer the fisher cat an sable. an
t'other to the left. up a brook an round
a small pond. where are otter an mink
an now an then a beaver. an then IN
another brook valley to the camp.
Imagine the pine along about this time
| o. year, with foot or two o. snow on the
ground! An it didn't need a very strong
imagination to see foot or two O. snow.
Three foot an more wouldn't be stretchin'
| the imagination none. An then inagins
the trapper an his pardner startin' out to
20 over the line o. traps. He starts early
| in the mornin'. with his axe an rife, hs
bag o. bait to renew the traps an lunch
fer himself He takes the mountain line.
say. an his pardner the valley line.
The expectation an calculation is
fore dark Let's foller the trapper that
takes the mountain line an see what a
day he will be very apt to have. The
trapper's pardner don't have much
trouble to make his way along over ths
valley line. for the creeks show the route.
an he'll git to camp all right before dark
but the trapper goin' over the mountain
line runs ag'in' things trifiin' specs
differ'ht.
1T begins to snow along about 10
o'clock. There is more snow up there
on the mountains than there Is in the val,
ley. The goin' is hard. The traps need
a good deal o. resettin' an fixin' up. fer
the bobcats viii always be busy along the
line.
then ag'in a fisher fast to a trap has
managed to drag il on a good way in the
woods fore it clogs on sornethn'. an o
course the trapper has got to foller Il.
That takes a lot o. time an the day keeps
goin'. The wind drives the damp snow
aRin' the trunks o. the .trees as IL falls
an il sticks there like glue, so that in =
couple OF hours or so the trapper can't
make out the blaze marks on the trees,
not till he stops every little ways 10 brush
the snow OF. an that takes more Of the
day away from him.
AN if darkness comes too soon the
trapper Of course loses tho line entirely,
He don't know whether 10 goes TO th'
right or the left oF straight ahead. Hc
knows ore thing. though. an that IL
that the camp is n good ways oH yet
soFne'rs or other an he hegins - think
he stands a snug sort Of chance o hav'n
to spend the night on the mountain. Tie
slips his hand in his pocket to see thA'
his mate box is there all right. an. stou'
hearted man that he is. he turns a trihe
faint when he fails to find u. slid out
Of his pocket, like 40 not, while he was
sleepin' in his bunk the night before.
Now the trapper begins to feel that
his situation amt one O. the kind TO make
him feel joyful His thick clothes are
wet through. By an by It quits snowin'.
The wind has shifted round In the north
west an is comm out Of IL bitin' gale
trees an it hurts like pizen as Il hits him,
for it 8 froze hard as bullets. The trapper
don't need no tn 'rnom'ter to tell him that
the weather has knocked Il way down
below zero. an he knows that he never
kin stay still fer long on that mountain
| an live. 30 he keeps a-goin. He don't
know where he's goin' to. but he keeps
a-goin'. He's got to. 3D..
AS he struggles on through the epov,
KNOWN as well as he knows anything
Al u l. Ill 49, -
Re fires his rife now an then; then by an
nv he hears a rife shot that amt hie'n.
No one who's never been lost in the depths
o. the wintry woods knows the language
the crack Of a rife or the bang OF a shot
gun speaks TO him as he Piunges along
in the ghostly white darkness.-if you
kin imagine that there kin be setoh n
darkness He Pushes this way an that
now doubtin' that he heard II an strainin
his ears to hear whether it'll come ag'in!
an scatter them doubts. An that wsitin
seems an age, an an age o torture at that
Then he hears II agin. There amt no
longer any doubt about t.. And the
trapper knows the sound Of It now. II
is his pardner's rife. SO the trapper
answers the signal an plunges on In the
direction OF his pardner' s shot.
BY an by he comes in sight o. the
camp. Bright sparks are shootin' up In
showers out o the smoke hole. II aint
nothin, but rough, mebbe unchinked
with kings in IL an gleamin' with million
'lectric lights could bring setch Joy. The
finest dinner that was ever spread couldn't
never taste noways like half as good A.
the meal o. hapiacks. venisofi an black
coffee out Of tin cup that his pardner
has all ready for him when he tumPles
into the cabin, knocks the snow on him
self an pitches into the feast. An no
downy couch ever brung setch rest 70
mortal man as that bed o. spruce bougbs
on the cabin floor will pooty soon bring
to him.
There amt trapper in the woods o
Maine but what kin tell you OF more thar
one days experience setch as that goin'
over his line o. traps. An thered be
more OF 'em yet that could tell you Of
setch days that had come to them II they'd
been within sound o. their partners rife.
Cause then they'd be livin' now to tell