Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-10-10
MANEATINe WILD ANIMALS.
They Are Usually Driven by Hunger
and Mostly Cowards.

They Are Usually Driven by Hunger
and Mostly cowards.
New York Sun.
All the most formidable beasts Of
prey are doomed to determination.
Their number is rapidly decreasing.
and this Is especially noticeable in
Africa and Asia, where they are
most numerous.
No government shields them from
destruction. They are outside the
pale of the game laws. They may be
hunted at pleasure, and premiums
are paid for the destruction Of some
kinds Of them.
Large hunting parties are organ
lied to kill them; and II the ami
mails are Of the maneating sort
whole communities eagerly enlist in
the work of Kidding the world Of
them. Happily the animals that prey
on men are not very numerous.
About thirty miles from Fuchau,
one Of the ports Of southern China;
is a district that has been infested
for, several years by few. maneat-
ing tigers. 1t was not believed that
there were more than a dozen of
them, and all or most Of them were
known by their footprints.
If any individual among wild ami
mails becomes especially interesting
to the genus homo a careful study
of his footprints almost invariably
serves as a means of permanent
Identification and fixes upon him
any crime he commits. The afflicted
natives often give a name to each
mankiller, and make lists Of the VIC
Tins of each, and nothing that
breathes becomes so quickly notori-
Gus as these comparatively few ami
mails that live on human flesh and
are differentiated from one another
by their footprints.
These maneating tigers near Fu-
chau killed more than 200 Chinese
peasants in 1908. Some of the vic
Tins were seized in the streets Of
their villages, but most of them were
attacked while walking on the more
lonely country paths.
Usually 1t is a very sudden death,
and the victim is mercifully spared
any realizing sense Of what Is hap
pening. A spring through the air.
one bite in the neck severing the
vertebrae, and the poor wretch Is
dead. The maneaters almost inva-
riably kill the men, women or chill
dren they attack in this way, and
then are off into the jungle with the
bodies of the slain.
Some missionaries stationed In the
district back Of Fuchau decided last
year to rid the country II possible
Of these terrible pests. They organ
lied a tiger hunt on a grand scale.
Letters were written to every port,
as far away as Shanghai, inviting
sportloving white men to participate
in the hunt.
They told of the calamities that
had completely terrorized the dis
trict, and begged the cooperation Of
all who were skilled In the use Of
the rifle. Not a few Englishmen and
sportsmen of other nations were
glad of the chance to help in this
work of determination.
The district was practically sur
rounded by the white Nimrods and
hundreds Of native assistants. When
the hunt was over they had killed
more than 100 tigers. A number Of
them were identified by their foot
prints as among the slayers Of men.
There was great rejoicing over the
success Of the hunt; and II the hills
behind Fuchau are still infested with
maneaters news Of their ravages has
not yet reached us.
These tigers Of southern and
western China, called Annoy tigers
resemble their Bengal relative in size
and habits. They keep out OF the
way of men as a rule, but there are
probably more maneaters among
them today than among the tigers
of the India peninsula, for the rea-
son that they are not hunted by the
more callous Chinese with the
prodigious energy that is now aroused
every time the Indian maneater
starts a fresh chapter Of horrors.
The day has gone by when two
or three Bengal tigers that have
taken to human flesh as a steady
diet can depopulate whole districts.
British sportsmen are numerous and
when a hue and cry Of "Maneater!"
is raised the brute Is hunted day
after day. and is usually killed be-
fore he has more than two or three
victims to his score.
So this truly terrible scourge to
the timid and unharmed inhabitants
Of Indian villages is happily becom-
ing rare. But the terror inspired by
an Indian maneater throughout the
district where he ranges is extreme,
and the natives themselves are almost
defenseless against him.
1t is a curious fact, on the other
hand that the Chinese, who have
suffered for ages from these depre-
dations, have never drawn especial
attention to the evil, and 1t has been
left to the foreigners who are living
among them to begin war on the
maneater. Emil Brass, the best
known man in the skin and hide
trade of eastern Asia, wrote early
this year that in the neighborhood
of Swatau and Annoy the tiger is
still killing and carrying off many
Chinese every year; and only last
summer the missionaries who fire.
quent the cool summer resort Of Ku-
liang told of a tiger that had just
invaded the town and carried off a
woman.
The east Asian maneating tiger is
very well distributed. He Is found
among the mountains of northern
Manchuria and in wide districts Of
northern Korea. In the peninsula of
Kowlun, opposite Hongkong. there
are also many Of these animals that
are greatly feared because they prey
upon men,