Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-05-13
FIERCEST OF BRUTES
ODD TRAITS OF THE JAVELlNA OF
THE NORTHWEST.

COlloquialIy He is Known as the wild Hog
His Ferocity is "A by Word and He win
Fight at the Drop of the Hat-The Fate
of n Mail Carrier.
The wild hog of the southwest,
writes H. s. Garfield, is known to ma
turalists as the peccary and to Mexi-
can herders as the "javelina," so call
ed because the spines upon his back
are like spears or javelins. The ami
NAL kingdom does not hold a more
cunning, malicious, stealthy and pa
tiently ferocious brute. He is not
pretty, but his appearance is as good
as his disposition. He has no morals,
no love of home or family, no graft
tude, no self-respect, no liking even
for his own kind. He will eat any
thing he can swallow and steal any
thing he can eat. Next to inflicting
useless and causeless injury, he would
rather fight, and, strong in numbers,
he will fight anything from a 2-year-
old Mexican bay lost in the chaparral
to a puma that has gone a week with
out food. Like any other corsair,
however, his name is linked with one
virtue and a thousand crimes: He
will kill rattlesnakes. He is fond of
their flesh. Certainly no desire for the
betterment of the world leads him to
Stay them. He is not in peril in his
combats with the deadliest monster
of the west. The poisoned fangs are
sent deep into his body but he goes
away and eats of an herb that no man
has been wise enough to find and re-
turns to dine upon his late foeman.
If everything has it's use in the grand
scheme of creation, the use of the
javelna is to kill rattlesnakes. He
is not good for anything else. His
meat is not edible 10 anyone save
starving man. His hide is valueless.
Like other wild animals, the jave-
lima has been beaten back by the ad-
vancing waves of civilization. Twen-
ty years ago herds of $50 to 200 were
not uncommon in southwestern Texas.
To-day the largest band does not num-
Der more than fifty. He will not
stand close contact with the works of
man. He detests the wire fence and
will break it down when he finds it.
He has peculiar enmity to the do
mesticated dog. Woe betide the
ranch hound that meets him and his
comrades in guilt. The javelina Stays
him forthwith and then of course eats
him. He will root up anything which
he finds planted. Being an omni-
vorous feeder, he will destroy newly
dropped calves and lambs. He is
terror to children who live in lonely
localities. Ten of him will not hest
tate to attack a man. Providence has
been unkind to him in that it has not
gifted him with power to climb a tree.
But for this defect there would be no
escaping him. The javelina is quick
to anger. Indeed, he is in state of
chronic irritation.
He objects on principle to things
as they are. He is against the
government. He is a four-legged an
archist, hating water and order and
restraint. His home is any cave in a
mountain side or hole in river bank
that he discovers. If it be a large
cave, he is content. If a hole in the
river bank be too small, he will enlarge
it with a good deal of art. He digs
out separate chambers and connects
them with galleries and halls. The
whole is not unlike the underground
dwellings of the termites, but much
larger.
Manuel Bermaia, who rode the
mail" from old Fort Ewell to Twohig,
was armed, as were all mail carriers
in that day, with Winchester under
knee and revolver buckled to his
waist. He saw a javelina standing in
the road, shot it, incautiously dis
mounted to examine it, and was sur
rounded in an instant by fifty of them
that smelled the blood and poured out
of the chaparral. His frightened horse
plunged away. He managed to gain
huisache tree and climbed it. He
used up all of the cartridges in his
revolver and in his belt and slew ten
of the besieging animals. How long
he remained perched in the tree no
one knows. He must have moved
about in the branches, for a rotten
limb broke with him and he fell. When
he was found only some scattered
bones and fragments of clothing re-
manned of him. The mail bags had
fallen from the horse, and they, too,
were ripped to pieces. The incident
attracted no particular attention. 1t
was one of the many unimportant
tragedies of the southwest. A new
mail carrier was hired, who let the
javelinas alone.
Chasing the javelina is a favorite
diversion of the southwestern ranch
man. He has little to do save watch
the increase of his focks and roll
shuck cigarettes, and welcomes any
thing that promises to break the mon
otony. The wild hog is swift and uL-
firiOq and frannapfe n,I,r Al ....--t- 49, L