The evening times., 1899-08-28
FIGHTING WIfHAMAD DOG
Perilous Position Of Three Children
at Orange, n. j.
Combat in q CeiInr With House.
hold Pet Seized With Eydroph obia.
Escape of the Animal After Mang-
ling Two Little Boys and Their
Sister-Fenrs for Their Safety.

NEW YORK, Aug 2S.-When Lillian
Deiffenbach heard the dog worrying the
cat she descended fearIessly into the cellar
TO separate them. This was yesterday
morning. in Mount View Avenue, West
Orange, N ]. Lillian is twelve years old.
Up TO that time the dog had been docile
and affectionate. sleeping amicably with
the cat and frisking with the three Deiffen-
bach children. Two weeks before, how
ever-and this was not recalled until after
ward-a demented yellow cur, with foam
flying from its mouth, had bitten it while
racing through the garden.
1t was the corpse of cat that the dog
was worrying when Lillian reached the
foot Of the cellar stairs. He relinquished
il in favor of the girls leg. and his grip
was not relaxed until he had torn away a
mouthful Of flesh and stocking. Lillian's
outcries during this torture brought her lit
tie. brother Albert tumbling down the
stairs. He is only eight, but he has the
galiantry of soldier.
With his bare hands Albert sought to
beat the dog off his exhausted and bleeding
sister He was brilliantly successful, mas
much as the animal abandoned its attack
on the girl in order to tackle the new
conner. Its teeth snapped on the little fell
lows leg just above the knee, and it hung
there, jerking its head from side 10 side
and trying TO drag its quarry TO earth after
the manner of its species,
AT this time the third Deiffenbach child
REINFORCED the wounded pair-George, a
boy of ten. He, realizing from the noise
that the affray was a serious one. had
brought poker with him. With this wea-
pom he diverted the dogs attention from
Lillian and Albert, and they seized the op-
portunity to crawl upstairs TO the kitchen,
more dead than alive.
Then ensued a duel in the dark between
mad dog and boy. A brave. sturdy lad,
George laid about him with vigor. So
vaguely was his antagonist defined as it
alternately leaped from and retreated into
the shadows of the cellar that the swings
of the poker were guided principally by the
occasional flash OF its eyes and by its say
age yelps. All this time the boy backed
toward the stairs, meaning TO beat mas
terly retreat with his face to the foe and
lock the brute up TO be dealt with by his
father
One false step spoiled this plan. For an
instant George turned, his vigilance re-
Taxed. The dog ieaped at his throat. The
momentum with which il struck his chest
carried him off his feet. With the sharp
teeth fastened in the flesh of his shoulder he
struggled there on the ground, rolling over
and over, and each moment growing weak
er from loss of blood.
Not till the flesh had been bitten away
was he freed, and then, as he tried to es-
cape up the stairs, the dog tried for fresh
hold
All this had happend so quickly that not
until now did the father of the family,
alarmed by the screams of his children,
hurry downstairs TO the kitchen. where
Lillian and Albert lay bleeding He reach
ed there in time to open the cellar door for
George, and al the same moment the mad
dog dashed out into the open air.
1t ran blindly across lots, red-eyed and
frothing at the mouth, swapping at every
object it met and colliding with barbed-
wire fences. Several neighbors snatched UP
cudgels and chased it for half a mile before
it was lost to view, and saw it bite dogs
belonging to John McCann and Noah Bald
win, both of the alley road. For this reas-
ON the inhabitants Of all that region are
very apprehensiye of an outbreak of rabies,
especially since it is recalled that the yellow
cur which is blamed for the Deiffenbach
dogs incubation bit several other watch
dogs thereabout.
| The three brave Dieffenbach children
were invalided by weakness and shock
| Their wounds were cauterized by doctor
| and their condition will be watched with
| the gravest anxiety.