The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1882-11-29

lie SNOIc SuCIt d lCl1CS8o0 SooAo
neither part nor lot with the illustrious
family of Romanzeff. So he erased
her name from the family Bible, and
went on accommodating debts which
there was now no hope whatever OF
paying.
Wolf. Children.
In depicting the temper and dispo-
sition Of the wolf, such adjectives as
ruthless, cunning and treacherous"
are invariably used, and with perfect
justice. 1t would appear, therefore,
at first sight almost incredible that
there should be many instances on
record where children have been car
ried away; and instead Of being de-
voured, as would assuredly have been
the case had the marauder been a
panther or leopard, they have been
sucked, tended and reared by them.
Some of these have afterward been re-
covered, and at this moment there
exists a specimen wolf-child at Secun-
dra, a small missionary station a few
miles from Agra; so that the story of
Romulus and Remus may not be so
entirely without foundation as we
have hitherto been led to suppose.
Wolves as a rule prey upon the
hocks and herds of the inhabitants OF
the villages in whose neighborhood
they have made their dens, and upon
such wild animals as they can hunt
down and capture. Among these lat
ter may be mentioned the g~azelle-ante-
lope and the black-buck; and many
and ingenious are the devices they re-
sort to in order to achieve their pur-
pose. But in the northwestern pro-
vinces of India, as about Agra, in Dude
and Rajpootana, they are also very de-
structive to children. Hindoos of all
classes are exceedingly superstitious
regarding the destruction of these pre-
datory brutes. and consider the indi-
vidual who has been unfortunate
enough to shed a drop of VOLTS blood
doomed to suffer some %grieyous cal
amity. Hence, though a government
reward of three rupees per head is
offered, it is only the very lowest of all
castes-the "Domes or Dungars,' as
they are called-who will take the
trouble to snare and destroy wolves.
These people lead a vagrant life and
bivouac in the jungles, and have no
superstitious dread of killing any iv-
ing thing.
The following hypothesis may ex-
plain how it comes to pass that so
cruel and relentless an animal as the
wolf should sometimes be found enact
ing the interesting part of foster
mother to one of the human species.
\ female with cubs goes prowling
about in search of food for it's young,
and succeeds in ravishing an Indian
home of it's infant for that purpose.
The cubs, for some reason or other
not oversensitiveness, certainly, but
because their carnivorous instincts are
as yet comparatively dormant-merely
lick the child all over. This probably,
according to the code of wolfish eti-
quette, is equivalent to having eaten
salt with an Arab, and the infant is
henceforth adopted by the parent and
sucked and brought up with the cubs.
Although the human tendency is to
60 on two legs, we know that even
among ourselves babies commence by
crawling. Now, man is essentially an
initiative animal, and seeing the wolves
going on all-fours. the alien naturally
tries the same method of progression.
1t would appear, however, that it has
found the hands ill-adapted for use in
lieu of forefeet, and as Il rule the ell
bows are employed for that purpose;
in consequence of this choice, the
knees too have to be used instead of
the feet, and hence horny eXcresences
are usu ally found on both the knees
and the elbows.
Perhaps the %subjoined true narrative
Of wolf-child that has been captured
in India may prove interesting.
One morning many years ago Mr.
H, who happened at the time to be
magistrate and collector of the Etawah
district, was out riding, accompanied
by a couple of sowars or mounted
orderlies. They were passing over a
portion of road that lay in the vicinity
of the ravines of the river Junma
when two half-grown wolf-cubs crossed
their path and following them more
slowly, came a very remarkable-lookine
creature, which shambled along on al
tours in an extraordinarily uncoutl
fashion. This turned out to be {
wolf-child. Letting the other two g
unmolested, the three men proceeded
to hunt down the human cub, ant
succeeded in bringing it to bay. a.
they wished to take the creature
alive, and were altogether un
willing to hurt it in any way
they found the greatest difficult!
in attempting to secure it
!: for it fought, bit and clawed with ex
IRENE f~ierceness and pertinacity; in
deed, having driven it into a corner
Mr.. H and one of the sowars had tt
mount guard, while the other NATIVE
proceeded to the nearest village ant
got a stout blanket for the purpose o
throwing it over it's head; and it wa
by this means that the capture was a
| length effected. All the way hom'
the wolf-child behaved like a MAJ
thing, screaming and bowling, nov
piteously, now in a paroxysm OF i'm
potent rage. 1t was, however, takel
to Mr.. HIS house; but it would no
be comforted, and for a long time re
fused all kinds of food, including raw
meat. The creature was a boy o
about nine years of age; and it ma,
be here stated that no female wolf
child has ever been heard of or seen
l 1t is not easy to assign a sutlicicn
reason for the fact that females hav
never been so discovered, unless W
suppose that, being less vigorousl,
} constituted, they have been unable T.
withstand the terrible h~ardships o
T such an existence, and have very soo1
sickened and died.-ChGmberS' Jour
nal.
An artificial fuel is made from an
e thracite coal dust by a PHILADELPHIA;
, company. The new fuel consists o
the coal dust, of which thousands o
} tons are annually wasted in the an
thracite coal region Of Pennsylvania
-.s11 t,11