The San Francisco Call and Post from San Francisco, California • Page 19

DEATH OF OLD REEL FOOT Killed Men, Carried Off Babies and Was at Last Stabbed to Death by a Hunter Whose Comrade He Had Eaten. OLD "Reel Foot," the big grizzly, is dead. He carried forty-five bullets with him to his grave. Reel Foot was the most noted bear that ever made foot prints across the trails of Northern California. he meets the St.

Peter of the animal heaven he will have more lives, both of men and beasts, to account for than did Bill Hickman. For twenty years Reel Foot tended strictly to warfare, and was the terror of stockmen, hunters and small children. That he is dead is due to the nerve of John the tallest man in Lake County and. the. best shot.

But death came only after one of the toughest fights that Reel. Foot ever gave in his protracted life as a marauder and outlaw. When it is known that the old bear thought nothing of going into a raneherla and packing off a young Indian, that he 'killed a man's horse and ate him while the man hung in the tree overhead, that he seemed to be able to beat Herniann catching rifle balls and afterward devouring his assailant, the fact that Copsey, after years of watching and wailing, laid nut the old giant is greatly tv the rancher's credit The known history of Reel Foot dates back many years ago, to the time when Ed Craddock shot him in the foot while he was on-- one of his marauding expeditions in Childs Valley in Napa Couiaiy. How long prior to that he had been leyyiflrg tribute on stock and human her Foot alone knows, and he is too dead now to tell. Craddock.

had a terrible fight with Id It cost him the loss of two best hounds that Childs Valley ever boasted of. Prior to the the big bear, who, up to this time, no other name, had cost Craddock young mutton and sheep to keep the family. Craddock started out on horseback after the destructive anitJis weapon was an old breechng rifle, -'a wicked weapon when 1, but no. better than a stick when The fact that it would get empty and require time to be refilled played ah important part in the big Ilsrlit. The bear was encountered by ks hounds in ah open glade at the Igar- Loaf hill.

There was a in progress between the hounds and the bear, when Craddock arrived. Two af- the hounds, both of which died shortly' after, were stretched out, turn and covered with blood from effect nf 'bruin's claws. The sight of his suffering, does incensed Craddock and: he flred-7-pi'obably too quickly. AnytV'W tbe shot went somewhat amiss and struck the bear in the foot, or rather in the ankle joint; Before Craddock could reload the bear sprang toward the horse, and with a swipe of his uninjured fnot struck the weapon from Craddock's hands, at the same time grabbing it in his teeth and leaving THE HUNTER ESCAPED BY CLIMBING A TREE, BUT OLD REEL FOOT KILLED AND ATE HIS HORSE. FAI'SINQ WILD DUCKS.

WITH August 1 the close time for pome 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 is for, if persisted in, whole broods ducklings are destroyed. Fort for the ducks, this form of sport Is. not. very popular, most people regarding it as unsportsmanlike to shoot before they can fly, and, since modern method of rearing wild duck." Is now generally adopted, the birds get another respite, as they are not taken to the waterfowl preserve until they can use their In the initial wild ducks are reared j.n the' same 'way as the domestic variety, the eggs being hatched by mothers; generally the domestic hen Is.

used- for this purpose, the process occupying twenty eight days. When hatched they remain with their ni.other for a few da.ys only, be. 1 i.k then taken. to a a'ry lnclosure varid allowed the free use a pond of Here they remain until such jtime as they are requiret for the "preserve, but a number of are kept in hand as stock birds for next season. At this t'me their -wings remain uncut, and it Is quite a them, scores at a time, around the farm In the rummer evenings; ts somewhat strange, con- their wild nature, tha- they always return- to the homestead.

They retain their' liberty for, a few months, as nesting season approaches, they are for the purpose of having clipped, otherwise hey would.tak. their lllght for good. At 'his too," they are more closely they have a habit of depoiitlng their eggs anywhere and where. scars in the stock that remain there to this day. There was no alternative but for Craddock to jump and run for his life.

Lack of more good hounds and the formidable -isk of going after the brute without them deterred the Chllds alley settlers from following up the advantage gained by Craddock. Bruin, therefore, had time to get well of his wound and to inaugurate a campaign of revenge. Bear though he was, he seems to have had a little Machiavelli in him. At least the death list of the sheep cotes of the district during the next few months tells a story. About three months after the fight with Craddock bruin turned loose on a Pope Valley hogpen.

The size and strength of the pen made no difference to him. The pickets of the lnclosure were from four to six inches thick and were nailed on with bridge-timber spikes. Bruin swept these away as if they were the flesh on a man's shoulder and sat him down in the midst of the squealing porkers until his belly was made full and his lust of retaliation for the Childs Valley outrage on his foot was fully satisfied. 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 daya until he dropped out of sight in the neighborhood of Bartlett Springs in Lake County, probably hiding in an old cave.

A cave which apparently had been the bear's headquarters for many years was subsequently located in that vicinity by a man named Thorp, the discoverer of Bartlett Springs. Tracking bruin was easy on this occasion. The wound from Craddock's gun had not only lamed him, but had given a peculiar outward twist to his right foot so that the toes turned almost 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 extraordinary 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 Indian chief. Chappo, which had been left 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 grizzled chief (who still lives at the advanced of 120 years) offered six of his squaws and two ponies to any white man who would kill the bear. and his tribe, of course, joined in the chase.

Hut 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 escaped KILLING CRADDOCK'S HOUNDS. OPENING FOR AMERICAN GRADE IN CHINA. SOUTH of the port of Kiaochau, in China, lies the broad valley of the Yangtse-Klang.

It is in the heart of this valley, at Han Kow, that Mr. Brice's company will begin the construction of a railway to run almost 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 population of 200,000,000. Two of the provinces through which it runs contain 80,000,000 more than the population of the United States. The chief engineer of the new company will be an American.

It la probable most of the capital for the road will be furnished by Americans and that American locomotives will haul American cars over American rails through the heart of China in the near future. The road will be operated by the American syndicate in conjunction with the Imperial Department of Railroads 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. Whatever the ownership or control, it will serve to open up a trade in American food products and manufactured goods among 200,000,000 people.

Special to The Sunday Call. WE have spent $100,000 Investigating the conditions In China and deposited with the Imperial Govei-nment a forfeit of $100,000. Our agree- ment with the Chinese Government Is that we shall construct 900 miles of the new railroad, at a cost which is estimated at $30,000,000 to 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 1b completed we will operate It In connection THE SAN FKANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1898.

HE THOUGHT HIS TIME HAD COME, BUT PROVIDENTIAL STROKE BETWEEN THE RIBS ENDED THE FIGHT AND OLD REEL FOOT. 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 with the Government of China that Is, according to the just and reasonable requirements of the Government. 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 people favorably toward the road.

As to its patronage, that is not a matter of doubt. Where railroads have been constructed in China, they have found that the demands on both freight and passenger equipment have 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- RAIDING A PIGSTY. By Senator Calvin S.

Brice. been greater than they could meet. The Government of China wants railroads. It wants both railroads and telegraphs, because it knows that by their aid revolution can be prevented or subdued. President Diaz has maintained 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 revolution started In a remote part of the country it was two or three weeks perhaps before the Government heard of It, and as much longer before troops could be sent to put down the uprising. 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 frequent uprising's in different parts of the great empire. They realize that by the aid of the railroad and the telegraph 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 Government a means of Inland communication, 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 vessels ply on it now. Beyond It smaller ers, with their reinforcements, overtook Reel Foot.

He had worked into aome dense brush not far from a upring. The Pope Valley posse, re- CARRYING OFF AN INDIAN PAPOOOSE. 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 going 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 groing to want sugar, and so the American 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 exited. To-day there are so many men spending that sum that you cannot keep track of them. They have no social 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 a country of overproduction. The protective tariff has ceased to- be necessary to our manufactures. When we can Carried Forty-five Rifle Balls in His Body and Would Walk Straight Up to a Hunter Shooting 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 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 nve 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 and children in all these coun ties, and usually got away from the Sheriff as adroitly as Chris Evans or the notorious sneak thief of Middletown, George Coburn.

The hunting an nals of all these four counties are. full of the pursuit of Reel Foot. His peculiar 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 notorious 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 season 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 employed by John Adams of Pope Valley, who happened to be out in the field with his young son. The son climbed Up a tree while the father remained below 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 bargain.

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 starts 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 incident in Reel Foot's early biography, still lingers among the woods of Lake County and hunts bears with a breechloading rifle. He has probably killed ship steel rails to England and sell them in competition with English steelmakers 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 develop a sfci- building interest which will eclipse TOat 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 railroad.

Less than a year ago capitalists in this country would not have considered an investment in China. One concession was granted to an American, but it was revoked because he had not the capital to carry out its terms. Dewey's guna opened the eyes of the American neople to the possibilities of trade in the Pacific When he went to Manila and smashed the Snanlsh fleet, the people of the United States said: "We never thought of getting here, but we're now here, we're going to Btay." more bears than any man in Northern California, and lost more of his anatomy in doing so. He minus half of his right leg, a third of his right hand and his scalp. All of these mementos he left with Reel He declares that of all the grizzly bears that ever the devil put on earthy; there was never any like the one of which John Copsey has just rid the community.

The death of Reel Foot at last niay be attributed to the recent big forest fires that devastated many sections, pi Lake County, burning up the lairs of deer, panthers and all other wild animals. It happened that the fire's reached the hiding place of old Reel 'Foot arid smoked him out. He had beeh comparatively quiet for several; seasons, perhaps on account of age. Being disturbed in his quietness may have aggravated his old-time fierce spirit. However that may it is a fact that a few days ago John Copsey, now grown from a youth to the tallest man in Lake County, discovered the.

familiar tracks of the veteran Reel Foot on hi.s 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 one of his old, sullen, dangerous humors, but Cjpsey this time was not dependent on tha muzzle loader of the earlier days.

Reel Foot, on the contrary, had gro.wh aged; his teeth, as.Go.psey subsequently ascertained, hadKost their edge, but the vicious legs, nejvef lose their quick cunning while a bear exists, were as strong and active as eVer. The recognition between 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 bullet 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. Copsey says he thought his end had come and that he was going the same way as poor Church had gone "years before.

But by some means he managed to draw his knife, and with a last effort planted it in a mellow patch between two of Reel Foot's ribs. It was a providential blow and ended Reel Foot. When placed on the scales the huge fellow weighed pounds. Copsey found forty-five bullets in various parts of hfs body, and his thK'k hide was a crazy quilt of scars. The entire com- KILLING SHELPHERDER 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 anirhal, perhaps the last big grizzly that Tjrill terrorize the ranchers of Northern Call- fornia. Mr. Sealove (at his sea-shore cottage "My dear, please tell our daughter to sing something less doleful?" Mrs.

Sealove "That is our daughter, my love. That is the foghorn." TRADE IN KANQApOO HIDES NOT many people have, any idea how extensively kangaroo -hides are utilized in this- country, said a leading wholesale' leather dealer. "Last year there were over 400.000 such skins received 1 In-New York and about 80 per cent of were tanned in one large in Newark, N. J. The hides 411.

from Australia and New Zealand, where the kangaroos' are killed 'some 350 miles back from the coast and shipped from Melbourne, Sydney -and' Newcastle, Australia, and from Mas- terson in New Zealand. "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. Englishman named Brown in that year, some experiments, which resulted In his discovering the remarkably 1 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 tanners, but they were shy of the.

novelty, and he at last had to sell them at. a sacrifice to a New York, bobkbtrider. The latter merchant made triangular corner pieces for ledgers and commercial books out of the skins, and thus ascertained the good qualities of 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 appearance of the leather binding. He made some experiments with the skin and found that it possessed a remarkable tenaclousness and compactness' of grain, which prevented it from absorbing water, while the acids in blacking met with an almost i impervious 19.