Show OLD WESTERN STYLE Farmers Pack Guns to Curb Rustlers MADISON WIS Defying mod mod- modern modern modern ern methods of criminal detection det Wood county farmers have band band- banded banded banded ed together in the time old vigilante vigilante vigilante lante system to curb a recent out out- outbreak outbreak outbreak break of cattle rustling here An SOS over a rural party tele tele- telephone telephone telephone phone line prompted the first con con- concerted concerted manhunt when 50 farmers packing guns in old vigilante style set out on a quest tor for rustlers They beat a wooded sector from mid mid- midnight midnight midnight night until dawn but the rustlers had disappeared Bernard Kroening who lives in nearby Rock saw a car slip up to a woods on his farm two occupants occupants occupants pants emerging and entering the woods He fired three shots chas chas- chasing chasing chasing ing the men deeper into the woods Meanwhile his wife got busy on the party line to round up the gang of 50 farmers Before their arrival however the mysterious car raced off down the road Kroening gave chase in his car but lost the quarry Kroen Kroen- Kroening Kroening Kroening ing told the vigilantes he believed the two strangers still were in the woods and that the car had been driven by a third party who had remained in it Although hampered by fog the farmers beat through bushes and thickets thick ts for hours without finding the rustlers Two Marshfield traffic traffic traffic fic officers and several deputies helped them An electric wire which charged a fence on the Kroening farm had been turned off by the thieves and the farmers theorized that the themen themen themen men had made careful preparations preparations preparations for herding the animals through the fence when a truck arrived later In a previous rustling incident mysterious strangers fired on a a. a farmer who came upon them un un- unexpectedly unexpectedly un- un unexpectedly expectedly on his farm near Wis Wisconsin I cons in Rapids |