Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1886-05-07
CHASE OF THE WOLF.
Stories of the Pest of the Rus.
sian Steppes.
Pastcur's NIuIik Paticnts-Thc Beast of
',the Novelist and the Traveier-IIunt-
Ing Him with Club and Lasso-
sr. A Fight With Horses.

q, "A Fight With Horses.
incubation as preventive of hydro.
phobia has received another setback in
the cabled report of the death of one OF
M. Pasteur's PATIENTS The. victim Of
the dreaded disease was Russian mu.
jik, who, with eighteen others, had
been bitten on the 1st Of March last by
''mad" wolves. DIR. Pasteur is informed
by physicians from Russia that bites
from rabid wolves are very common in
Russin, and that 80 per cent of those
bitten by such brutes die of hydropho-
bia. : This is the first time that the
world has heard anything about mad
wolves, and proofs of the assertions of
the Russian physicians will be awaited
withinterest AT the inquest held upon
the body of the hapless mujik, however,
aIs examination revealed the presence
in the mans cheek-bone of portion of
a decayed tooth that undoubtedly be-
longed to the wolf by which he had
been bitten. Now, the tooth of most
llcsiFeating animals are poisonous, be-
cause uliclean. A wolf does mot need
TO bo1hiad, forits bite to produce death.
Blood-poisohing.is the inevitable result
of walf-wounds when. neglected, or
whcnStlIe blood of the evictinr is in an
impure state. There are, hundreds and
hundreis of villages in Russia where
entipe-pepul of peasants are
afflicted with hereditary disease and on
whenrthe Bite of any wolf, mad or not
mad.i Is liable to prove fatal.
That wolves do attack the Russian
muiiks occasionally may be accepted as
The fhct. In the present case we have
TO imagine that the wolves, driven by
hunger, attacked the live stock of a
Russian communal village, and that the
nineteen mujiks, including the priest,
received their wound in attempting to
drive the brutes away from their quarry.
But that the wolves were mad is ques-
tionable. They were desperate and
dangerous, but that they had rabies has
yet 10 be proved. There are thousands
of people who have been attacked by
wolves in Russia who have recovered
without showing any signs of hydro
phobia. The peasants of the interior
districts of Russia have every winter to
defend their stock from wolves, and
sometimes to defend their own lives.
But wolves do not attack human beings
as rule, and the Russian peasant is
not particularly afraid of them. True,
he may be attacked when coming home
to his village on his sled, but wolves
can generally get their booty at an
easier price than by attacking mujiks.
The artist, however, loves to depict
scenes where pack of wolves is seen
in full pursuit after Il sled full of peas
ants. The novelist of Siberian exile
life delights in dealing with wolf stories.
and especially loves to depict the peas
ant urging his horses to their full gait,
and his wife preparing to throw the
baby out as sop to the infuriated
brutes. There is one picture that is
well known, since ithas been the rounds
oi the illustrated press of the world. 1t
Is the famous one by Schreycr, repre-
senting n Russian courier in sled
drawn by six beautiful horses and pur-
sued by wolves. This picture is n
reminiscence from the Russo-Turkish
war of 1S53-55. when the artist spent
long time in Wallachia, Hungary and
Southern Russia, where he is said to
have met the Russian courier whose ad-
ventures formed the subject of his
picture.
There is one thing, however, that the
artist has forgotten in drawing his six
magnificent horses. That is the bells.
These are very necessary thing in
Russian or Siberian travel. Their
pleasant Naturalization is heard on
your sled journey wherever you 90. l
listened to them during n twenty-eight
days journey across Siberia from Oren-
burg to lrkutsk, and again on four
teen days journey noithward from the
capital of Eastern Siberia TO Yakutsk.
Their cessation, indeed, became as
startling rs the sudden stoppage of the
machinery of transatlantic steamer is
TO the ocean voyager. 1t usually an
nounced the fact that we had arrived at
some large town, where the jingling of
bells is prohibited by the authorities. On
The steppes, where there is but little
need of proclaiming your coming to the
wintry wastes, one is surprised to
lind that the bells generally Jingle
the londest | was surprised to learn,
indeed. that the jingling has its use, as
1t is generally assumed to frighten off
The wolves. Thesound seems to inspire
them with fear or caution, for the CON
tinuous sound of the bells certainly pro-
claims the fact that all is we'll with the
traveller. And in all my journeyings, /
must say that IneYer heard of a yem-
shik being attacked by wolves while
driving his sled from one stanzia TO the
other. In very severe winters, how
ever the run from post-station to post
station lsnot always completed without
the excitement Of being chased by the
ugly brutes.
During gmy winter journey across ST.
IBERIA was somewhat disappointed at
seeing 50 few wolves. In my Journey
OF 5000 miles across the steppes l saw
only fourteen, eleven in one band, two
in another, and one solitary brute at
distance lGowling about on the ice of
Yennessei. But the sled Is great
place wherein to brood wolf stories.
When you are lying down under your
furs at night and the sled passing quick
ly over the frozen roads you imagine,
II the weather is not extremely cold,
that you can hear the deep growing of
the wolves following your sled. If the
weather is terribly cold you hear what
you imagine to be the short, quick yelp-
ing OF thousand famished brutes after
you. IL is dreadful sound when you
first hear 1t, but you soon learn to know
that this peculiar noise, which, assisted
by the Imagination you fancy 10 be made
bV the fiery m nufha1 Nnivau ic na,,gad
by ule wooden runners passing over