The morning call., 1892-01-03
CHASED BY SAVAGE DOGS.
Thrilling Adventure Of a Man Who Was Sl8iglilg
With His Sweetheart.

No one had spoken at the club for about
an hour when racopteur rose to the occa-
sion. Laying aside his pipe with look of
regret he began:
ITS a popular saying that barking dogs
don't bite Like other popular sayings. this
is falIacy and misleading. Barking dogs
do not bite while they are barking, but there
is only one species of canine that sneaks up
to you and takes hold without sayings word.
That is the Scotch collie, which inherits its
habit of silent biting from a sheep-nlpping
ancestry"
"Story! storyw called out the President.
"Story? God bless you! | have none to
tell, SIR" quoted the raconreur, remember
ing his classics, this is only memory OF
two dogs, accursed brutes. that lived with
an unfriendly man on hill, over which the
post road was laid.
This man was Cain among his fell
loWs-kept two savage maStitfs, who not
only parked but bit whenever 1t was pos
sible.
81 was counting my first wife up there in
the Cumberland Mountains, In British
North America, where this happened, and
had TO pass the house regularly. drove
blooded mare that went like a bird, and the
dogs were no match for her, but it was very
annoying to have them follow me down the
hill for mile or mole, barking and yelling
like demons.
"They would bark at the stage-coaches
and run long distances after them, but the
passengers were safe inside, and the driver
and those on the outside were too high for
them to reach. But | heard frequent stO-
ries of their attacking men and being beaten
off with sticks and stones.
81 asked why they were not killed, and
my answer was always the same, shrug
- ha CHI md ~,
don't know the kind of a man their owner
is 1t seemed that he lived alone with his
dogs, and people feared him 50 much they
dare not go to him to complain or call on
the provincial laws TO help them.
" A crisis came when one day | took my
sweetheart out for a sleigh-ride in a low
pung belonging to her father, to which was
harnessed my own sure and swifL-fO0ted
mare.
1t was lovely day. and we expected to
make a safe and rapid descent OF the noun
tain, a distance Of ten or twelve miles. The
air was crisp and cold, the Sleighing fine
and We skinned up the ascent and reached
the landing before we knew we had started.
There we were met by the dogs. l
think it would have been less difficult to
have gotten rid of pair OF wolves. | dare
not give my mare her head going down that
long, steep declivity on frozen snow, and the
dogs, embOdened by the cold or maddened
by repeated IashingS from my whip, jumped
at my companion and tore her cloak and
her dress in mOuthfuls.
dubbed with my whip and beat them
on the head, but they did not even seem TO
feel my blows. Their great black and yell
low frames Quivered with ferocity. The
hair on their backs stood up like names
their eyebals cleaned red and angry, and
the noise they made was deafening and dis
tracing
"'OnP' 1 exclaimed. why haven't 1 a
pistol?'
look in the box under the seat cried
my companion, whose face was blanched.
81 looked quickly and found rusty,
d0uble-barreled horse-pistol of make Of
forty years ago.
"'IS it oaded?' | asked.
"'Yes, but don't shoot. II you do that
man will kill YOU
1" remember thinking how like woman
il was to tell me where to find the pistol and
then ask me not 10 shoot
g / laid the reins loose on the mares back
and away she went like the wind, beyond
my control now, and l knew she would never
stop until she was mile beyond the level
ground at the foot Of the hill.
eff the pung held together; If nothing
made the mare swerve from the direct line
fin fact, If Providence kept an eve on us
and the breeching didn't break, we might
escape breaking our necks. looked back
and saw the dogs gaining on US even at that
mad gait, then | took aim and fired. Bangi
Bang? There were two dark objects lying
prone on the snowy road, and, as quick as
she could gather her feet under her my
mare stopped in her tracks. She was trained
to the use of gun.
But my companion urged me to hurry
on, and we We're soon down the incline and
beyond the reach of recognition or pursuit,
and, strange TO say, no one but our two
selves ever knew who killed those dogs.
I've heard the most marvellous accounts
of the slaughter, the weapon varying from
Queen Aune musket to a cannon but
dead they were as door-nails and their
reign Of terror was over | imagine their
owner did not care to venture out to avenge
their death. | drove boldly past the house
every day, but was never mOlested or even
suspected. But L often heard their IN
known slayer praised and applauded for
their hateful presence detroit Free Press.