Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Sunday, September 30, 1900
Bulls Couldn’t Stand Before an Auto.
Paris, Sept. 30.-A dispatch from Bayonne to the Figaro describes a bull fight which occurred there yesterday in which an automobile replaced the horse of the picador. The novelty drew an enormous crowd, but seven bulls in succession turned tail and fled at the sight of the auto.
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, September 25, 1903
Story of a Dog Traveler.
Was raised on farm and has since become widely known.
Jack is the name of a dog that is known to everybody in Rushville, Ind., and which makes that place headquarters while he travels to all the towns within thirty miles of it, says the Indianapolis News. He comes from an aristocratic family of spaniels and collies and spent his earlier years on a farm. He made occasional trips to town with the farmer in his youth and one day after the farmer’s son gave him a whipping for disturbing eggs in a hen’s nest Jack came to Rushville to live.
He wandered about town for some days and then took up his quarters at a barn where an omnibus is sheltered and where he found friendly hands ready to aid him and when in Rushville he seldom fails to go with the bus to the railroad station.
He was at the station one day when a tramp kicked him and Jack ran to the steps of a passenger coach and the train carried him away. He was gone for two weeks when he came back on a train, took his old place on the bus and went back to the barn to live.
Jack made a trip by train to Cambridge City a few days ago and when he returned on a freight train there was no bus at the station. He jumped on the dray and refused to get off until he had been hauled to town.
The dog goes to Newcastle about once a week and he has his human friends there, who feed him “on the fat of the land,” most of the food coming from hotels and restaurants. In Newcastle he makes his headquarters at the post office, riding to and from the station in a mall wagon, guarding the pouches as he rides. He sleeps before the safe in the Newcastle post office and regards the office men as his friends.
Published in the Waukegan DailySun, Waukegan, Illinois on Monday, December 23, 2024
Wildcat Eats Wildcat.
Savage brutes shipped from California in the same cage have a falling out by the way-A case of assimilation.
A 50-pound Wildcat, with a split eye lid, and fresh battle scars about its body, was the survivor of a catfight. The Wildcats were forwarded by W. D. Gambel, of Wells, Fargo & Com. express at Chicago, and forwarded to its consignee in Ohio by Erie train No. 12.
Mr. Gamble averred that as a matter of fact there were really two in the cage, although only one is visible. The other, he said, was somewhere within the innermost recesses in the disreputable-looking beast, who looked viciously over his shoulder. Tufts of grey fur was strewn about the floor of the cage and the whiskers of its occupant seemed to bear out his statement.
“The cats previous to assimilation were entrusted to Mr. Gambel’s care at Kansas City. He was there assured that the animals had traveled together from Fall Brook, Cal., in peace and harmony. A pair of turtle doves was ugly and quarrelsome alongside of them pretty and purring critters,” said the retiring messenger, and Gamble believed him.
How the difficulty arose Gamble cannot tell, but an hour out of Kansas City there was a sudden “phhtt” from the cage that made him overbalance in his chair and roll over on the floor. When he got up he noticed that his pets were crouching in opposite corners of the cage, their ears laid back and their bob tails twitching nervously. he also noticed that there didn’t seem to be as much solidity in the structure in which they were confined as he would have liked. So he hastened to poke some beef in between the bars as a diversion. He had no sooner done this then the cats came together with a thud of extreme suddenness, and two yowls that made his blood drop 15 degrees in temperature. He would have left the car right there, only that he scorned to leave his post. He would also have been compelled to descend from the top of the safe to get to the door, so he drew his revolver with trembling hands and rising hair and awaited developments. Every minute the combats struck the bars of the cage with such force that it made them quiver. The fight lasted over an hour. When at last the haggard messenger left his post and cautiously approached the cage to investigate there was only one cat left.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, June 28, 1873
Monkey Sagacity.
It was a wild and dreary part of the country, in the plains of India, while journeying, that one day a friend and myself sat down under the shade of a banana tree; and were enjoying a meal of various edibles, when we were disturbed by the arrival and the noise of a troop of large black-faced monkeys; the branches overhead literally swarmed with them. They looked on us as interlopers, no doubt; and for some time their gestures appeared so menacing that we were apprehensive they would dispute the ground with us. We had just risen from our meal, when, to our surprise, one of the monkeys, a young one-fell down from a high branch at our feet. It was quite dead. The clamor that arose above us was deafening. The whole assembly of monkeys clustered together for a confab. Long and loud were the chattering’s, and various the grimaces of the tribe, each individual being with the other in loudness of his tongue. Their looks and gestures made it apparent that they suspected us as being the cause of the death of their juvenile comrade. But we were unarmed, and the good sense of the monkeys seemed to tell them that there must be some other culprit. Having come to this conclusion, one monkey, apparently the senior and leader of the whole tribe, separated himself from the rest, ran to the spot on the branch whence the young monkey had fallen, examined it carefully, smelt the branch, and then glided nimbly down one of the pillar or pendant roots, and came to the corpse of the dead monkey, took it up, examined it minutely, particularly the shoulder, where there was a small wound. Instinct immediately turned suspicion into certainly. He placed the corpse on the ground again, and, turning his gaze in every direction, endeavored to pierce the foliage in his search for the murderer. After a little while something seemed to rivet his attention. In an instant he had mounted the tree, sprung to the spot, and with one clutch had seized a long whip snake, with which he hastened to the ground. Now occurred a most curious scene. The whole monkey rabble, following their leader, was on the ground almost as soon as he; then as many as could arrange themselves on each side of the snake. Each monkey put his hand on the reptile, clutching hold of the skin of the back tightly. At a given signal the executioners dragged the writhing snake backward and forward on the ground till nothing was left of the murderer but the backbone. The mode of execution was effectual, and, in the way it was carried out, showed the clear understanding which the monkey language conveys.
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Thursday, November 13, 1902
The African cobra is regarded somewhat reverently by the natives of that country, who once a year kill a cobra de Capello and hang its skin to the branch of a tree, tail downward. Then all the children born during the last year are brought out and made to touch the skin. This the parents think puts them under the serpent’s protection. The cobra de Capello divides with the horned viper of Africa the questionable honor of being the “worm of the Nile,” to whose venom Cleopatra’s death was due.
The Kaffirs use the venom of this snake’s cousin, the puff adder, to poison their arrows, and when they have any small quantity left they swallow it, having a theory that it will protect them from the bad effects of future bites. The snake’s tribe of the Punjab say that the bites of snakes do not hurt them, and if they find a dead serpent, they dress it in clothes and give it a superb funeral.
, Waukegan Daily Sun on Monday, December 23, 2024
Bovine Morals Corrupted.
Catskill Cows Taught by Deer to Leap Fences.
Ever since the deer were released from the State park in the Catskill mountains several years ago they have more or less become a nuisance. The law prohibits the deer from being shot for five years, and game protectors are kept busy at a large cost looking after alleged violations of this law, says an eastern exchange.
In the State park the herd of deer was cared for and fed so long as that the animals became quite tame. When they were liberated from the park they had to be driven away to get rid of them. Then the large herd soon separated and the deer became lonely and sought the society of the cows in the surrounding farms.
Ever since the liberation of the deer farmers throughout the Catskills have complained that the deer, by their free and easy manner of leaping fences, have taught their cows bad habits. The cows, always tame and easily confined, have learned from association with the deer how to leap fences and cannot now be kept in pastures by any ordinary fence.
Notwithstanding that the Catskill deer are a nuisance, the farmers dare not use violence toward them, being restrained by the law.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, January 4, 1879
A large ape, which was chained to a tree in the grounds of one of the Esterhazy family, lately descended on the countess while she was driving, and tore her dress and arm. Her husband arrived in time to shoot the beast before serious harm was done.
Published in the Dixon Telegraph and Lee County Herald, Dixon, Illinois on Wednesday, October 22, 1851
Remarkable Dog Story.
We find the following in the N. York Spirit of the Times. It is rather tough;
Some years since, in the town of New Boston, New Hampshire, there was a family a, woman who was insane, a confirmed maniac. A partition was made by upright slabs secured in the floor of the room, which was the common living room of the family, and a piece of timber overhead. Here she was constantly confined. A shower coming up, all the members of the family, women as well as men, went out into the field adjoining the house to assist in raking and getting in hay. A window was left open, the dog was in the house-I believe a full or cross of the Shepard’s dog.
The family had been raking, and had thrown a large quantity of coals from the oven into the large fire place. The people in the field heard the dog barking and howling-saw him jumping up to the open window, in such apparent distress and want of assistance, that they concluded something was wrong in the house; they accordingly dispatched one of their number to see what the trouble was with the dog. The person came up and looking in at the window, witnessed the dog’s operations.
The mad woman had gone into the fireplace and thrown the coals around the room.-They set fire to the floor. The dog would get hold of the woman and pull her away from the fireplace; he would then brush the coals to the health with his paws, and put out the blaze on the floor; while he was doing this the woman would get to the fireplace, and scatter the coals again. Again he would pull her away, and then go to work and brush up the coals to the health again. He noticed the person at the window and gave notice for assistance. The person entered the house, secured the woman, swept up the coals, put out the fire and returned for haying.
Now instinct would have taught the dog to make his escape from a burning building; but knowing that the woman was crazy-knowing that she was doing mischief, knowing that she would burn the house, and finding that he could not manage the affair, but thinking that the sane folks could; calling for, their assistance and giving them notice of the danger looks very much like what these wise folks call reasoning, or would look like it if it had been done by a human being.
Published in the Sangamo Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Friday, April 5, 1850
Wild Pigeons.-Chronicle says that, during the stay of the wild pigeons in that neighborhood, two persons caught 650 dozen of the birds. They were taken in a net.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, July 22, 1865
Extraordinary Effects of Whiskey upon a Dog.
An unfortunate dog, while prowling around the market square lately, took it in his noddle to put out of sight one of those beef boluses, a few of which were carefully thrown around for the especial benefit of the canine fraternity-those without muzzles. The incautious individual had only gulped the tempting piece of meat down a few minutes before the strychnine began to work. A crowd soon gathered round to watch the dying throes of the animal, feeling that his end was near. One man in the crowd, however, thought different. Dr. Bullock, a gentleman who has given “the dog” his most carful study, made his way forward, and ordered a pint of whiskey to be brought at once. Ginger-this, we believe, is the name the animal goes by, and is also the property of Mr. George Gordon, commission merchant-was compelled to open his mouth, and down went the tangle-leg.-it had barely reached its terminus before Ginger began to show signs of renewed animation; this was the signal for another dose, and down went another pint of the same stuff. The repeater had the desired effect, for in a second afterwards the dog gave a bark, got on his legs, made a bolt through the crowd, many of whom considered him insane, and off he galloped, to the astonishment of everyone, the owner not excepted, who tried all in his power to call him back, but no go. In a few minutes afterwards Ginger was found quietly reposing at his master’s door, but how he had found his way there nobody knows, as he must have been laboring under the effects of intoxication. To make the matter doubly sure, a third pint of whiskey, and this, too, his dogship was compelled to swallow; he was then carefully put to bed, and to-day he is as well as ever he was. Who will say that whiskey may not be devoted to a useful purpose after this? What will even Dunkin say? The same effect would, we presume, be produced on the human system in a similar case,-London,(C. W.) Prototype.