The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-07-20
Death of the NIan.Eating Tiger
of SirSee.


ing off people for the past three years; and,
his 'boldness increasing daily, people walked
In ear. quite remember in 1862 the be-
ginning of his career, when he was described
sometimes as tiger, sometimes as a panther,
but always as o bagney with eccentric habits
He4had then only Killed three or four people,
whom he carried off in the midst of their foeks !;
but. by 1868 he had won an unenviable repu-
tati5n for many miles round. In May Of that
year two sportsmen beat up one of his haunts,
but. unfortunately the tiger, though there,
tool direction that had not been anticipated !;
he passed under a tree in which two match
loclmen were sitting, and stopped to smell
Their shoes. These two men were too strick-
en- With awe to fire, and the tiger walked leis-
ure'y away. The sportsmen only heard of
thiswhen it was too late, and their leave did
not admit of their spending another day
there.
Having to go on business in the neighbor-
hood of Sirsee, my friend Ii. was good enough
to accompany me, and we resolved to spend
some days, if necessary, IN the .endeayor to
rid the country of this scourge, Only few
days before our arrival at Sirsee, marriage
PROFESSION of some forty people was proceed
ing lat night along an open road. One man
stopped few yards behind to light his pipe
he never reioined his party; the man eater
sprsng on his prey and bore him of.
Oln another occasion, two men were walk
ing together, when this tiger seized one of
them. The other struck the tiger with long
sites; the brute dropped the first, and car
ned, off the man who had struck him.
About three miles from Sirsee is the village
of Bornera, at the mouth of glen. Four
people had been killed in this village three
while grazing cattle, and the fourth in a man
nerworth narrating. He was q boy and the
son of the head man Of the village. While
waiting with several others he was seized by
the neck and being carried off, when a rela.
hyedrew his sword and so deity struck the
tiger across the face that he dropped the boy
ands skunk away The poor boy, however,
dice, IN few days.
The glen extends about three miles in length
and ends in perpendicular mass of rock,
about three hundred yards broad, and three
hundred feet high. To the right a bank
sloped to the bottom, and to the left the side
was rocky and PERCEPTIONS, with here and
there path by which the tiger could get up.
At Assistance OF four hundred Yards from the
ehd, the rocky side blended into bank.
which sloped to the bottom of the glen. In
this nook there were both water and shade
1t was here the tiger was found last year, and
the villagers said it was his favorite resort in
very dry weather. On May y, being a hot
dry day, we beat this up, but he was not a,
home. Resolved to try our luck again mex
day, we had couple of butfaloes tied up as
bait On returning the day after, we found
there had been no kill the buffaloes had
either been loes I'd or had got loose, and, sthe
uger was known to wander over twelve miles
OF country, 1T was not with sanguine hons
that we repeated yesterdays operations, The
night bank was so bare that weihad no fear q
the tiger taking that direction We Therefore
threw our line of guns on the left, from tbe
top to the bottom of the bank. at the sno,
where 1t commenced to become perpend;cu
lar and rocky.
From our position we could see the heaters
winding up the bank to our right and from the
top commence the beat by throwing dowr
stones Great was our satisfaction when
from the excitement displayed by the heaters
we knew that the tiger had been seen. w,
had not to wait long, for he soon appeared
walking leisurely to the left of H.. with tn,
intention OF escaping by the tabeland above
II. hit him hard through the body with a sbell
this made him quicken his pace. and he wa
going to disappoint us by dying out of sight
when dropped him with a No. 10 spheriea
bullet. lie gave US no more trouble. Tn
people were excited with joy when they saw
their terrible enemy dead. and on exam;na
ton we found the scar across his face wb;cI
the yillager had dealt when the bow was res
cued. He was an ordinary sized tiger. No
very large, with perfect, shining coat, !,
that the popular notion of man eater be;n,
NANCY would seem to be a fallacy.
As gross exaggeration always exists az !,
the number OF persons killed in cases liz,
this, sent trustworthy non -comm;ss;one,
officer to collect the names Of the sufFsrass
The result of the inquiry was, that eichtv. i
men and women had heen L;l,ad 80 80