Evening star., 1901-07-13
THE DEADLY SKUNKS
Hydrophobia Sure to Follow Their
Bite.
GREATLY FEARED BY THE COWBOYS
No Camp is Ever Pitched if Lair is
Known.
DREADFUL STORIES TOLD
Napyright. 1901. by r. S. Raker.l

| Copyright, 1901 by R. S. Bakerl
Written for The Evening Star by Ray Stannard
Baker
Jack. the cowboy, is no sort of a coward,
but there is one creature of the desert that
reduces him to abject dread. He courts a
meeting. armed or unarmed. with a noun
tain lion a gray wolf or bear; they
furnish good sport for his lariat. He Will
shake a tarantula from his blanket, and
go to sleep in them afterward with phil
osophical comfort He even expresses
slight respect for the rattlesnake, and
though he is bitten. there is comfort in the
thought Of the remedy-and the excuse for
plenty of it. When Jack is ready to make
camp in the desert you may him sniff
fling about inquiringly, and if he smells
certain unmistakable odor and especially
if that odor becomes perceptible in the vi
cinity of loose pile of boulders or a rock
Uttered ravine, Jack instantly concludes
to move elsewhere, though he may be half
dead with WEAKNESS. for he wants no deal
ingS with the hydrophobia skunk.
1t is safe to say that of all the wild
creatures of the Cante ranges not one or
them. with the possible exception of this
strange skunk. will attack man unless
wounded or suddenly frightened. Even the
grizzly bear is deeply imbued with man.
dread. But the hydrophobia skunk, like
mails. seems to love the haunts Of men.
the smell of cooking and camphres, and
if there is half a chance he will come
prowling around after dark, entering tent
or hovel without fear and even creeping
over the sleeping bodies of men. Many
of the wild creatures give warning in some
way of their presence but the hydrophobia
skunk while he is provided with the odori-
ferrous defenses common to his tribes, will
often appear without giving his usual
warning. And he is feared not on account
of his odor, but because he bites and
scratches. fighting very much like
wounded badger. and his bite is said to be
followed invariably by hydrophobia.
The Spotted Variety.
From rattlesnakes Jack protects himself
at night as he firmly believes. by sur
rounding the spot on the sand where he is
to sleep with his RATA, or horse-hatr rope,
it being his belief that snakes will not cross
over horse hair. but from the hydrophobia
skunk there Is no defense except vigilance.
Camp with band of cowboys almost any
where in the southwest and sooner or later
you will hear many dreadful stories or this
terror by night, and some of the cases are
SO well authenticated that there can he no
doubt of their truth. 1t is difficult to get a
very clear description from the cowboys Of
the hydrophobia skunk, for the reason that
he usually appears at night, makes his at
tack and disappears without paying his re-
spects. They all agree, however. that he is
much smaller than the ordinary skunk of
the eastern and middle states. with a longer
tail, and that he is much more active in
his movements. He is plainly the animal
known SpilOgale graciliS. commonly
called the little striped or spotted skunk,
cousin of the ordinary Spilogale putorius
of the east. And, like his larger relative.
ne wears a fine. soft fur coat, which has a
value in the market
Jack asserts that the hydrophobia skunk
usually jumps at man and attempts to
bite him on his bare flesh. his hands or his
hat-a I'd of r1c4a fy,
which the skunk seized the nose of the VIC
Tins. and sometimes his chin. In one case
in particular two miners were sleeping in
little hut matched with bear grass and set
on the side of a deep arroyo in Arizona. In
the middle of the night one of them, Nc
Glory by name, woke up with the sense OF
something movtng9n the hut. He called to
his partner, and an instant later he saw
the dim form of a small animal crawling
over his companions body. He shouted an
alarm and Sheehan woke UP.
Good Lord!' he cried and Its a
skunk
Got Him at Last.
Both men sprang at once to their feet.
Sheehan threw the animal from him and II
turned on McGlory, leaping up and catch
ing him by the nose, almost severing It,
BY this time Sheehan had seized a shovel
He knocked the skunk away and finally
succeeded in killing 1t. McGlory stanched
the flow of blood and went down some
thirty miles to Phoenix to see a doctor He
was advised to go at once to the Pasteur
Institute in Chicago: but. being a man of
no means and believing that he would re-
cover without treatment, he went back to
his camp. In the course of two or three
weeks the wound had healed pretty thor
oughly, and McGlory had ceased to worry
about it. Suddenly one day he was taken
violently i'll, went into commissions, frothed
at the mouth and died in horrible agony.
This is only one of numerous cases. A
number of men have gone to Chicago or
New York for treatment and have recov-
cred. There are many instances-almost