Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1912-05-29
THE CHORES OF THE CHASE.
Nnssissippian Gives Account of Seve.
raj Races With Lively Dogs.

The following letter, written by
ID. G. Swab, of Mahrud, Miss, May
10th, to "lim" Jones, of Madison,
this county, will be read with in
terest by those who know "the glo-
ries Of the chase" Mr.. Jones has on
several occasions enjoyed foX-hunt-
ing with his Mississippi friends, and
his dogs are famous In several
States as hunters. The letter fol-
lows:
Your letter received few days
ago. Bill Buck and old Scot arrived
Saturday. went up to the station
for them Sunday morning, and over
to Hoavetter's Monday evening to
take a hunt. The wind was high.
We hit very good trail; trailed off
southeast Of Hoavetter's, and old
Scot struck. The VIVID was so high
| could not hear them much / told
my boy l wanted him TO see where
they went and what they did. All
right he said, 4 will see where
they tree or catch that fox He
pulled off his hat and away he went,
and that was the last l saw Of him
and the dogs until about 2 o'clock in
the morning. Old man Hoavetter
and went in and went to bed about
midnight. The wind was so high
we could not hear thing but it.
Bryant came In about 2 o'clock
laughing, and saying, You old fell
lows are no fox hunters told him,
You have not done anything and
he says, that's all right, we have
one In a hole, SO we went over
there at daylight and dug in and
only found four young ones. The
dogs got the back end Of the track
and trailed her where she came
from. BY this time it was getting
very late, but the dogs could hit
cold track here and there, and kept
on trying to jump one. l saw old
Scot go into thick branch head,
and in few minutes he brought one
out wide open. Everything fell in
ranks; then and there we had 1t for
20 or 80 minutes, all round and over
us. Into gopher hole he went, and
as usual Rat went in the hole, too.
When | got there l heard Rat and
the fox making a terrible racket in
the hole. Everything got STILL only
[ could hear Rat snutiing and blow
Ing his nose. | reached down and
got Rat by the hind legs and began
to pull hm out, and he began to
hollow. did not know so much
about that, so l quit pulling, and he
quit following. Directly l began
pulling again, and Rat began to hol-
low, but l kept con pulling. The old
fox had a good hold on Rats nose,
and | pulled dog and fox to where
| could take hold Of the fox AS
went to take him by the back of the
neck he turned Rat loose and out
he came. The dogs and all covered
him; rather, the dogs covered the
fox, and I covered the dogs. You
should have been there to see the
show. | took the fox away from
them, but he died before | got home.
eve went out again that night,
starting early. Little Buck struck
so far from us we coulu just hear
him; the other dogs began to drop
in with him, and here they came,
right by us, wide open. The old
man Hoavetter says. BY gosh, must
hollow! I told him to keep quiet
and listen to the music, but he said
he couldn't stand that and Just had
to hollow. could not keep him
down; he went as wild as he did
the night he was out with you and
me on Oal 0idge. It came as near
killing him, when the dogs got to
running good, as any man / ever
saw, and for one hour they surely
did drive the fox hard, everything
laying up In the collar just right,
and treed her up a small tree. Bry-
ant and ] went walking up to the
tree, and out She went. For about
fifty yards things came on; into a
hollow log she went, and this saved
her life. We sent for the axe and
got her out alive. AS we came home
the next morning the dogs struck a
cold trail on the way, but 1t was so
late and getting so hot, blew
| them in.
81 went down to Ezell's Saturday;
carried my family and the dogs, too.
About 10 o'clock We started out
over in the direction where you and
| | had the two races last fall. Bill