Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1898-05-18

1
A steer afflicted with mental aberrs
ltion created considerable excitemeI
and some terror on the farm of vii
lam Shute, southwest of the city
the last few days. Yesterday the stee
was put to an untimely end, and th
terror ceased.
| Up to last Sunday the steer who's
disturbed mentality lately terrorize
the neighbors had borne a good repu
tation for peace and quiet, aud was re
garded as an animal of the most exem
plary moral character. He was tn
| sort of maverick that children cling TO
land would submit to all sorts of fond
ling and petting at the hands of tn
| family. He was a big, strong, aetiv
two year old. weighing perhaps 1.00i
pounds, and In excellent condition.
On last Sunday morning his frs
evidences sof insanity began to max,
| themselves noticeable. For day o.
so he had been carrying on sort o.
bovine warfare with dehorned bul
flom a neighboring farm. Night aue
day did the two put their heads to
gether" and not IN friendly eonsulta
| ton either. Ii is presumed that By
such means the steer overworked his
brain, for from that time on he was 6
raving maniac, chasing everything or
the farm, from chickens to people
with the greatest ferocity, and leapine
fences like a scared greyhound, where
as he had never before been "breacby.'
He leaped into a neighbours field. and
when Mrs. Shute went .thither to warn
the family not to let the children GO
after the cows, the neighbor man and
his son went out 10 look after the
quadrupedal lunatic. They met him
in the lane, and the way he put those
two men to flight would have done a
cavalry regiment good. He knocked
down the sixty year-old man and
had he not had the presence
of mind to sieze the brute by
the horns, and had his son not come to
his rescue he would have been killed
or badly mangled. Prods with pitch
fork had no more effect than if they
had been slaps with a sofa-cushion.
By that time the Shutes and the neigh
boring families were very well terror
lied, as they did not know Just what
minute he would walk into somebody s
parlor and 60 to bed without stopping
to clean his feet. Imagine all this con-
fusion on the farms, together with an
of vicious bawling, a
big steer with wicked horns, wild eyes,
flying saliva, switching ia and thun-
dering hoofs, and you have a faint
conception of the picture. The other
cattle knew their free-silver friend
hnf ofhar manila n -
khav l.& HIS. ..aosae, kept ont OF MS
wav and wouldn't argue with him
They simply stampeded with wild eyes
and swishing tails whenever he sp-
peared in their midst with new 10 to
l argument.
THE ANIMAL CORRALLED.
At length, after some nervy work OF
Mr.. Shute and some OF the
neighbors, the animal was confined
in an old log stable, and the commun-
ity took one long breath IN unison.
Then DIR. Hoover, veterinary, OF this
city, was sent for. 1t was stated t.
him exactly what the symptoms were
together with the fact that the ANNA
could not eat or drink, though raven
ously hungry and thirsty. de woulc
chew wood or anything else, and woule
| try with all his might to swallow water
and food, but TO no effect other thar
make him wilder and fiercer. TIT
saliva ran from his mouth, and l
looked much like case of
HYDRoPHoBIA.
DR.. Hoover could not tell at tina
stage whether il WAS bydrophobia
though many of the symptoms wer
good. He sent for DIR. +. A. Balser
the state Veterinarian, of New Castle
and that gentleman, with Mark Clay
pool, of Muneie. of the state live stoe
Commission, arrived yesterday after
moon. In company with the three eA
perts a PALLADIUM reporter went t
the Shute place and saw the animal. l
Ihad developed new Accomplishment
that of falling down unconscious, ever
few minutes, and il bawled aimo;
continually during its conscious ms
lments. All Monday night it had keI
the family awake with selections fro'
Wagner. done in a wordless baryton'
The animal was suffering lntensel,
HE would stand and tremble. an
! seize with his teeth on whatever VS.
handed him. After carefl
inspection of the case an
an inquiry into the circumstance
, attending it. The three veterinarian
1 decided that, as there were no spasn
7 in the fall e fits. II was not hydr
lphobia. but eephalitis or congestion
5 the brain. The falling spells att
S the bawl' were due TO the rushing
( blood TO the brain. The syallowlr
n muscles were paralyzed by the co
n gested condition. 1t was decided tn
$ the eating of buckeye buds-whl
e the steer was known 10 have eaten
g had started the congested conditlo
J. and that in all probability that cone
ltion had been aggravated by the y
ldays's fight that failed to make t
l"bull run" They told Mr.. Shu
that. while there was nothing &c
itagious in the disease. the amin
Ieould not possibly recover. Mr.. SHIT
ri then went to the house. brought
r - long Marlin repeating rifle, a
" those who saw William Shute
:. the crack of the stable and hes
William sho at the steer, knew
brute's suffering had ended. One v
directed shot from the rifle ended
animals hfe-
l. A CLEAR CREEK DANGER.
= One other matter that the veterlns
= ans thought might possibly have
y something to do with the animals
40 ness as an aiding primary cause, '
the water of Clear creek. into VII
: the asylum sewage, the college sew,
!" and the drainage from the Merit fe
llizer factory are emptied. The wa
at times becomes green. when
lstream is low, and it was thou
possible that 1t was not good for
es stock.
at Mr.. Balser and Mr.. Claypool "
of on to South Bend last night. wh