The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-01-14
Tiger-slay1ng IN India.

Tiger-Slay1ng IN India.
The crusade against man eating-tigers
is being actively carried on in South In
dia. The tiger-slayer, appointed by the
Madras government, is poisoning, trap
ping, and shooting, right and left. Now
and then sensational reports of the
number of tigers Sc exterminated pro-
coed from his pen but, unfortunately,
a good many Of these animals, half
killed or half-poisoned, g have proba-
bly, retired to their inaccessible lairs IN
the painless jungles to die" However,
Capt. Caulfeld, the tiger-slayer to
the Madras government, and his Shi-
EaTTies and staff, must be credited with
good deal of genuine zeal, pluck, and
success. The interest exhibited In In
dia in their proceedings is not confined
merely to spoFtsmen. Staid officials,
experimental chemists, and pious mis-
sionaries. have alike turned their at
tention eagerly to the allengrossing
subject. The sportsman, of course,
regards the raid against man-eaters as
rare fun, and with unfeigned avidity
reads, marks, and inwardly digests, the
accounts of each tiger chase. If the
pursuer himself should be eaten up, it
is frightful pity, of course but even
then how very interesting is the account
of the disasteri The official looks
upon the whole affair from an entirely
different standpoint. He desires stat
istics and these are given him, to
some extent, at least, in the numbers
recorded of tigers killed and mis-
sing" The man of medicine has q
nearer interest still in the matter. He
looks at it in q scientific light. What
will cause full grown tiger to fall dead
by the side of the bait ? what viii form
an overdose, merely causing the AMI
NAL to eject what it has taken and run
| off-scot-free and what will so effect il
in a tardy manner that the brute will
have time to dash off to its den, and
there end it's days in the bosom of its
family? The interest displayed by the
missionary is easily explained. He has
q care for the bodies as we'll as souls OF
his flock; and is constantly on the Qlti
UiUe TO ascertain if any one of his re-
cent converts in the tiger infested dis
| tricts has avoided inhumation as well as
cremation by becoming assimilated with
the organic structureo Of beast OF prey.
Finding that the determination OF
| tigers was attracting SO much attention
/ in South India, a Mr.. Groom, an East
Indian of Madras, invented, a short
| time ago, an sc armor" for a tiger-slayer.
| This invention has not yet been pa
tented. It consists of dress of can
vas, to which bands of leather are at
tached. These bands are studded with
nails, keenly sharpened, with their
| points projecting outward. Mr.. Groom
was satisfied, when inventing his armor,
that any tiger, seeing a man clad in it,
would at once have the sagacity to I'M
agine him to be an enormous "fretful
porcupine," and decline attack. But,
although he has been frequently re-
quested to do so, MIR. Groom declines
to test his armor on his own person in
the presence of a live tiger in its wild
state, and therefore we must hold our
opinion of the utility of his invention
in allegiance. Another story may be
regarded as more serious. Immediately
before his appointment as official tiger
slayer to the Madras government, Capt.
Garfield happened to be in Coimbatore,
in South India, near the foot of the
Neilgherry Hills; he was staying.with a
Rev. Mr.. Jackson, a missionary. They
heard that q man. eating tiger was ravag-
lug the neighborhood. With rifles, and
a large body of hunters, they at once
set out in pursuit of the cannibal. AS
they came near to a village, they heard
a great elamor, and the noise of women
waiiing. It was sunset, and under the
shadow of some trees skirting an ada
cent Jungle they dimly saw huge old
tigress devouring a poor berdsman,
whom she had just pounced upon and
killed. At sight Of Capt. Caulfeld and
party the brute ran into the Jungle. It
was too dark to follow her, so the cap
tain and his friend, the missionary, Put
some poison into the body OF the herds
man, and left it there as bait for the
man-eater. The tigress returned, and
the next morning was found dead beside
her victim. When this story became
known, the question arose We're the
officer and clergyman justified IN using
the body of human being as bait? If
so, then if man fell overheard and a
shark took off one of his legs, so that
he died from loss of blood-in such a
case would it be iustifiabIe, in order to
capture and kill that shark, so as to
prevent it causing the death of any
more men, to bait hook with q limb
of the dead man ?" It is q curious
question, and we leave it to be solved
by the infallible reader.-PaU Mall
Gazette.