Philadelphians In Motor Car Have Hair Raising Experience.
Recently the family of William H. Walker of Philadelphia had an experience rare indeed. In their motor car they were en route to Bedford Springs, Pa., and were going over the mountain from Fannettsburg to McConnellsburg, the county seat of Fulton county, lying deep in the vale of the mountain.
As they were climbing a particularly bad piece of mountain road suddenly there was a piercing and scary sort of scream or yell behind them. Turning, all saw an enormous wildcat, or catamount, coming up the road. The grade was unusually steep, and the big car was merely creeping up, while the cat was loping along easily and soon came within a few yards of the rear of the car and ran behind the machine, spitting and growling.
The women of the party screamed and waved coats and shawls and succeeded in intimidating the animal until the top of the hill was reached. There full speed down the grade soon left the catamount in the distance, but it stood watching the auto party until a turn in the road hid him from sight.
In McConnellsburg there was some hesitancy about accepting the Walker party’s story until one of the ladies mentioned the fact that the cat seemed to have but three feet, one front paw apparently being missing. Then the McConnellsburg people recalled that a trap set in the mountain for a panther or wildcat, which had been killing calves and sheep, had been found far away from where it had been set and in it the paw of a wildcat, which the animal had chewed off at the lower joint to release itself.
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