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TlU ,4Jim4can panther Is-’fialR^6 Four-Lagged Fakor.. t^ atojal traits;1:in In,, tiro only king -pf beastM, He is the one dorotigbbred of animate nature NdXt to him, perhaps |i9 the horse or th% (log though these get 9 of their courage from man. The domestic gamecock iu braver than nay African, lion, that ever left tratfoT Sft1 the Band, and no lion ever had Oy5 more cmwage than a pawnbroker, though his disposition is much the Bum©, As to the American panther, redoubtable as la his reputation in literature of a- certain sort he Is, in point of fact nothing bat a fonr-teggwl faker, No qommos -ward politician ever a‘worse case at bluff than, this so-called terror of tie Ataerieah^ oresta. HA travels on Ms reputation, and ha mist have got his repatation from some prehistoric billboard, for certainly never did reputation tally worse with facts than In the I coca of ,_ls slab-sided, long-tailed cat The panther, the cugar'. the puma, the mountain lion, the California Hon and the Mexican lion are all one and the same animal, with only those slight variations in color or configuration due to a different cowpunchers of Texasmbltat The Ull tell you„, !iria-tbfr Is hob gfcmmny jbdwnr- LtafJtaih p mighty good to eat rhdUBh pWlito steaks have .never ha-„ome faahuipable-1 they-.are ,a delicacyEt unknown to the mountain man or the trapper of Mississippi and Ar-msaa In fact, the panther la pretty much a worthless sort of fellow all around. The hunter who sells his hide rarely gets more than $2 or ?3 for it Of course the furrier* wllo sells It may get flo or $20, but then he Is selling a lot of panthpc reputation aton,j iwlth it | l* . IOne of the time-honored attributes of the panther is his scream. Oqe could not take $4,000,W *nd therewith disabuse the American public of Its tend belief in me- Womanlike wall of the panther Yet many scientist# today Affirm that the panther Is a mute animal and floea not scream nt all’ IhlB latter I believe to be accurate* for my friend, 014 Bill” Hamilton, one of the few reliable ana genuine old-timers of the Rocky Mountains, tells me the note of the panther la a sort of hoarse, roaring noise and he compares It rather to the roaring howl of the gray wolf than the voice of any other wild armpah ne laughs at the womanlike wail” notion. Once when in camp in the JlcanUa mountains of New Mexico I heard at n^ght the cry of what I supposed to have been a mountain Iloh or panther It was dnswerAd from beyond our camp and the first animal passed within a few hundred yards It might have been,a wildcat, but the teamster who was with me said he thought it was | a mountain lion Like most other cats, the panther is a cimbination ofl cunning and simplicity It ts not difficult to trap him.that the “Mexican lion,” winch they 1 though the usual and easiest methoda mane Some say i tuft on thbchase and rope on the plain, has mine, which may be seed tosroll from side to side as the creature runs may be bo; but It is probably, apt so, at least I have never set on any American ‘llonj that the panther has nr end ils tail, whereas the mountain lion does have It 1b only a fashion of wearing the hair, and. t{ie lt;^t M the same cat for all that. Some |say that whereas tho panther wtd climb a tree, the Bioutaln Don will notl or dannot rh^ so This fa a grave error in fact, and the man who thinks any American non’* will not climb a tree thinks so because he has not happened along with, a little fyce flog 1 about half as long as yonr arm This terror of the forests! whose fame fills many1 a page»* 4 iinrviiiTlUO id ttPftTt t flPIn getting him is to run him with dogs nnal he trees” ana then come up close and shoot him out of the tree It is not mueh trouble to get a panther in some paite of the west where deer are abundant and when there is snow enough to make good tracking Take up the trail in the snow and follow Itof Aemcioan romance, is at heart the rankest coward that ever walked, fit only to lie on a E^elf in a zoological garden, and pose before visitors, or to bask on the rocks while telling his own family what a devil of a fellow be 13 But h© isn’t. !I presume it to be really; the fact that the larger American wild animals were mbro dangerous 100 years ago than they are today* The hinder of the early frontier had for his weapon the small bore, muzzle-loading rille, ltBelf an accurate but not a- terrible weapon The bear and the panther of those days may not yet bavo learned toe fear of man, which tbeyj eertainlv gained as men became more [abundant and firearms more destructive In tnofie days panthers may Ipaya hud cut along the overhanging I limbs of .tree a and. drpppedjnpwn onUhe back Of tho unsuspecting hunter Tjhoy may have chased milkmaids away fromdog begins to bark, then go our panther out of a tree These same cats are numerous in the lower B ickies around the goat raHches t rough they are harder to get there is no snow to makn ng easy.their eveninghave frlghtene 1 v-hrne communities bythe night and utteringcries like the vail of a woman in dis |tress All Ofthese things may havecnores, andiitbeJV l^Jtyhappened in tb© past, but they don’tnor have they in this ow any one lean gam publication nuch less credence, fob the cohvdBtlt nal stones of combats rs and panthers 13 some an easy answer Cer tainly two more cowardtyj nmmafa never existed than the black hear and tne panther, but of these the panther Is the greatest coward andj will run faster and farther from anyone who will say '‘Boo’ at him. Any woman, with an umbrella can chase a pantbet I once knew an Undersized! Mexlca^n boy who kUled four wildcats with ja rook, and ft wildcat is a gamer prop* ositlon than a panther, though not so big I once kne—‘Also, of , two boys down In the Indian Territory who killed a panther with a shotgun loaded bird shot. They tracked him up in the snoW end shot him with a load of fine shot at short range 1 The panther hid under a bruabplle and tbe boys Vent back to the wagon loaded op tbe gun again came back to the biTishpU* and filled hia yellow hida sd full of allot that ho flnaly turned over and died I trailed a panther one time Half a day in the snow out In the Rocky mountains and came across him for a moment in a corner of the rockd where he could have eaten.tne up If he had cared to eave his reputation, bdt he hustled out without seven giv Ing one time to get a shot at htm-Tho only time that I ever personally know of a panther exhibiting any personal courage was down In New Mexico some yaam ago We had killed a deer and had it hanging on a pole between two uprights near the cabin door, and hearing a noise outside-! suspected some animal might be fooling around the mfeat. As one of us went to the door he saw a very large panther standing under the meat and lookipg up at it- ,Ab he stepped buck to get!tt.his gun toand in tillshoot tbe panther the £lly dog stirted out on hfa ,oWn hook,case, contrary to his usualcustom, U a panther did not rum He_______tor meat and not being ableto get the deer he picked up the dog and oarled It off Vie found.Us halfeaten carcass the nert day fft the gully above the cabin, partially covered up witH brush and leaves after the fashion of this animal. We • thought a good deal of that dog, too j rTheipMrther, or mountain:Bon, will sometimes when very hungry follow a human being for some distance, half In’-curloslty and perhaps half with' evil purpose. It probably feels-* good deal like the bad little boy who would like 'to Boat' some other bad -little boy ifn-thft heck, but is afraid to; As to he panthers, twelve feet long er moroj, which used to follow our grandfather^„ _____ ... promenade ardundon the meeting house roof mfd terrorize i the whole congregation, we must reatember-that odventures brighten astabes h very largo moon tain' Hon to mwirarVj eleven feet and, personally, 1 trover saw a skin, me osar*'’ more, tb an ten ‘Ie*K two inches, elghtllftet 'being mbch0 nearer the average length. A igfibfl dehf-Of.-lhls too, to txdl. .If tfau ehcrtflfl sheerrthlB terror bfi tho'fordste ■like of hie tail uid. ttlB,'.' reputationth'WB*' rffldW bo left e Tittletowf •ihfift'Wwm# T_,Phtt^bat (SMb- twteiitte
Newspaper Details
Bangor Daily Whig and Courier
Bangor, Maine, US
Mon, Dec 11, 1899
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Rin K.
NA, 15 Nov 2024
Other Publications Near Bangor, Maine
Bangor Daily Whig and Courier
