St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-10
4 CUNNING WOLF FIGHTER
Tow He Cot the Best of Pack OF HUI
cry Wolves.
AN ELEPHANT WITH NERVE.
Employed SIS Tiger Slayer and Ser
pent Killer to q Railroad COT-
rauY.

New York sun.
The railroad line from Lucknow to
Lahore, India. runs through country
where the tiger and panther yet crouch
within sound Of the ear wheels. and
where almost every train passing up
and down cuts serpents in two as they
crawl over the tracks from cover to
cover. | heard il stated over and over
again that three surveyors lost their
lives for every mile of the road, and If
this had not been true the company
would not have employed me III the ca
pacIty it did. When the grading began
RI Lucknow. or, rather, after it had
progressed Il few miles 10 the west, l
took the advance with a party of four
teen natives. Ny title should have been
The Honorable Tiger Slayer and Ser
pent Killer TO the Honorable Lucknow
and Western Railroad Company" l
was employed to protect the railroad
hands, and the position was far from
being a Sinecure.
1t is as we'll 10 state how We were out
fitted. We had two horses and carts
and an elephant. The latter had been
used very often for hunting, and was a
wary and intelligent beast. lie was my
personal property, and when | rode at
all it was on his back. had rifle ear
rying an explosive ball, and my men
we're armed with double-barreled shot
guns. We had supply of Chinese
bombs and several hundred sheet-iron
cylinders, which could be charged for
shells. In addition 10 the above had
Il case of Congreve rockets, the cham
beers OF which were filed with swan
shot. and when we took our station on
the line no party could haye been
Better Prepared.
First on the line came the pioneers,
who cleared the track of trees and
brush. Within nine miles of Lucknow
Two of these were bitten by cobras, and
died before help could reach them. We
were to beat the route ahead of the
pioneers for at least five miles, and on
the very first day we killed two cobras
and ran off a panther. From that day
for almost twoyearS there was scarcely
a day without lts adventure.
One morning, after we had made our
camp about two miles ahead of the
pioneers, started TO ride back OH my
elephant to consult with the foreman of
the gang. About the same time he
started to walk to my camp. Ten min
ateS before ] saw him my beast, whom
had christened FEB" announced in
MS own peculiar way that he scented
:Iger. He flung his trunk from side to
side and breathed in an excited way.
l had passed out of ihicket to an
open spot, when | saw Mr.. Williams
about half mile away. He was in the
clear ground on the edge of dense
:hicket l held up, and he soon saw
me. He was waving his hat in silent
salutiOn, when magnificent specimen
Of tigerhOod bounded from the thicket.
struck the ground once, and then made
4 leap of about twenty feet and bore
Williams TO the earth. Two or three
seconds later he flung the unfortunate
man over his shoulder and started Off.
He did not make for the thichet. but for
a ravine TO the west. | urged Zeb after
him as fast as he could go, and. hearing
the crash of his footsteps, the tiger
halted and wheeled around and stood
looking US in the face. ] was so near
before my beast halted that | could see
that Williams was gripped by the right
shoulder. He lay almost on his back,
diagonalIy across
The Tigers BODY.
A distance OF not over fifty feet the
elephant halted. He saw chat the
ground was broken and that he stood no
show of pursuit l had my rifle ready.
and though | felt almost certain that l
would Kill Williams if fired, raised
the weapon TO my face and fired at the
white spot on the tigers breast. | be-
3eve lie leaped three feet high with his
:3ulden, and he had touched the earth
Sgain when the ball exploded. 1t made
II awful wreck of him. and as ! rode
f5rward had no hope whatever for the
man. found him covered with blood,
and hair and flesh, and his coat sleeve
torn off, but | had scarcely taken him
by the heels TO draw him aside when he
reused up and was soon able to con-
verse. The tiger had given him a Sc
we're bite in the shoulder, and he had
been considerably shaken up by the eX-
DloSion. but in two weeks he was at the
head of his gang again. The tiger must
not only have been man-eater, but in
the full VigOr of life and strength. An
old tiger would have continued to run
for cover. This fellow had lost no teeth
and had lots of pluck.
We were beating thicket, in which
was large mass of outcroping rock.
The route ran right through the
thicket. and within forty feet of the
eastern edge of this Outcrop. We knew
1t to be good place for serpentS, and
we were not long in finding them. With
n shotgun / killed three large speci-
mems of the cObra-manilla, and one of
the men hit of two sand snakes, which
are found in the thickets as often as in
the sands. Others ran to cover, and
then we brought up our ammunition
train and made ready for business. We
had sheet-irOn cylinders from the diam
eter of candle to that of q tea canis-
ter. We selected size to fit every hole
we found, and they were loaded with
powder and buckShOt and a fuse in
serted. The cylinders dropped down
after the snakes, and the explosion set
tied the fate of anything i'm that hole.
think we killed sixty or seventy ser
penis on an acre of ground.
The first Chinese bomb [ used on the
railway line was at point eighty miles
west of Lucknow. One morning a ma
tive came 30 me from small village on
cur right flank and said that panther
had carried OFF his twO-year-old child
the evening before. Just after sunset.
while the family were sitting about the
door of the hut, the child, which was
just beginning to walk, toddled off
around the corner OF the hut and was
seized by panther lying in wait. Its
screams reused the whole village, and
everybody saw the beast galloping away
with the child in its mouth. This pail
Their was known to have two cubs, and
her retreat was in rocky ravine mile
from the village. l took five men and
the elephant, and, accompanied by
about thirty of the villagers, went to
the ravine. 1t wasn't exactly ravine.
but basin of thicket and rock, with a
spring at the bottom of it.
My men soon beat up the ground and
found well-worn path leading to the
den. 1t was about twenty feet below
the crest of the sink, and the opening
was nearly as large as barrel. There
was no question but that the panthers
would be at home at that hour of the
day, and after arranging my men with
their shotguns dropped the bomb into
the den myself. 1t wasn't bomb for a
mortar, but heavy glass bomb filled