Charlevoix county herald., 1906-05-26
ANIMAL HEROES.
The Thrilling Story of Snap" the
Bun Terrier.

Ernest Thompson Seton's last book.
"Animal heroes, is, IL possible, more than
ever up to the standard of his intensity in
teresting wild-animal tales. TO the animal
lover this new collection will he read with
absorbing attention. Mr.. Seton has been
subjected to considerable criticism by other
naturalists, notably, John Burroughs, for
cndOwing his animal characters with un-
usual Intelligence and powers, which, Ii Is
claimed, are not possessed by any dumb
creatures. Very likely, as n class. but, as
Mr.. Seton himself admits I'm his preface to
"Animal Heroes, these histories, while i'm
each case founded on the actual lifc-doings
of real animal, are more or less composite.
What novelist, indeed, does not combine
the most striking characteristics of several
individuals to construct his human hero,
who shall appeal to the reader as an eX-
ceptionally fine character? SO has Mr.. Sc
ton taken the record of n number OF wood
or other animals and embodied their most
striking kills or fOllings of the pack into
one sagacious, brave and gigantic specimen.
Like all OF his books, animal Heroes
is delightfully."- Illustrated by some two-hun-
dred drawings and sketches from his own
and his wfe's pencils Interest is stimu-
lated by n constant succession of marginal
drawings, literally interspersed with full
page paintings Of thrilling incidents. The
story Of gOod-hunting, of fierce pursuit, OF
fatal closing in-sometimes TO the pursued,
sometimes to the pursuer-iS told by an
eyewitness welding n master pen in de-
picting animal adventures, and at all
times runs through the story the love
which the writer bears for all animals-of
the proud, indomitable, fearless beast
even though he be the scourge of the
country, killer of cattle or sheep or even
dogs, of which latter the author is pas
sionately fond, be they good ones.
Nothing he discusses has ever been writ
ten which is better worth the reading. and
wlthal sadder in its finale than Is the ac-
count in this volume of the little dog,
"Snap." This Snap" is a bull-terrier
which was sent the author as n sort of Hal
lowe en- joke-he was so vicious and unap-
prOachable. He kept Mr.. Seton. on the tor
of the table most of the night, where he
smoked cigars until his pocket-supply ran
out and then, shivered. However, he fin
ally made friends with his little pup
youngstcr absolutely without fear a yeaI
later, the two found themselves near Men.
dOZa, North Dakota where the wolves had
been playing havoc with the livestock
evading poison and traps and actually
scorning the attempts of the ranchers ant
the wolvers to eXterminate them. The fol
lowing is n recital of the hunt in which
'Snap" figured most glOriously:
From high point we caught sight of
moving speck Of gray. A moving whit,
spcck stands for Antelope, a red speck 70
Fox, gray, speck for either Gray-wolf o.
Coyote, and each of these is determined
by its tail. If the glass shows the tai
down, it is Coyote; if up, it is thu
hated GraywOlf.
We got a momentary view of the pur
suit, IL pluy -NOli IL surely WIS, loDlui
away ahead of the Dogs. Somehow
so fast as they had after the Coyote. Blu
| no one knew the finish of the hunt. Th
Dogs came back to us one by one, and W,
saw no more OF that Wolf.
Sarcastic remarks ana recrlmination wer
now freely INDUCED in by the hunters
"Pah! sCairt, plumb sCairt," was thu
| fathers disgusted comment on the pack
They could catch up easy enough, bu
when he turned on them, they Lighted
out for hOme-pah!"
where's that thar onsurpassable fear
less, scaire-O-nort Tarrer asked Hilton
scornfuly.
Il don't know" said I. "I am in
| clined to think he never saw the wolf
but if he ever does, I'll bet he sails il
for death or glory"
That night several Cows were killed