The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-09-08
A FATAL PET.
THE FIERCE ONSLAUGHT OF A,
TAME RUSSIAN WOLF.
Bitten by a Mad Dog, tho Wolf I'm
Turn Becomes Mad-Many
Persons Bitten-Ter- ~
rible Struggles.

Persons Bitten-Ter- ~
rible Struggles.
Some time ago fourteen Russian peas
ants who had been bitten by wolf were
sent to Paris for treatment against hy-
drophobia by NJ. Rasteur. Three OF the
peasants died. DR.. Felix L. Oswald (
gives the following account of the VOLTS
attack in the Cincinnati Enquirer:
Russian papers publish the following
interesting details of the wolf episode
that cost Mons. Pasteur three weeks Of
hard work, and the first professional dis
appointment. According to CORE
spondent of the Nocodi, the brute that
caused all the mischief was not wild
wolf, but domesticated pet, perhaps
the most petted quadruped l. Eastern
Europe. Three years ago berry-pick.
ing boy found him in the woods, and
brought him to the village OF Biely, !,
Government of Smolensk, where the
farmer, Stephen Wassiljew, adopted him
as companion to motherless puppy.
Before the end of the summer the whelp
had superseded his foster-brother. He
had an ultra-canine talent for funkeyism,
and fawned himself into the favor OF
so many visitors, that his owner YVES
repeatedly offered thirty roubles for
the bushy-tailed little sycophant that
would lick the hands of every
stranger, and romp with the village
youngsters and billy-goats. One of the
farmers girls was his favorite playmate.
At the mere sound of her voice, he would
start from his couch at the hearthstone
and scratch and whine at the door till
his girl friend entered the kitchen. That
young lady was chiefly responsible for
the ensuing tragedy. On the 23d OF
February, Dushka-"Sweetheart," +" as she
called her pet-was bitten by suspi.
cious cur, who forthwith died with all
the characteristic symptoms of hydropho-
bia, but when dozen of his canine VIC
tins were killed, Miss Wassiljew inter-
ceded for her pet. They locked him up
in barn to await developments. Early
the next morning. March 2, 1885, Dushka
managed to break out, and in the course
of that day not less than twenty eight
persons were fercely bitten, besides .
dozen or two who got of with snap-bites
and torn clothes. At the very beginning
of the trouble the pluck of one heroic
| Mujik would have prevented all further
mischief if his companion had not turned
craven at the critical moment. Peter
Tcherkow, an athletic young villager, ae-
companied by his sister and ayoung neigh
Dor, was returning from an all-nig ghtdance
when they saw the wolf coming down the
road in sort of sidelong trot and with .
an uncanny leer that made them step
aside,to give the traveller chance TO
leave the neighborhood by the straightest
route. But Dushka had seen them, and
in the next moment made a rush and
caught Peter by the breast. sSave your
self, Olga!" the brave Mujik cried to his
sister, as he grappled with the wolf, and
then calling on his companion, he
clutched the brute around the neck and
wrenched his head down till he had PIN
ned him fat on the ground. At that
moment common pocket knife m the
hands of resolute man could have ended
the affair, but the cowsrdly neighbor
had taken to his heels-to protect the
retreat of the girl, as he afterward, ex-
planned it, and Peters struggle with the
wolf now became duel for life and
death. Too soon the grip of his
fingers relaxed, and in spite of his
frantic efforts to maintain his van
tage the wolf got his jaws free and
began to use them with terrible effect,
when at last teamster appeared on the
scene and began to belabor the monster
with long hatchet. The wolf then left
his victim and turned on the newcomer,
and with two successive rips tore his face
almost off. Minus his checks, lips and
nostrils, the unfortunate man staggered
out of the way and left the ogre at fersure
to turn his attention to third adversary,
the Mui1k Jackolen, whom Peters sister
had in the meantime summoned, from the
next farmstead. Jackolen, too, was ter
rible mangled, and had to back out
toward the team, trying in vain to cover
his retreat with club, but by this time
neighbors with fails and axes came run,
ming up from all sides and succeeded at
last in routing the apparently indestructl-
BILE monster. But in the outskirts of tho
next village the havoc recommended. and
before night nineteen persons, some OF
them torn almost to pieces, were
turned over to the district hospital az
Semstow. The village priest of Biely
and the game-keeper, Niktin Garsewitch,
died on the following day from wounds
as desperate as any treated in the field.
hospitals of modern armies, for the pet
of Biely had attained the size OF the :
largest specimens of his tribe. Two
more died in the course of the week, and
three of NJ. Pasteur's patients died.
The Russians, as nation, are notmuch
given to lynching, their official Provi-
sions for retributive justice being rather
in excess of demand, but at the mass
meeting OF the Semstow peasants the
wretch whose cowardice had cost the
lives of so many braver men was de-
nounced in terms which induced him to
consult his safety by disappearing under
cover of the next night. In Western
Russia, where even the urox has been
permitted to survive, wolves still infest
all larger forests. and their whelps are
caught and tanned about as often as the
fawns of our Southern Alleghenies.