The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-09-05 00:00:00

FIGHT BETWEEN A MAN AND A
PANTHER.

A correspondent of a paper in Reading, Pennsyl-
vania, gives a thrilling account of a desperate struggle
with a catamount in the Blue Mountains. Three
hunters had started out in search of the animal, taking
different paths, and agreeing to meet at a certain
point marked by a tall tree. One of them, Anson
by name, when about one hundred yards from the
point of meeting, determined to pass up through
a small ravine whose sides were overhung with
a dense undergrowth of shrubs. When directly
under a small crag, and walking along with
his bead bent to the ground and his form
doubled in creeping under a low vine, he suddenly
beard heard a crash overhead, and the next minute felt the
claws of an animal sink in his neck and flesh, accom-
panied with fierce growls. By a very quick move
ment Anson swung around his arms, grasped the
animal by the neck with both hands, and held it in a
vice-like grip. He then staggered back to the clearing,
when the animal shook off the hunter's grasp and
made an effort to bite his neck. The man grasped a
knife in his belt, swung it around, and sunk it sleep
into the animal's side. The brute gave a long, low
howl, and amidst the excitement man and beast
rolled over on the ground, and as they did so the
former received three severe bites in the shoulder.
The growls of the animal attracted the attention
of the remaining two hunters, who came through
the bush toward the spot where the hunter and the
brute were tussling on the ground. The struggle did
not last long. Anson plunged his knife the second
time into the animal's body, and in a few minutes it
rolled over and died. The hunters then examined it,
and found it tube a species of panther, and which was
thought to be a catamount of the mammoth species.
It weighed 1461 b., and measured 4ft. sin. in length,
not counting the length of its tail, which was 2ft. lin.
It stood 2ft. Bin. high, and was powerfully knit and
very o qapaetly built.

THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS'
STRIKE anti LOCK-OUT REVIEWED.
Th, Tiwo, in a leader, thus .lances at the probable
results of the Strike and Lock-out of Farm Labourers,
and it is to be hoped that the recent long continued
battle will result in a lasting peace :
The Lock-out in the Eastern Counties is at an end. so the
tale can now be told, the results calculated, and the
balance struck. A battle Inas been fought ; positions have
beegdost or wen aud perhaps a little more light is thrown
on tlre unknown future. It is natural to wish for the best,
and to believe, ii possible, that nobody has done himself or
his neighbours any great and irremediable damage, yet the
gains of this contest are problematical, the losses certain.
There is good that may possibly arise from a military
disaater, is shipwreck, a conflagration, or a civil war; but
thu danuige done is not merely possible, but actual and
certain A goond many thousand men have been idle a whole
Summer, and that. an unusually line cute, a number of honest
enthusiasts have thrown away fifty thi man od pounds or more ;
many farmers have been put to great inconvenience : some
thouasini labourers have been eoaxed or forced to an emi-
gration tat which they are not 9,111n1c4 ; anOod Many