Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1873-07-30
WHOLE NUMBER 1877.
Tiger-Thugs.

-
lament. Lord Ettrick called attention 10
the enormous destruction of life OCCASION
ed annually in British India by the raw
ages of wild beasts. and asked if the
government of India had under consider
alton any measures for its prevention, as
these were imperatively needed He
brought to the notice of the House of
Lords paper lately read before the So
ciety for the Promotion Of Social Science
by Capt. Rogers of the Bengal service.
who. as long ago as 1865, Intellectually
endeavored to interest the late Lord
Mayo in the lamentable condition of the
Indians. and get him to take proper mea-
sures for its amelioration. lpdeed, the
government seems to have been looking
at the matter from every point Of view
since 1864, and with the usual result of
such efforts OF mental expansion-tota
inaction. According to Capt. Rogers,
whose information was gathered from
official sources. every year in India sees
the destruction of 10000 natives by
tigers, leopards, wolves panthers, hyenas,
snakes and other wild beasts, and this
enormous loss of life has increased stead
lily since the government di>armed the
people after the rebellion, and left them
almost helpless before the 'man-eaters.'
Between the jungles and the fully cul
tivated lands of the peninsula there are
great tracts Of country on which The peo-
pie live in frail huts, with goats to pro-
vide them with milk, and larger animals
used as beasts of burden and in agricul-
ture. When deer are scarce or wary,
hungry tigers sally from the jungles rush
upon the defenceless men and beasts.
with the speed of lightning and not un-
frequently cause the depopulation Of
large districts. not only by their actual
ravages, but by the terror with which
the villagers come to regard them. The
tigers have learned to lie in wait along
the roads which traverse the cultivated
tracts adjacent to the jungles, on one of
which one tigress in 1869 stopped traffic
for many weeks, and was known to have
killed l27 persons. Iu three years ano-
ther man eater caused the death of los
human beings, or an average Of thirty
six year. But the immediate destruc-
tion of men is not the worst of the busI-
ness, for the Hindoos have come to look
upon such calamity as one of the en-
durable ills of this world, and to regard
it almost with equanimity.
Capt Rogers estimates the loss of cat
tie in the aggregate at about sixty head
for every human being killed in this way
and its result in money at about one
million pounds sterling annually. Till
age is abandoned. Men fall into the
hands of usurers, and, to give one exam
pie from many. one tigress is known to
have thrown $50 square miles of coun-
try out of cultivation. To diminish the
number of wild beasts the natives, from
time immemerial, have had shikarries, or
hunters, who received rewards from gov
ernment proportionate to the number of
predatory animals they killed /; but un-
der English rule, these. with an amount
of foresight not peculiar to Hindoos have
learned that their account is to be found
in waiting for very large emoluments for
the slaughter cf peculiarly notorious
tigers, which, therefore, they are slow in
killing until the maximum reward of
three hundred rupees has been offered -
In other ways they are ineffctual, and, it
is said, have come to listen to British
lovers Of sport and, neglecting their
business, to let the man eaters live.
Itis perfectly evident that the people
whom the government, for political rea-
sons, has deprived of their means of
defence. should be defended by it from
their natural enemies. In reply to Lord
Ettrick's remarks, the Duke of Argyll
said that he should call the attention of
the Indian government to the matter and
made the remark that although the res
possibility of the government had been
increased by the native disarmament
which followed the Indian mutiny, it was
notwithstanding, extraordinary that the
people had not sufficient energy to go
out and destroy these creatures How
true and just the remark is may be seen
by one who will reflect upon what exc
cution the Duke of Argyll would be like
ly to do if, with cotton rag about his
middle and blunt knife as his only
weapon, tiger should swoop down upon
him, having just made short work Of the
Marquis of Lornc or the Princess LeIise
N. Y Times.
A VENERABLE gentle man who attain
ed the age of ninety, once said in our