Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 178, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1919 — BEN LILLY MOST FAMOUS HUNTER [ARTICLE]

BEN LILLY MOST FAMOUS HUNTER

At Sixty-Five He Leads All Uncle Sam’s Professional ~x_ Trappers. SAVES STOCKMEN HUGE SUM In the Last Six Years “Old Ben” Has Killed 167 Mountain Lions and 65 Bears, Including Several Grizzlies. Washington. D. C.—Uncle Sain employs approximately three hundred professional hunters and trappers to exterminate predatory animals in the range country. Among these, the champion lion hunter is “Old Man. Ben Lilly,” who at sixty-five years of age still leads all the rest. He remains active, as daring and as certain in “drawing a bead" as any of his associates, some of-whom are young enough to be his grandchildren. Lilly is a giant for work. He is able daily to tire out two or three sets of dogs in rounding up some range “varmint.” According to the bureau of biological survey, under which this extermination work is done. Old Man Lilly in the last six years has killed TG7 mountain lions and 65 bears, including several grizzlies. The official account, just Issued, concludes: “Mr. Lilly is unassuming and disinclined to talk about his experiences, and on that account no accurate record is available concerning his total number of scalps, but it is rery large.”

Leads Temperate Life. Mr. Lilly attributes his physical prowess ami activity to his outdoor life and to the fact that he never used tobacco or intoxicants of any kind. He furthermore has followed a fixed rule of never hunting on Sunday. This rule lias given many wild animals being pursued a new lease of life through being able to make their “get-away” on the Sabbath. On one occasion, however, he tracked a huge mountain lion for weeks through three states find finally cornered him. His hounds were beaten off and the beast attacked Lilly. His rifle was knocked from his hand. Armed only with a 4-inch pocket knife, he battled for some time until one desperate plunge of this weapon at the animal’s heart reached it just as the hunter became so exhausted that he fell beside the dead lion. The records assert that Mr. Lilly knows the range country so well and Is so familiar with the routes, habits and haunts of the lions that occasionally he kills three within half an hour. He knows just where to set traps in the canyons and coves, while he is able to pick out the fnost advantageous spots to lie in ambush awaiting the approach of prowling beasts. Born of » good family enjoying prosperity, Lilly In his teens responded to tlie call of the wild and became, a freelance hunter. Loaded with a GO-pound pack, he broke his way through the Louisiana canebrakes in search *of game, from boars to wildcats. As a rule, every time his rifle cracked some animal dropped, and his fame as a sure shot has spread throughout Louisiana. Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico. He was one of the guides selected to accompany the late Colonel Roosevelt in his hunt in Louisiana which made the "Teddy Bear” famous. His circle of friends among western ranchers is extensive and appreciative. Saves Stockmen Huge Sum. On the accepted basis that a wolf kills SI.(MX) worth of stock a year, a bear and mountain lion SSOO each, and that a coyote and bobcat each do SSO worth of damage, Lilly has saved the western stockmen a substantial amount. Altogether these predatory animal hunters have killed 70,713 such beasts in the last three years. The direct saving thereby is estimated at nearly $5,500,000 a .year to the stockmen of the Rocky Mountain section. The total kill consisted of G 0,473 coyotes, 8,094 bobcats, 189 wolves. 201 mountain lions and 137 bears. The pelts of these animals -sold for approximately SIOO,OOO, which was used by

the government to carry on the work. In addition to animals killed by trapping ami shooting, millions of rodents, prairie dogs, rabbits’ foxes and woodchucks have been destroyed by the carefully organized poisoning campaign conducted by the biological survey.