The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-05-09
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THE SKELETON PANTHER AND HIS
- : o E'atl9 VICTIM, ..r.ssq .5eis

From "Hemloek Sketches in cPorter's
Spirit Of the Times, we extract the following:
The victim was young physician, who
hung out at the, Block house village, and had,
it is said, more love Tor, and more skill in,
shooting than surgery Some ten oritwelye
miles from the Blockhouse is place called
the @English Settlement,,s and between le
two places an unbroken forest extends nearly
the whole way there IS no road through, but
the settlers have 5blazed a I'm" and on this
line the Doctor started one Autumn morning
for the settlement He took his gun, of course,
and also expressed an intention of being ab-
sent week or more, if the hunting proved
good. 1e TerpsayaT Bar i',is u - =. ..
q He was not expected at the settlement, nor
did he arrive there; but it happened that two
For three days afterward, man came through
from the latter place, and on being questioned
by the doctors friends, gave the very startling
that no doctor had arrived. AS
it was known he took no camp implements
along with him, and was not likely to have
got lost, his friends, to the number of half a
dozen, took their rifles and started for the set
Element, to sssee it out" They had not far to
go. He was lying few yards from the path
fightfully torn and mangled, one barrel dis
charged, and the cap of the other exploded,
with nnmistakable evidences of fearful life
and death struggle on his person.. The men
who found him were hunters, and they said
apainter" at once. There was a trail of blood
leading from the corpse to q thicket,5 but the
leaves were falling, and after long trial, they
could follow it mo longer.
. It is worthy of note that an old hunter of
that party gave it as his belief, after washing
and closely examining the corpse, that the PAN
ther had had his under jaw broken by the shot,
and consequently could mot eat aor bite TIE
body. Good dogs were broughtto the spot the
day after the body was found, but nothing
came of it, and the clusion was that the
panther hadrcrawled off to thicket and died
of his sssounds;i that it was panther no one
who saw the body or heard the story even
doubted. -. ~ X - -. oT
This. was. in November. In the, April fol-
lowing, some children who had been playing
On the road at the settlement, rushed into the
house near by, wild with alright and. attempt
ing incoherently, to describe something of a
mest fearful aspect, that was trying to get:over
brush fence into the road.lol.s .a5osoT
"Its long as horse, and got bloody eyes" !"
one little fellow said 9s7'19 70 81 iA,1oitt
The children were too much, accustomed to
the sight of wild animals toymake such a fuss
without cause, and couple of men, who heard
2the yarn, started up the road imned ately to
the spot indicated by the children: Sure
enough, there was a gaunt, spectre ike Sskelee
ton, trying, in a maundering, feeble manner
to worm himself throughl the fence into the
road, falling ION his side. at times from sheer
exhaustion, and ::onIy able to regain his feet
after repeated trials, tottering and stumbling
at every slight obstruction in his path, and to-
tally incapable of inficting injuryson any liy-
ing thing. He was an objectiof pity rather
.1,o,,- ronS------ sas
!. = : It was the panther, who had managed for
FIVE long months to keep himself alive with
ont oleast assistance from his under jaw,
which was hopelessly shattered, and'must have
preeluded the possibility Of eating, in the
proper sense Of the word. In his wounded
and exhausted condition, he must have man
aged to exist by catching mice and "such
small DEER as he could tuck into his throat
with paw, and swallow without mastication.
Death must have been alrelief to him, and be
suffered himself to be knocked in the head
without snarl. ! HsFuWas large specimen,
measuring nearly eleven feet from tip to tip,
and with his broken, decaying jaw, skin hang
ing 1looselya over the ,snakeliks vertebre, and
bIoodshot, famished eyes, must have been q
walking nightmare TO look on 2 Q: 90 ga