The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1876-10-12
THE MAD WOLF.

disease Ol rare OC'iuItCLCS Ill Indu, II one
of the most reconcile and least under
gtood in the whole range of fleshy ills.
It Il, Indeed, given up by medical author
tiles as utterly incurable after the
symptoms once set in, the orly remedies
being of preventive and not of cura-
tive character. The wolf, the dog, the
fox, the iackal and the cat seem most
liable to contract the disease, though it
occasionally occurs in other animals, its
appearance, according to Eckel, being
most frequent in tina months of February
and May, though popular belief has laid
hold upon the latter heats of summer or
the dog-days, as the season in which this
horrible malady is most to be appre-
hended. Its origin, when de novo, is lit
tie understood; but intense thirst, sud-
den changes from heat to cold, bad food,
and unsatisfed sexual desires have all
been assigned as causes for its appearance
in animals; hut in man it is invariably,
and in animals most commonly, the
result of contagioD. When contracted
by man it is usually from bites of rabid
dogs, but fortunately the wounds in
most cases heal without any serious
consequences, but one person in twenty
or thirty bitten, according to Hunter
and Vaughn, taking the disease.
The bites inflicted by mad wolves are
more certainly fatal, Watson mentioning
sixty-seven deaths by hydrophobia out
of one hundred and fourteen bites. The
greater virulence of wolf bites is ac-
counted for by wolves usually biting at
the naked parts, but dogs nearly always
bite through the clothing, the poisonous
saliva thus being wiped from the teeth
before they enter the flesh.
But I set out to tell a story, not to
write medical essay, though SO much
on subject illustrated by my story
seemed not inappropriate by way of in
PRODUCTION.
Among the tales with which, in the
heyday of the American fur trade, the
trappers were wont to beguile the even
ing hours by their camp-fres, were those
of wolves having gone mad upon the
prairie, crept by night into the camp of
the sleeping trapper, and inflicted bites
from which the victim, after lingering
through days of suffering, died in ter
rible agony. Many such stories were
current in the olden time, and not even
an Indian alarm could arouse the sleep
ing trapper so quickly from his slumbers,
and cause him to clutch with such fierce
ness the ever-ready rife, as the cry,
resounding through the camp in the
stiffness of night, "Mad wolf mad wolf !
About the first of August, 1882, the
rival camps of the several fur cOmpa-
MES then contending for supremacy IN
the west, were clustered near each other
in the valley of the Green river. One
night mad wolf entered the camp
FOntenelle, who represented the interest
of the American fur company, and pass
ing rapidly by the recumbent and sleep
ing men, inflicted upon several slight
bite, proceeded among the horses, several
of which it bit, and escaped in the dark
ness. The alarm was spread to all the
camps, and the following day number
of tents were erected by the more prudent
men for their better protection should
the wolf return. In the camp. of Fitz'
patrick and Campbell, five miles distant
from that of Fontenelle, but one tent was
pitched, the occupants at night bar
reading the entrance with pack saddles;
but as the night was pleasant the re-
mainder of the men preferred to take
their chances in the open air, laughing
and joking their more prudent com
panlons not a little for the precautiOn
they had taken. Night came, and
silence fell upon the camp, only broken
at intervals of twenty minutes, when the
chief of the guard sounded the cry OF
"All's we'll p which was taken up and
repeated successfully by the drowsy
sentinels, who, forbidden by the rules Of
the camp to pace their beats lest the7
should be made a target for the feathered
shafts of unseen foes, could scarcely keep
awake in the recumbent or sitting
pastures they were required to maintain
in some dark nook ON the verge of the