, 1892-03-16
A WOMAN AND A DEER
A REMARKABLE CAPTURE ON PINE
RIVER IN MICHIGAN.


One of the best known characters to
the lumbermen and sportsmen of upper
Michigan is Mrs John Towle, of Strong
vile, a small deserted village on the
Pine river, twelve miles below Rudyard,
q station on the 500 railway thirty miles
from here. Her home and name have
become famous to the woodsmen and
tumbermen or account of Mrs. Towle
keeping q boarding house, where the
woodsmen engaged on the drive in the
spring have always stopped for their
meals, it being the only house on Pine
river for a distance of ten miles on each
side Of Strongville.
Mrs. Towle came to this country from
Aalborg, Denmark, twenty years ago,
and first settled down in Newport, Vt.
She was called to attend her present
husband, who was confined with a
broken shoulder, after the doctors had
given him up. She mended him in such
good shape that Mr.. Towle decided that
she was the woman of his destiny, where
upon they were married and started for
the wild upper peninsula of Michigan to
make their home and fortune. Taking
a homestead near the banks of the Pine
river, Mrs. Towle has occasion to come
to this city once about every two months
with the produce of the farm and dairy.
In the winter she can drive in, but in
the summer there is no other way but to
take q boat and row up b Pine river
twelve miles to Rudyard station, where
she can take the train for this point.
1t is with N of those trips that this
narrative has to deal. Mrs. Towle had
left home with a boatload of produce as
usual, and came to town with good sue
cess. On her return trip she was leisures
ly rowing home down the Pine river,
with its high and very thickly wooded
banks in some places, and sloping, moss
covered banks in others. She had not
CONT far when she heard a rustling
sound above her.
"OUT OF THE FRYING PAM" ETC.
On looking up she perceived a large
deer standing on the edge of the preci-
pice about fifty feet up, screaming, with
a wolf hanging on its front quarter. The
deer Immediately jumped for the river,
landing close to the shore, but the wolf
still held its grip. 1t might be noted
here that deer when attacked by wolves
in this country will always make for the
nearest river, as wolves will not go into
the water unless they have a hold on
their prey. The deer had no sooner left
the ground to jump when two moro
wolves jumped down after him, followed
by ten more. One of the wolves man
aged to secure a grip on the deer's hind
quarters and took a chunk out the size
of a aucer.
The deer, now thoroughly frightened
and excited, IN seeing Mrs. Towle in
the boat started for the boat. The water
not being very high it managed to get
its fore feet into the craft, with the two
wolves still hanging on. Mrs. Towle,
although half scared to death, did not
lose her presence of mind, but seiEing
her paddle struck the two wolves such
blows on their heads that they released
their hold and took to the shore, while
the boat continued to drift down the
river with the current. The wolves see-
ing this gave up hope and returned into
the woods.
Mrs. Towle, now that the wolves were
gone, found about enough of the sports
man left in her to have a desire to secure
the deer. She raised her paddle and
struck it a blow between the horns,
which was not a very light one, by the
way, as Mrs. Towle has always beer
used to the harder working side Of life
and is of strong physique. The blow
stunned the deer for a few moments,
and Mrs. Towle, thinking it was dead,
started her craft for shore to place the
deer in position to row the boat home
with him.
MR.. WI FINDS TIL DEER.
When she reached the shore and was
about swinging the deer around by the
tail the deer came to and started up the
high bank, with Mrs. Towle hanging on
to its tail. The deer succeeded in get
the skin on its tail, which Mrs. Towle
was hanging on to, gave way and pre-
cipitated Mrs. Towle down the bank
headforemost.
The deer by this time had become 30
weak from the loss of blood from the
wolves attack that it slipped and fell
down the bank, landing on Mrs. Towle.
She, thinking the wolves were after it
again, nearly went into Mysteries. The
deer, however, IN striking terra firma
never moved again, and Mrs. Towle pro-
ceeded to load him in her craft and get
home. She got him aboard, and after
capsizing o couple of times reached her
small dock, made of logs, in safety. Her
home is three miles back in the woods
from the river bank. She was obliged to
leave the deer on the bank all night, it
now being dusk.
In the morning, when Mr.. Towle, her
husband, went down for the deer with
his pony and jumper, he was surprised
to find a bear there munching away at
the deer. The bear on seeing the man
started for the woods. Bears will only
show fight in the spring. Mr.. Towle
got the deer safely home, and it would
be difficult to find a more interesting
story to listen to than that of Mrs.
Towle, sitting in her log cabin in front
of the old log fire, telling her story in
broken English of how she captured the
~deer.-Sault Ste. Marie Cor. st. Paul
Pioneer Press.
want Pay for Alleged Services
An old man named Taylor from Chi
cage has asked several congresses for
$4,000 in payment for having suggested