HUNTING
? K l
* THE
PECCARY
: BY"
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Copyrlßht. IS: 3. by r :. P. Putnam's Sons.
Published unci' urt.-.ii!. .t with G.i
Putnam's So:;.;. » w V ad London. J
lb L |>ec< :ry ionly found in
the i lit heriimost corner
region, starting from the
town of Uvalde with a Texan friend,
Mr. John Moore. My trip being very
hurried, I had but a couple of days to
devote to hunting.
Our first halting-place was at a
ranch on the Frio; a low, wooden
buildiug, of many rooms, with open
galleries between them, and veranda::
round about. The country was it;
some respects like, in others strange
ly unlike, the northern plains witt
which I was so well acquainted. II
was for the most part covered with 112
scattered growth of tough, stunted
mesquite trees, not dense enough tc
be called a forest, and yet sufficient!}
close to cut off the view. It was very
dry, even as compared with the north
eru plains. The bed of the Frio was
tilled with coarse gravel, and for tin
most part dry as a hone on the sur
face, the water seeping through 1111
derneatli, and only appearing in occa
sional deep holes. These deep holes 01
ponds never fail, even after a year's
drouth; they were filled with fish. One
lay quite near the ranch house, undet
a bold rocky bluff; at its edge grew
giant cypress trees.
There had been many peccaries, or,
as the Mexicans and cowpunchers of
the border usually call them, javalinas,
round this ranch a few years before
the date of my visit. Until 18.80, or
thereabouts, these little wild liogs
were not much molested, and abound
ed In the dense chaparral around the
lower Rio Grande. In that year, how
ever, it was suddenly discovered that
their hides had a market value, being
worth four bits—that is, half a dollar—
apiece; and many Mexicans and not a
few shiftless Texans went into the
business of hunting them as a means
ivelihood. They were more easily
killed than deer, and, as a result, they
were speedily exterminated in many
localities where they had formerly
been numerous, and even where they
were left were to be found only ill
greatly diminished numbers. On this
particular Frio ranch the last little
band had been killed nearly a year be
fore. There were three of them, a
boar and two sows, and a couple of
the cowboys stumbled on them early
one morning while out with a dog.
After half a mile's chase the three
peccaries ran into a hollow pecan tree,
and one of the cowboys, dismounting.
Improvised a lance by tying his knife
to the end of a pole, and killed them
all.
Many anecdotes were related to me
of what they had done in the old
days when they were plentiful on the
ranch.
I spent two days hunting round thi*
ranch, but saw no peccary sign what
.
Suw tio pcci'tinj Hlthoiiyh dver teen:
plentiful.
ever, although deer were quite plenti
ful.
Having satisfied myself that there
were no javalinas left on the Frio
ranch, and being nearly at the end of
my holiday, 1 was about to abandon
the effort to get any, when a passing
cowman happened to mention the fact
that some were still to be found on
the Nueces Itiver thirty miles or there
abouts to the southward. Thither I
determined togo, and next morning
Moore and I started in a buggy drawn
by a redoubtable horse, named Jim
Swinger, which we were allowed to
use because he bucked so under the
U 1 '* that nobody on the ranch could
i. We drove six or seven hours
»e dry, waterless plains,
valley of the Nueces itself
grew thick. There were
s of pecan trees, and ever-'
iks stood In many places,
long, wind-shaken tufts of gray moss
hanging from their limits. Many of
the trees in the wet spots were of
giant size, utul the whole landscape
was semi-tropical in charactc*.
High 011 a bluff shoulder overlooking
the course of the river was perched
the ranch house, toward which we
were heading our steps; and here we
were received with tlie hearty hospi
tality characteristic of the ranch coun
try everywhere. The son of the ranch
man, a tall, well-built young fellow,
told me at once that there were pec
caries 111 the neighborhood, and that
he had himself shot one but two or
three days before, and volunteered to
lend us horses and pilot us to the
game on the morrow, with the help
of his two dogs. The last were big
black curs with, as we were assured,
"considerable hound" in them. One
was at the time staying at the ranch
house, the other was four or five miles
off with a Mexican goat-herder, and
it was arranged that early in the
morning we should ride down to the
latter place, taking the first dog with
us and procuring his companion when
we reached the goat-herder's house.
We started sifter breakfast, riding
powerful cow-ponies, well trained to
gallop at full speed through the dense
chaparral. The big black hound
slouched at our heels. We rode down
the banks of the Nueces, crossing and
recrossing the stream. Here and
there were long, deep pools in the bed
of the river, where rushes and lilies
grew and huge mailed garfish swam
slowly just beneath the surface of the
water. Once my two companions
stopped to pull a mired cow out of a
slough, hauling with ropes from their
saddle horns. In places there* were
half-dry pools, out of the regular cur
rent of the river, the water green and
fetid. The trees were very tall and
large. The streamers of pale gray
moss hung thickly from the branches
of the live-oaks, and when many trees
thus draped stood close together they
bortj a strangely mournful and deso
late look.
We finally found the queer little hut
of the Mexican goat-herder in the
midst of a grove of giant pecans. On
the walls were nailed the skins of
different beasts, raccoons, wildcats,
and the tree-civet, with its ringed tail.
The Mexican's brown wife and chil
dren were in the hut, but the man
himself and the goats were off in the
forest, and it took us three or four
hours' search before we found him.
Then it was nearly 110011, and we
lunched in his hut, a square building
of split logs, with bare earth tloor, and
roof of clap-boards anil bark. Our
lunch consisted of goat's meat and pan
de ma is. The Mexican, a broad-chest
ed man with a stolid Indian face, was
evidently quite a sportsman, and hail
two or three half-starved hounds, be
sides the funny hairless little house
dogs, of which Mexicans seem so
fond.
Having borrowed the javaiina hound
of which we were in search, we rode
off in quest of our game, the two dogs
trotting gayly ahead. The one which
had been living at the ranch had evi
dently fared well, and was very fat:
the other was little else but skin and
bone, but as alert and knowing as any
New York street-boy, with the same
air of disreputable capacity. It was
this bound which always did most in
finding the javalinas and bringing
them to bay, his companion's chief
use being to make a noise and lend
the moral support of his presence.
We rode away from the river 011 the
dry uplands, where the timber, though
thick, was small, consisting almost ex
clusively of the thorny mesquites.
Mixed among them were prickly pears,
standing as high as our heads on
horseback, and Spanish bayonets, look
ing in the distance like small palms;
and there were many other kinds of
cactus, all with poisonous thorns. Two
or three times the dogs got on sm old
trail and rushed off giving tongue,
whereat we galloped madly after them,
liucking and dodging through and
among the clusters of spine-hearing
trees and cactus, not without getting
a considerable number of thorns in our
hands and legs. It was very dry and
hot. Where the javalinas live in
droves In the river bottoms they often
drink at the pools; but when some dis
tance from water they seem to live
quite comfortably on the prickly pear,
slaking their thirst by eating its hard,
juicy fibre.
At last, after several false alarms,
and gallops which led to nothing, when
it lacked but an hour of sundown we
struck a band of five of the little wild
hogs. They were running off through
the mesquites with a peculiar hopping
or bounding motion, and we all, dogs
and men, tore after them instantly.
Peccaries are very fast for a few
hundred yards, but speedily tire, lose
their wind, and come to bay. Almost
immediately one of these, a sow, as it
turned out, wheeled and charged at
Moore as he passed. Moore never see
ing her, but keeping 011 after another.
The sow then stopped and stood still,
chattering her teeth savagely, and I
jumped off my horse and dropped her
dead with a shot in the spine, over
the shoulders. Moore meanwhile had
dashed off after his pig in one direc
CA - '?ov Y i;ss. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1908
fion, and killed tin; little beast with a
shot from the sndiile when it had
come to bay, turning and going
straight at him. Two of the peccaries
got; off; the remaining one, a rather
large boar, was followed by the two
dogs, and as soon as I had killed the
sow I leaped again on iriy horse an 1
made after them, guided by the yelp
ing and baying. i:i l.\ s than a quar
ter of a mile they were on his
haunches, and lie wheeled and stood
under a bush. charging at them when
they came near him, and once catch
ing one, inflicting at: ugly cut. All th
while his teeth kept going like casta
nets, with a rapid champing sound,
ran close up and killed him by a shot
through tl. ' backbone where if j<iine !
the neck. His tusks we:v tine.
The lev. minutes' clan > 011 horse
back was great fun, and there was a
certain excitement in seeing the fierce
little creatures come to bay; but the
true way to kill these peccaries would
be with the spear. They could often
be speared on horseback, and where
this was impossible, by using dogs to
bring them to bay they could readily
be killed on foot; though, as they are
Dropped her deed with a shot in the
spine.
very active, absolutely fearless, and
inflict a most formidable bite, it would
usually be safest to have two men go
at one together. Peccaries are not dif
ficult beasts to kill, because their short
wind and their pugnacity make them
come to bay before hounds so quickly.
Two or three good dogs can bring to
a halt a herd of considerable size.
They then till stand in a bunch, or
else with their sterns against a bank,
chattering their toeth at their antag
onists. When angry and tit bay, they
get their legs close together, their
shoulders high, and their bristles all
rallied and look the very incarnation
of auger, and they fight with reckless
indifference to the very last. Hunters
usually treat them with a certain
amount of caution: but. as a matter of
fact, I know of but one case where a
man was hurt by them. lie had shot
at and wounded one, was charged
both by it and by its two companions,
and started to climb a tree; but its he
drew himself from the ground, one
sprang at him and bit him through the
calf, inflicting a very severe wound.
I have known eif several cases of
horses being cut, however, and dogs
are very commonly killed. Indeed, a
dog new to the business is almost cer
tain to get very badly scarred, and 110
elog that hunts steadily can escape
without some injury. If it runs in
right at the heads of the animals, the
probabilities are that it will get killed;
and, as a rule, even two good-sized
hounds cannot kill a peccary, though
it is no larger than either of them.
However, a wary, resolute, hard-biting
dog of good size speedily gets accus
tomed to the chase, and can kill a
peccary single-handed, seizing it from
behind and worrying it to death, or
watching its chance and grabbing it by
the back of the neck where it joins the
head.
Peccaries have delicately moulded
short legs, and their feet are small,
the tracks looking peculiarly dainty in
consequence. Hence, they do not swim
well, though they take to the water if
necessary. They feed 011 roots, prick
ly pears, nuts, insects, lizards, etc.
They usually keep entirely separate
from the droves of half-wild swine
that are so often found in the same
neighborhoods; but in 011 c case, on this
very ranch where I was staying, a pec
cary deliberately joined a party of
nine pigs and associated with them.
When the owner of the pigs came up
to them one day the peccary mani
fest eel great suspicion at his presence,
and finally sidled close up and threat
ened to attack him, so that he had to
shoot it.
The ranchman's son told me that
he had never but once had a pec
cary assail him unprovoked, and even
in this case it was his dog that was ■. v.
object of attack, the peccary rushia;.;
out as it followed him home one evci
ing through the chaparral. Eve: 1 ,
around this ranch the peccaries ha'
very greatly decreased in nun' an !
the survivors were learning some cau
tion. In the old days it had been no
uncommon thing for a big band to at
jtaek entirely of their own accord, and
keep a hunter up a tree for hours at
li time.
"Tstcrr-Hf*
TRYING TO
HOODWINK NEGROE!
Democrats Pursuing Their Usu;
Double Faced Policy.
Upholding Disfranchisement In th
South Whilo Forming Colored Brya
Clubs In West.
[From the Baltimore Sun, liem.J
General Winfield S. Hancock, wh
was the Democratic nominee for pros
Idcat in ISSO, declared the tariff wa
principally a "local question"—that i
to say, a Pennsylvania Dcmocrc
might be a protectionist for protei
tion's sake, while a Democrat in Geoi
gia or in lowa might hold fast to th
doctrine of a tariff for revenue onlj
The Massachusetts Democrat might b
a free trader without reservation o
any kind, while the West Virgin!
Democrat might be a free trader oul
with respect to commodities whic.
were not produced by his own statt
General Hancock's pronouncemen
was considered an ingenious evasio
of the tariff issue, but it did not pre
duce harmony in the Democratic pai
t.v, and the general was defeated.
Twenty-eight years have passe
since General Hancock defined th
tariff as a local question upon whic,
the Democrats of each state were fre
to act with regard chiefly to local ic
forests. The principle which he the,
formulated seems to have been adopt
ed by Democrats in the west in re
speet to the relation of the Democrat
ic party to the negro. Last week th
West Virginia Democratic conventioi
embodied in its platform planks elc
manding certain qualifications to
voters, designed to disfranchise man;
negroes. Their platform also contain
a declaration in favor of separat
coaches for white and negro passen
gers on railroads. The West Virgini;
Democrats not only refuse to hold ou
the olive branch to the negro and in
vite him into their fold, but they ar
determined to limit his political activi
ty by a disfranchising law and b
briug him under the operation of i
"Jim Crow" law when he travels oi
the railroads of that state.
What Are the Promises?
Out in Nebraska and in Kansas tin
Democratic campaign managers ari
organizing negro voters into Bryai
clubs. In Ohio no effort will be sparer
to secure the support of the negn
voters for the Democratic nationa
ticket. What pledges have been givei
and what inducements have been of
fered does not appear. But it is a fai
inference that the managers havi
promised to do "something for the ne
gro," perhaps to recognize him in tin
distribution of offices, if Mr. Bryai
should be elected, and also to tak<
such action as the negroes may de
mand in respect to the reinstatemen
of the negro battalion dismissed fron
the army by President Roosevelt foi
the attack on Brownsville. Last weel
when the West Virginia Democrat:
were declaring for a disfranehisemen
law and for a "Jim Crow" law tin
Democratic convention In the Twelftt
congressional district of Ohio adoptee
a platform favoring "the enactmen 1
of laws which shall accord to all mer
accused of wrongdoing, whether sol
diers or civilians, a fair and impartial
trial and tin opportunity to be hearc
before conviction or punishment.'
This apparently refers to the Browns
vllle incident. It may also have a
broader meaning and a more extended
application and may be susceptible ol
an interpretation which will make
southern Democrats open their eyes
with amazement and possibly with ap
prehension.
Race Question "Local Issue?''
There seems to be no ground for rea
sonable doubt that the Democratic
campaign managers In the west, in the
effort to secure negro support for theii
national ticket, are acting upon the
principle that the race question is only
a "local issue." It is evident that the
south does not approve this plan of
campaign, out is powerless to check it.
The Democracy of the south is 111 full
accord witl. the position taken by the
West Virginia Democrats last week.
And yet it is assumed by those who
are trying to get negroes to support
air. Bryan that the south will act in
hearty co-operation with the Ohio, Ne
braska, Kansas and Illinois Democrats
who are welcoming the negro into free
fellowship In the Democratic party
and probably promising to annul the
decision of President Roosevelt in the
Brownsville matter. The theory of
western Democrats that the race prob
lem is merely a local issue is calcu
lated to give the south much concern.
Many Democrats in that section may
question whether it is worth while to
elect a Democratic president who may
open wide the door of political oppor
tunity to the negro.
Chafin Needs an Ark.
"Never since the flood has water
reached such a high tide as at pres
ent," says the dry candidate for presi
dent. Looks as if lie might be swept
away in the freshet.
Rattling the Skeleton.
Eugene W. Chafin, the Prohibition
candidate, was born in Waukesha,
Wisconsin's foremost watering place.—
New York Mail.
None of the Bryan phonograph rec
ords has the speeches advocating free
silver and immediate government own
ership of the railways, nor have they
the "great commoner's" attacks 011
Roger Sullivan, Colonel Wutterson and
Guffey. These omissions tell an impor
tant story.
Merchant
Tailoring
!Fall Stock has arrived I
in all popular shades.
Brown and Elephant
Gray are the leaders of
this season.
Call and look them over
»
Theo. Haberstock
MRS.
M. F. Conway
Has removed from Broad
Street and is now located
on Fourth Street, opposite
the Odd Fellows Block,
where she will continue to
serve her customers with
Home-made Bread
Cookies and any
thing in the Bak
ing line made to
order.
Mrs. M. F. Conway,
I Watch This Space p
For Announcement of Our
Fall Opening
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