, 1876-07-14
A Fight for Life With Rat ON
Pixies Peak.

The number Of rats inhabitinR the
rocky crevices and cavernous passages
at the summit Of Pixies Peak-says a
correspondent of the Pueblo Chie1lain
have recently become formidable and
dangerous. These animals are known
to feed upon a saccharine gum that per-
colates through the pores of the rocks,
apparently upheaved by some volcanic
action. Since the establishment of the
government signal station on the sum-
NIT of the Peak, at an altitude Of fifteen
thousand feet, these animals have &C
quired voracious appetite for raw and
partially cooked meat, the scent of which
seems to impart to them q ferocity ri
valing the ferceness of the starved ST.
berian wolf. The most singular trait
in the character of these animals is that
they are never seen in the day time.
When the moon sends down her queen
ly light upon the summit they may be
seen in countless numbers trooping
around among the rocky powders that
crown the barren waste, and during the
warm Summer months they can be seen
swimming and sporting in the waters of
the lake, a short distance below the
Peak, and of dark cloudy night their
trail in the water is marked by q spark
ling light, giving to the waters of the
lake bright and silvery appearance.
A few days since Mr.. John 7. OKeefe,
one Of the Government operators at the
signal station upon the Peak, returned
to his post, taking with him upon a pack
animal q quarter of beef. It being late
in the afternoon, his colleague, Mr..
Hobbs, Immediately left with the pack
animal for the Springs. Soon after dark,
while Mr.. O'Keefe was engaged in the
Office forwarding dispatches to Denver
and Washington, he was startled by a
loud scream from Mrs. OKeefe, who
had retired for the night in an adjoin-
ing bedroom, and who came rushing in
to the Office screaming, The ratsl the
ratsl" Mr.. O'Keefe, with great pres
ence Of mind, Immediately drew around
his wife a scroll Of zinc plating, which
prevented the animals from climbing up
on her psrson, and, although his own
person was almost literally covered with
them, he succeeded in encasing both his
legs each in joint Of stovepipe, when
he commenced q fierce and desperate
struggle for the preservation of life,
armed with q heavy cane. Hundreds
were destroyed on every side, while they
numbers from the bedroom, the door of
which had been left open. The entire
quarter Of beef was eaten in less than
five minutes, which seemed only to
sharpen their appetites for an attack on
Mr.. OKeefe, whose hands and face were
terribly lacerated. In the midst Of the
warfare Mrs. O'Keefe managed to reach
the Office, from which she threw o coil
Of electric wire over her husband that
sprang outward and spread itself over
the room, then, grasping the valve of
the battery, she poured all its terrible
pewer upon the wire. In an instant the
room was all ablaze with electric iRht.
and hundreds were killed by the shock,
when the sudden appearance Of daylight.
made such by the corruscation Of the
heavily charged wire, caused them to
take refuge among the crevices and cav
erns Of the mountain, by way Of the
bedroom window, through which they
had forced their way. But the saddest
part Of this nights adventure upon the
Peak is the destroying Of their infant
child, which Mrs. OKeefe thought she
had made secure by Q heavy covering
OF bed-clothes. But the rats had found
their way 10 the infant (only two months
old), and left nothing OF it but the
peeled and naked skull. Drs. Horn
and Anderson have Just returned 70 Col
orado Spring from the Peak. It was
thought at first that the left arm of Ser
geant O'Keefe would have to be ampu-
tated, but they now believe it can be
saved.-DeRver Mslcs.