The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-10-25
MAN AGAINST PANTHER.
Desperate Encounter with a Calf
Eating Brute in Texas.

Henry lynsley, respectable well.to.
do colored man, living near Montgom.t
cry. Texas, had tussle few DAYS aooi
with panther of the black variety. which
nearly resulted in a victory for the ami
nal, and would probably have cost Tyrs.
ley his life had it not been for the timelv
arrival of assistance ON the scene. Tbs
black panther is one of the smallest Of
the SPECIES, but is by far one of the mos.
fcrocious and aggressive. and is furnish.
= ed with exceptionally long and s.ronc
rails. 1t is a beautiful and graceful AMI
nal; its skin. which is as soft and sleek
as velvet. being of iustrous black, exceot
under the belly, and, usually, one or more
paws, where it is of a silvery gray.
The negro was engaged in telling trees
on his farm, when he heard close at hand
the bleating of a calf such as would in.
dictate fright. While the larger beasts Of
p:ey are still to be occasionally found in
un!re9uented parts of the woods about
they of late years seldom ventured anv
depreciation on the stock pens or poultry
yards, and Tynsley, having no idea Of
the presence of any wild animal, dropped
his AK as he ran to see what allied the
calf s.r-r-,,
He found that it had broken ont Of the
pasture, and was running wildly along a
lime of fence separating the farm from
the road, vainly seeking for the gate.
which was some distance urIow. The
road was wide one, bordsred on the
other side by wood with a dense
growth of bushes on the hedge, and here.
skulking with the airs of pussy cat
stealing up on bird, was the panther.
and just as Tinsley reached the fence it
crouched and sprang toward the calf,
which, at the sight of the man, had stop
ped running
The panther had either not seen Tyns.
ley, or was already in the air before it
did, for it paid not the slightest attention
TO him, but sprang right on the back Of
the calf, bearing it to the earth. Tynsley
then ran back, and catching up his AK,
jumped the fence, and with uplifted ak
ran toward the pair. The calf, bleating
piteously, was trying to struggle to its
feet and to throw off the panther which,
with its powerful claws buried in the
poor creatures flesh, was draining its
life's blood through Il gaping wound in
Its throat, which it had torn with its cruel
teeth.
The negro struck at the panther's head
with the AK. but, owing to his fear of
missing it and killing the calf, the blow
only laid open cash in its jaw, and, as
was afterwards learned, breaking it.
With roar of rage and pain, the brute
relinquished its hold on the calf, which
was bleeding to death, and turned its at
tention to its new assailant, at whom it
sprang, knocking him down. They fell
together and rolled over in the dust the
negro, unable to use his AK at such close
quarters, endeavoring to get at the ami.
mails throat to choke it to death, and
the big cat biting and tearing with tooth
and nail, snarling and swapping like
fury.
The man having on only thin cotton
shirt and jeans psntaloons, and weakened
jby the blood which was flowing profuse-
ly from the terrible scratches inflicted
by the great claws of the savage CAT, was
getting much the worse of the combat,
when wagon appeared, driven by Joel
Barnes, white man employed as q day
laborer on the plantation of Scruggs,
Benthuysen & Co., a short distance be-
You'd Tynsley's place.
This man, seeing the state of affairs,
jumped down from the seat, and, though
armed only with his whip, ran to the as
sistance of the negro, who was now be-
meath the panther, and so exhausted that
he was only able to push the animals
head away when it attempted to fasten
upon his throat. Barnes grabbed the cat
by the back of the neck and tried to
choke it off of the colored man, but the
creature, swapping furiously at his hands,
refused to give up its hold. and only dug
its nails deeper into Tynsley. The white
man then belabored it about the head
with the stock of his whip, and at last
succeeded in singing it into leaving the
colOred man, who had swooned, for
him.
He met its attack with crack on tho
head that knocked it backward When
it had recovered itself it had evidently
decided that things were getting too hot
FOR it, so the vicious brate broke for the
woods, but Barnes, having found Tyns-
ley's AK, caught it up and ran after the
animal, which, half dead from the bleed
ing wound in its jaw and the terrible
beating it received, was easily overtaken
and killed by Barnes with single blow
Of the AK on the back of the skull, crush
ing it in. Tynsley was so badly hurt that
1t first great fears were entertained that
he would not recover, but, though the
entire front Of his body is mass of raw
flesh, from which the skin was torn al
most to ribbons, he is getting well. A