The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-09-09
WILD DOGS OF ATLANTA.
Curious Result of the Late RebeII-
ion.


A Curious Result of the Late Rebe1l-
ion.
! Did you ever hear Of the wild dogs
! of Atlanta? At one time the country
/ around here was at the mercy of these
savage animals. Horses, elephants, and
| camelS can be made 10 take an almost
| human interest in war. but dogs cah
/ not stand the racket. The din of battle
and the smell of villainous saltpeter
breaks them up entirely.
Our dogs had hard time during the
siege. There were thousands If them
! in those days, and when the season of
short rations set in they were the first
| to feel it. In many instances they were
abandoned by their refugeeing owners
and had to literally forage for living.
The thunder of the big guns, the un-
earthly shrieks of the shells, the noise
of falling buildings, the rattle of mus
kerry, and the heavy tramp of march
| ing soldiers all struck terror to the ca
| nine contingent Toward the close of
the siege nearly every dog in the city
was half rabid or in the last stage of
nervous prostration. The wretched
| brutes sought shelter under houses and
| in bomb-proofs. Majestic mastiffs and
surly bulldogs curled their tails between
their legs and yelped mournfully at
every unusual sound. Hundreds of the
bolder ones made frantic break over
the breastworks and bitches, and made
their way through the lines of both
armies, never stopping until they reach
| ed the woods.
1t was even worse after Sherman S
army entered the place. The citizens
were driven out in such a hurry that
they had no time to think of their pets
and no means of transportation for
them. Later, the destruction of the
city by fire, and the general pandemo-
mum that ensued, scattered the few re-
naming dogs.
These innocent victims of the ravages
of war had a terrible experience during
the rigorous winter of 1S64-5. Their
misery drove them to form strange part
nerships, and it was common sight to
| see them rowing in bands of dozen or
more. The old saying, Danish the
| dog from his kennel and you have a
| wolf, was Illustrated i'll this case. In
| the course of five or six months the
country people for fifty miles around
were spinning marvellous yarns about
'them wild dogs from Atlanta"
The dog belongs to the genus which
produces the wolf, the jackal, and the
| fox. Tame dogs of course lose many of
| the characteristics of these animals,
but when persecution and misery cause
| them to relapse into a wild state they
take the appearance, the habits and
| the tastes of wolves and iackals. Such
was notoriously the fact with the Allan
Ia dogs. They lost every trace of domes-
ITCHY. They grew to enormous size,
! with savage eyes and cruel-looking
| fangs
Occasionally gang of these ferOcious
| beasts would swoop down on a farm
yard, devouring chickens and pigs, and
attacking men when they stood N their
way. 1t took the liveliest kind of shoot
ing to drive them off. Sometimes they
| rvnuld surround lonely cabin and wait
| for the inmates to come OUT. Iney
| even made raids into little villages,
| forcing the inhabitants to shut them
! selves up in their houses. The disap-
| pearance of many q negro in those
| perilouS times was fully accounted for
| when his skeleton was found with every
| particle of flesh gnawed off and with
| the ground around showing evidences
of desperate struggle.
Early in 1865, when a few refugees
| began returning to Atlanta, they had to
| struggle with these wild dogs for the
| possession of the ruins. Bloody en-
counters occurred among the ash heaps
and piles of debris. Every cellar and
| hole in the ground held these raven
| Gus brutes, and they leaped upon men,
| women and children without the slight
| est provOcation. At that time it was
| dangerous to ride or drive out in the
| country. On the main road between
here and Decatur, in broad daylight,
| dogs were known to attack horses at
! tached to buggies, forcing their drivers
| to open a hot fusilade with their revol-
| Vers.
After getting this taste of wild life
! the Atlanta dogs went to the bad alto
| gether. They never reformed. A re-
| lentless warfare was waged upon them
| from Stone mountain to Kenesaw, and
one by one they bit the dust until they
were all wiped out The reader at a
distance must not jump to the conclu-
| sion that this indiscriminate slaughter
has caused any unusual scarcity of dogs
| in this region. Thanks to the univer-
sal human weakness for pets. we are
abundantly supplied with bench-egged
fees, terriers, pugs, Newfoundlanders,
mastiffs, and bulls. If some unexpected
| calamity should cause them all to 90
wild, after the fashion of their predeces-
sors, they would be an uncommonly
tough crowd to deal with.-AtlQnta
! Constitution.