Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-08-30

of the man-wolf. caught by the hind
foot in the trap, and hanging head
downward from the swaying sappling,
took the courage out of me sooner than
as if 1 had met tiger face to face OF
the path. He hung about three feet
from the earth, and as far as he could
reach in every direction he had pulled
up the bushes by the roots. He was
as supple as a monkey. and could dou-
BILE himself up and reach the trap.
but, strong as he was, he could not
spring the jaws open and release his
foot. There was a foot of chain be-
fore he could get to the rope, and the
way he bit on that chain made us hold
our breaths. Had it been of soft iron
/ have no doubt he would have cut il
in two. He had been caught when we
first heard him scream out, and had
been suspended for over four Eonrs.
You would have thought he would be
exhausted with pain and struggling,
but he was not. AS soon as we came
near him he made such tremendous
efforts to get away, or to get at us,
that all the natives fed in terror.
We quickly understood that we
could do nothing with the beast until
he had lost his strength and temper,
and we returned to the village and
left him hanging. All that day he
yelled out every two or three minutes,
and all that night we heard from him
at intervals. On the second morning
he was still ugly, but late in the after
noon hunger and pain mastered him.
We brought up cage, got three or
four ropes around him, and finally
made him prisoner. His foot and
leg were terribly swollen and he made
but little resistance.
We now had opportunity to look
him over. He was certainly a man.
wolf-that is, a native child had been
carried off when young and brought
up with wild beasts for twenty years
or more. This creature had a hui
man face and form, but the body
was covered with coarse hair. the
teeth were long. the hands out
of shape, and he had learned to go as a
four-footed animal. He was indeed a
horrible looking sight, but the worst
feature about him was his eyes. No
true wild beast ever saw through a
more ugly pair. There was a villain
Gus squint to them and the balls
seemed to be afiame. We were con-
graduating ourselves on his easy cap
ture when the head man replied:
''Wait bit. Wait until his strength
returns. You will never get him
away from here"
We drew the cage to the village and
gave the captive food and water. He
readily accepted both, and his cOnducr
was as humble as we could desire.
He was biding his time, however. On
the third day he infinitely examined
every bar. He did this when he
thought he was unobserved. On the
fifth day he began to snarl and grow1
and show his temper, and on the sixth
day we started off with him, the cage
being dragged by twelve natives.
Every thing went we'll up to noon,
when we stopped for rest and a bite
to eat. AS all were sitting down the
man-wolf suddenly sprang out of a
seized bar in either hand, and with a
tremendous effort wrenched them ont.
One he retained for a weapon as he
leaped to the earth. 1t was so sudden
that no one was prepared. He did not
seek escape, but revenge, and before
we could pick up our arms and open
fire he had killed three of the natives
and severely wounded two others.
He was still laying about him scream
ing with rage when one of the white
men gave him a charge of buckshot
and ended his career. He had struck
only single blows, and yet each one
had been hard enough to cripple or
kill. But for our guns he would have
killed every man in the party.-N. Y.
| San.