Imperial Valley press., 1918-12-16
OUR RIFLE AND PISTOL CLUB.
The Secretary's Peace Bet Coon Hunt
Ws Ringtail Shorter, Accord
ing to Some One Who
Stayed With 1t.
(Letter No. 80

Dear Billy: here IL is InallkoglN-
ing night, and l am as full as an old
fashioned Christmas stocking. |
ought to be lying on my back listen
ing to the Victrola, or even better
still, l ought to be in bed, sound
asleep. Not only am l full of grub,
but l drove about so miles this after
noon and shot a box of shells at clay
birds tossed by the hand trap. Nor
is that all. Our celebrated coon hunt
came off last night and deprived me
of much sleep and some surplus fat.
"You know l told you how Neff
and I made a bet about how soon
peace would come. and l promised toI
| take those present on coon hunt II
an armistice was declared before
Thanksgiving. There were eight mem
bers of the club there. but only four
of those present could be prevailed
upon to go when the time came, and
we had to use force to get Neff out.
| "Well, there were three others who
| were keen to go, none OF them mem
hers Of the club, and with my friend
! Bill Stendel from up in Connecticut,
who provided the hound. we filled two
! five-passenger cars = Tom Prunty'
ard Ben Ford's. We got started
about 10 o'clock, and drove out about
three miles from here. to farm
where I get my potatoes and apples.
| "Nrs. Turner made us all come IN
| the house and have some coffee ana
then we lit up our carbide lanterns
and went up to the woods behind the
house, and Bill turned his hound
loose. Tom and l were the only ones
who had ever been on a coon hunt.
The Warming-Up Process.
"The hound did a lot of clrcllng
round for while without saying
thing, and Bill had to keep whooplng
him on. And all the time we were
working down through the woods. Bill
was strong for hunting the rock
leGges, because he said in this part OF
the country the coons are found IN
the lodges. This kept us travelling
pretty briskly and in about an hour
we had covered a lot of ground but
without the hound starting anything
but a couple Of rabbits. j..
"Both times when they got one OF
those rabbit scares the gang started
to run to get to he hound, and Neff
hurt one of his shins pretty bad. And
when they finally had something to
run for, whv not half of them had
sense enough to.
"The real show started about 1890.
The hound got to taking things in his
own hands. so to speak, and took
over a big ridge and down along the
!, waterworks creek, and first thing we
knew he opened up just like Old
times.
"'Yoop!' And we stood and lis
tened. 'Yoopn Another pause.
'Yoopv ;.
"fCoon,' snaps Bill Come on
and away he went, lickety split.
"The dog went straight down the
creek. and he travelled fast. In five
minutes we must have been strung
out over half mile of woods. You
know how a fellow will run in the
dark when he is excited. Well, be-
sides Bill, there were four others OF
us who were as keen to get to tha'
dog as Bill was. and so none OF uS
, five stopped to listen once we started
Result. we over-ran the dog, who hat
doubled back on the other side of tn
creek-the son-of -a-gun actually toi
lowed that trail across footlog. with
out retting puzzled and losing time.
a "Yoop! Yoopp! You-ou-ou-oop
n Yoop Yoop! Yoop! way behind Us
u "Tree5n wells Bill, throwing in HI
e emergency brake, and back un tn
n creek he went. jumping brush like
buck deer and LETTING out yell ever
iumn to encourage the dog.
"When we rot there Bill wa
- wading around in the shallow waite
across the creek. looking up in bi
an sycamore, which he was LOOKING owe
with his Jack, and the hound wa
an jumping I'D the trunk of the tree ar
he filling into the creek abo'1t ever
to junrr. but never missing 'Yoor'.
he "The crowd got there nnightv n',Ic
it ar3 what do YOU suppose? Old To-
n was first to see the coon. wav uD
q crotch on one of the forks Of tF
lit big tree. and he Immediately toc
ali charoe. Peino presidetn of the cl,
tn and Tom Pruntv, he got awav with
he And Then the Fireworks. -
"'No shooting declares Tom. w
owe out for sport not for hide
i,e he Where are those climbing irons|
ne "Tn about two minutes Tom w
1e started up a smaller tree close hesi'
III ~ the sycamore. He climbed RIGHT |
un ,a on a level with Br'er Coon. and tn
We We meant he went right to the top
I'd the tree he climbed, and then
''' turned his electric searchliRht on.
the rirotail M ike he was behind u
footlights, and fired his revolver. r
ire suit. momentary quiet then 'hC
US broke loose
es. with six or eeven searchliphts :
IN the tree. nearly everybody saw d
-os coon beat it from Tom, and they !
lunlIod ~ onna Put Pill didnlt shn