The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 2, 1898, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1898. and Was at Killed Men, Carried Off Babies Last Stabbed to Death by a Hunter Whose Com- rade He Had Eaten. the big grizzly, He carried forty-five h him to his grave. the most noted LD “Reel Foot,” is dead. Peter of the en he will have more lives, , to account for animal h both than Hickman r years Reel Foot tended arfare, and was the terror . hunters and small child- is dead is due to the nerve ren of John Copsey, the tallest man in Lake County and shot. But death e of the toughest Foot ever gave in his arauder and out- protracte law. When it n's horse hung in ed to b an able to s and t, the vatch- giant seerr dates e when fight with this time, Craddock y sheep to ddock started out destructive ani- was an old bre 1 weapon when r than a stick when hat it et ncountered by Crad- Craddock s, both of were stretched th blood from bruin’'s claws. The sight incensed Crad- foot, . Before load” the bear sprang horée, and with a swipe of -d foot struck the weapon idock’s hands, at the same ing it in his teeth and leav- -y Wy #%-° THE HUNTER ESCAPED BY CLIMBING A ing scars in the stock that remain there to this da; There no s alternative but for ddock to jump 38 run for his life. ck of more good hounds and the formidable visk of going after the brute without them deterred the Childs Val- llowing up the ad- le vantage ga v Craddock. Bruin, therefore, had time to get well of his wound and to inaugurate a campaign of rever Bear though he was, he ms to have had a little Machiavelll least the death list of the of the district during the ths tells Such a story. e months after the fight dock bruin turned loose on a hogpen The size and zth of the pen made no difference The pick of the inclosure from four to s inches thick and nailed on with bridge-timber Bruin swept these away as if were the flesh on a man’s shoulder him down in the midst of the 1g porkers until his belly was ill and his lust of retaliation for outrage on his foot s was fully s It so happened that the owner of this pen, Jurd Walters, was a veteran “bar” hunter. He took the depredator’s trail quickly and with a gang of men followed bruin north for three days until he dropped out of sight in the hborhood of Bartlett Springs in 1 e County, probably hiding in an old [& >. A cave which apparently had been the bear’'s headquarters for many ubsequently located in that a man named Thorp, the of Bartlett Springs. Tracking bruin was easy on this oc- casion. The wound from Craddock’s gun had not only lamed him, but had given a peculiar outy twist to his right foot so that the toes turned al- most at a right angle to those of the left foot. This unusual mark gave the big brute the name of ‘‘Reel Foot,” and by that name he was known throughout the balance of his extra- ordinary career. During the chase Reel Foot took his course directly across the Guenoc ranch, which has since become famous as the stock farm of Fred Gebhard. Lily Langtry owns the next ranch Here the bear seized oneof the papooses of the tribe of the Lake County In- dian chief, Chappo, which had been left on the bank of Putah Creek while the mother was washing clothes in the stream. Chappo's tribe was in a state of wild excitement by the time Walters' gang arrived, and the aged and grizaled chief (who still lives at the advanced age of 120 years) offered of his choicest squaws and two ponies to any white man who would Kill the bear. Chappo and his tribe, of course, joined in the chase. But Reel Foot evidently had been in that part of the country before. He disappeared in the brush back of the Copsey ranch, brush which nothing but a snake or a bear could penetrate. Nevertheless Walters pressed the es- TREE, BUT OLD REEL FOOT KILLED AND ATE HIS HORSE. S HE THOUGHT HIS TIME HAD COME, BUT @ PROVIDENTIAL STROKE BETWEEN THE RIBS ENDED THE FIGHT AND OLD REEL FOOT. caped criminal pretty hard, keeping the tracks warm all the time. Walters stopped overnight at the Copsey ranch, and there was joined by a man by the KILLING CRADDOCK'S HOUNDS. RAIDING A PIGSTY. name of Church and by thethen youth- ful John Copsey. Church was a noted and fearless bear-hunter. About noon the next day the track- CARRYING OFF AN ers, with their reinforcements, over- took Reel Foot. He had worked into some dense brush not far from a spring. The Pope Valley posse, re- INDIAN PAPPOOSE. o Carried Forty-five Rifle Balls in His Body and Would Walk Straight Up to a Hunter Shoot- ing Lead Into Him. membering the experience of Craddock, ‘were a little shy of going too deep into the brush after the bear, but Church and young Copsey had Lake County’'s reputation to maintain, and plunged straight ahead. Church never came back. Copsey was only a boy at that time, but he understood the nature of an oath, as do most Lake County boys to this day. When finally the mangled remains of Church were drawn out, which was after Reel Foot had finished his meal and had abandoned the body, Copsey swore that if he had to uve twenty years to do it he would make an end of Reel Foot as Reel Foot had made an end of Church. Thereafter Reel Foot's history was written in the blood of Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino and lower Trinity counties. He had fights, he ate sheep, pork, dogs andemen and children in all thesecoun ties, and usually got away from the Sheriff as adroitly as Chris Evans or the notorious sneak thief of Middle- town, George Coburn. The hunting an - nals of all these four counties are full of the pursuit of Reel Foot. His pe- culiar footprint gave him distinction, and his reputation as a man-eater made him a good subject for barroom stories. In Round Valley, where White’s no- torious band of vaqueros held out for many years, Reel Foot made a great record in absorbing bullets fired at him and fighting back all the while. He killed a foreman on White's ranch in an encounter in a cabin, where the latter had gone to seek a supply of bacon. It was in the winter geason and foraging was poor. Reel Foot broke open the door at night, and while the foreman was asleep on the floor began pillaging the place. The foreman awoke startled, and reached for his gun. What else he did is not known. Reel Foot never gave him a chance to tell. The poor fellow’s torn carcass was found by some of White's men several days later. From Round Valley, Reel Foot seems to have wandered back and forth to his old hunting grounds in Pope Valley. It was only a few years ago that he made an assault on a sheep herder em- ployed by John Adams of Pope Valley, who happened to be out in the field with his young son. The son climbed tp a tree while the father remained be- low to give battle to the fierce bear. Probably if the man had known he was to fight with the colossal Reel Foot he would have thought better of his bar- gain. Suffice it to say that the boy had to remain in the tree and see his KILLING THE FOREMAN ON WHITE'S RANCH. own father killed and partly devoured by the ferocious beast. Much of this history reads like the yellow-back literature that stavts the youth of New York westward to grow up with the country, but there are plenty of people’ in the four or five counties herein mentioned to verify it. For example, there is Charlie Sapp, who, unmindful of the Craddock inci- dent in Reel Foot's early biography, still lingers among the woods of Lake County and hunts bears with a breech- loading rifle. He has probably killed more bears than any man in Northern California, and lost more :portions - of his anatomy in doing so. He is minus half of his right leg, a third of his. right hand and his scalp. All of thése me- mentos he left with Reel Foot. = He declares that of all the grizzly.bears that ever the devil put on earth, there was never any like the one of which John Copsey has just rid ‘the:com- munity. The death of - Reéel Foot at last may be attributed to the recent big-forest fires that devastated many sections. of Lake County, burning up the lairs of deer, panthers and all other wild ani- mals. It happened that the fires reached the hiding place of old Reel Foot®and smoked him out. He had heen com- paratively quiet for several: .seasons, perhaps on account of age. - Being dis-- turbed in_ his guietness may have ag- gravated his old-time fierce spirit. However that may be, [t is’a fact that a few days ago John Copséy, now grown from a youth to the tallest man in Lake County, discovered: the famil- iar tracks of the veteran ‘Reel Foot on his ranch. It was the work of an instant .for Copsey .to secure. his. rifle and set out on the trail .in- pursuit. Reel Foot was found in omne of his old, sullen, dangerous humors, but Copsey this time was not dependent on the muzzle loader of the earlier days. Reel Foot, on the contrary, had grown aged; his teeth, as Capsey subsequently as- certained, ha@®lost their edge, but the vicious legs, "Which never lose their quick cunning while a bear exists, were as strong and active as ever. The recognition betieen the two seemed to be mutual; at least, so says Copsey. John dropped his rifle to his shoulder and fired. But that sort of thing did not fease Reel Foot. He had been through it before and he didn’t mind lead in the least. The bul- let might as well have gone Into a sponge. Reel Foot kept coming on. Copsey pulled the lever for another shot, but the mechanism stuck and Reel Foot closed on him. It looked like a death struggle for awhile.” Cop- sey says he thought his end had come and that he was going the same way as poor Church had gone "years be- fore. But by some means he man- aged to draw his knife, and with a last effort planted it in a mellow patch be- tween two of Reel Foot's ribs. Tt was a providential blow and ended Reel Foot. When placed on the scales the huge fellow weighed 1350 pounds. - Copsey found forty-five bullets in various parts of his body, and his thick hide was a crazy quilt of scars. The entire com- KILLING SHEEPHERDER JOHN ADAMS WHILE HIS SON ESCAPES UP, A TREE. munity visited the Copsey ranch to get a sight of the famous old scourge. And now Lake County is talking of nothing but the death of this noted anirnal, per- haps the last big grizzly that will ter- rorize the ranchers of Northern Cali- —— e fornia. & Mr. Sealove (at his sea-shore cot- tage)—"My dear, please tell our daugh- ter to sing something less doleful?" Mrs. Sealove—“That " is not our gaughter, my love. That. is the .fog- orn.” . 5 RAISING - WILD DUGKS. ITH August 1 the close time for some of the wildfowl came to an ‘end, wild ducks among others. - The shooting of the “flappers,” otherwise the young ducks, is very good fun, but it. 18 expensive, -for, if persisted in, whole broods ducklings are destroy- ed. Fort 1 for the ducks, this form of sport s not. very popular, most people regarding it as unsportsmanlike to shoot thé birds before they can fly, and, since the modern method of rear- ing wild dicks is now generally adopt- ed, the: birds: get znother respite, as they are not taken to the waterfowl préserve until they can use their wings. In the inftial stage wild ducks are reared in the same’ variety, the eggs being hatched by fos- ter “mothers; " generally the domestic hen*is uged. for this purpose, the pro- ce occupying . twenty-eight days. When hatchéd they remain with their foster .mother for a few days only, be- Ing-then taken.to a large, alry inclosure and.allowed the free use of a pond of waier: - - Here they remain until such time as’they - are require¢ -for the waterfowl preserve, but & number of theri. are -Kkept in hand as Stock birds for the.next season. At this tme their . ‘wibgs remain uncut, and it is quite a slght. 1o gee- them, .scores at a time, flying. around the farm in the rummer evenings;. it is somewhat strange, con- sidefring” theff wild nature, tha: they always Teturn to the homestead. They retalfi “théir liberty for. a few months, but,.as festing season approaches, they are caught for the purpose of having Winizs -clipped, otherwise :hey ¢ thelr flight for good. At this 00, they are more closely cn- hey have a_habit of depotit- €¢gs- anywhere and every- ‘v:nned. 5 ing their as the domestic | B R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R S S S R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R RO R R R R R R S R g OUTH of the port of Kiaochau, in China, lies the broad valley of the Yangtse-Kiang. It 1s in the heart of this valley, at Han Kow, that Mr. Brice’s company will begin the construction of a railway to run al- most directly south to Canton and thence to the sea coast opposite Hongkong. There will be 900 miles of road with such branches as trade seems to demand and there will be tributary to it a country having a pop- ulation of 200,000,000. Two of the provinces through which it runs contain 80,000,000 people—more than the population of the United States. The chief engineer of the new company will be an American. It 1s probable most of the capital for the road will be furnished by Americans and that American locomotives will haul rails through the heart of China in the near future. American cars over American The road will be ope- rated by the American syndicate in conjunction with the Imperial Depart- ment of Rallroads for four or five years. Its future is then uncertain. It may pass wholly into the hands of the Chinese Government, or it may become the property of a foreign company. control, it will serve to open up a trade in American food products ‘Whatever the ownership or and manufactured goods among 200,000,000 people. Special to The Sunday Call. E have spent $100,000 investi- gating the conditions In China and deposited with the Imperial Government a forfeit of $100,000. Our agree- ment with the Chinese Gov- ernment is that we shall construct 900 miles of the new railroad, at a cost which is estimated at $30,000,000 to $40,- 000,000, the Government to issue bonds which will cover the cost of building and equipping the road. These bonds we have to place. When the road is completed we will operate it in con- nection with the Government of China —that Is, according to the just and reasonable requirements of the Govern- ment. English interests are combined with American in the enterprise, so that it is uncertain how much of our supplies will be purchased in this country. The labor will be Chinese; first, because the Chinese labor is the cheapest to be had; and, second, because the employment of natives will dispose the Chinese peo- ple favorably toward the road. As to its patronage, that is not a mat- ter of doubt. Where raflroads have been constructed in China, they have found that the demands on both freight and passenger equipment have By Senator Calvin S. Brice. been greater than they could meet. The Government of China wants rail- | roads. It wants both railroads and telegraphs, because it knows that by their aid revolution can be prevented or subdued. President Diaz has main- tained himself as President of Mexico all these years because the country is covered with railroads and telegraph | lines. It used to be that if a revo- lution started in a remote part of the country it was two or three weeks per- haps before the Government heard of it, and as much longer before troops could be sent to put down the upris- ing. Now if revolution is planned, the Government knows it within an hour; and in a day it can have troops on hand to suppress it. The Chinese have fre- quent uprisings in different parts of the great empire. They realize that by the aid of the railroad and the tele- graph they can uphold their authority. The proposed railroad from Canton to Han Kow, combined with the railroad which the Belgians are to build from Han Kow to Peking, will give the Gov- ernment a means of inland communi- cation, bringing the principal points in the empire in close touch with each other, but so remote from the sea as to be protected from attack by any of China’s enemies. Han Kow, which will be one terminus of the road, is 700 miles from the coast on the Yangtse-Kiang River. That stream is navigable practically all the year round for vessels drawing forty feet of water. The finest steam ves- sels ply on it now. Beyond it smaller steam vessels navigate the upper waters and the branch streams and reach a vast territory. The valley is not only populous, but fertile, and it will furnish an immense business for the new road. I do not believe there is any danger in the partition of China, and that we may lose our concession through that means. No country wants to pick a quarrel with the United States. As the railroad work advances and the people of the country see what our people eat and wear they are gcing to want it. They use a great deal of our oil in China. They are going to use more, and so the Standard Oil Company is with us in this enterprise. They are going to want sugar, and so the Amer- ican Sugar Refining Company is with us. They are going to want coffee, and so the Arbuckle Coffee Company is with us. The way to build up trade is to create a desire for the things you have to sell. How many years has it been since no man in the United States thought of spending $100,000 a year? Less than twenty years ago that condition ex- dsted. To-day there are so many men spending that sum that you cannot keep track cf them. They have no so- cial standing and their names you have probably never heard. We have got to go to China and show the people what they should want to eat and wear. This is a great producing country—a country of overproduction. The pro- tective tariff has ceased to be necessary to our manufactures. When we can POOPLLPPOPOIPODOIIPPOOOOBOOVVCGIOOVP0000PP00000000000P0000000000000000000000000000000000090000000 OPENINGS FOR AMERIGAN GRADE IN QHINA. POOOOH O © & ship steel rails to England and sell them in competition with English steel- makers we no longer need protection. Whether the protective system was ever a good one will always be a disputed point. That the law was unjust there is no doubt. Every tax law is. You cannot please every one. What we need now is not a tariff which will keep out foreign goods; we have filled our home markets. We need a market for our surplus production. The place to find it is on the Pacific, where 400,000,000 people are awaiting civilization. Our trade future lies to the west. With our seven or eight great transcontinental lines, we can reach the Western seaboard quickly; and along the Pacific Coast is going to develdp a ski~ building interest which will eclipse that of New England in the brightest days of the industry. We are going to ship our products to China and find a distributing agent for them in that vast empire over an American rallroad. Less than a year ago capitalists in this country would not have considered an Investment in China. One conces- slon was granted to an American, but it was revoked because he had not the capital to carry out its terms. Dewey's guns opened the eyes of the American veople to the possibilities of trade in the Pacific. When he went to Manila and smashed the Snanish fleet, the peo- ple of the TUnited States sald: “We never thought of [ettinfn‘hm, but we're now here, we're golng to stay.” TRADE IN KANGAROO. HIDES OT many people have.any idea how extensively kangaroo -hides are utilized -in this: country,” said a leading wholesale leathér dealer. ‘‘Last_year- there “were: over 400,000 such skins received: in.New York and about S0 per cent'.of these . were tanned in one large establishment in Newark, N. J. The hides :all.come from Australia and New "Zealand, where the kangaroos are killed some 350 miles back from the .coast and shipped from Melbourne, ney -and’ Newcastle, Australia, and from Mase terson in New Zealand. ooy s Sraliee “Prior to 1859 kangaroos were killed and eaten in Australia, and -their hides were cut up and made’ mostly: into shoestrings and belts. But an. English- man named Brown in that year made some experiments, which resulted 1n his discovering the remarkably tough character of the leather, and he brought several hundred. hides to America as a speculation. He tried hard to sell the skins to various tan- ners, but they were shy of the.novelty, and he at last had to sell them at sacrifice to a New York bookbirdér. The lattey merchant made triangular corner pleces for ledgers and commer-" cial books out of the skins, and thus ascertained the good qualities of the leather. One of these books got into the hands of the proprietor of a large Newark tannery, and his attention was at once attracted by the peculiar ap- pearance of the leather binding. He made some experiments with the skin and found that it possessed a remark- able tenaclousness and compactness’ of grain, which prevented it from absorb- ing water, while the acids in blacking met with an almost impervious sub- stances -