Year: 1869

From the Nashville Press and Times, Jan. IL


A gentleman named Bowers, from
Meigsville, Jackson county, now in town,
informs us that on Christmas eve, about
three o'clock in the afternoon, the farm
of Mr.. Whitesde, about five miles from
Meigsville, was the scene of a most ex-
citing and nearly fatal event. 1t is
briefly this:


Mr.. Whiteside was in the little town
doing some business; his wife was away
at neighbor's, where sick child was
struggling with cholera infantum; and
the only indoor servant they had was out
in the barn looking after some cattle,
when their chid-a bright little boy, just
learning to toddle around on its little
feet and prattle the name of pa
tumbled or crawled out of its cradle, in
which it was left asleep by the servant
few moments before, and managed some
how to get to the door, which was unfor-
tunately open at the time, although the
girl left in charge of the place AYERS that
she had closed it on going out. The child
tumbled into the front yard, it is sup
posed, and was crawling around, when a
gray eagle, seen by the girl as she was
leaving the barn, came swooping
down, and, fastening its immense
and cruel talons in the clothing of the
little boy, rose up, apparently with much
difficulty, as high as it could, which was
not very high, and sailed off across the
adjacent woods, just skimming, as the
servant says, the tops of the trees. When
the servant saw the eagle coming down,
as she was leaving the barn, she had
presentiment of the strangest kind, and
saws she felt that the child was out doors,
and that the fierce bird of prey was
pouncing down upon it; but when, In
moment after, she beheld the great tyrant
of the air rise above the house-toP with
the little child in its claws, she grew dizzy
and fell to the ground. Her weakness,
however, did not continue long; the cold
air blowing across her face revived her
quickly, and jumping on her feet and
gazing round wildly, she saw the eagle
disappearing over the woods in the direc-
ton of the Cumberland river She was
filled with but one impulse-to rescue
the little boy. She became as one frantic,
for she had remarkable affection for the
child. She rushed forward, bounded over
the fence as if she was endowed with the
lightness and agility of a deer; dashed
into the wood, dark and tangled as 1t was,
not taking time to hunt out foot-paths,
or COW tracks. She instinctively felt that
the thieving bird would keep in straight
line, and she kept in q straight line also.


With the strength and unthinkiug cour-
age of a strong man who has become
suddenly dersnged, she dashed the uH-
dergrowth aside, crossed ravines as IT she
we're on the level plain, spurned the fallen
trees and Jagged rocks as if they were
the smoothest and softest moss. The
match of wood was fully mile and half
through; but the girl made the run TO the
other edge of it. without feeling in the
least fatigued. Beyond the wood, and


between il and the river, lay patch of
cleared ground, partly marshy and partly
corn6eld, full of old stumps. When she
left the wood, and had clear view, she
saw the eagle as if he were inclined to
alight with his burden somewhere in the
middle of the river. This gave her new
courage and fresh hope, and she ran
forward with increased speed. 1t luckily


happened at that time that there was
man hunting in the neighboring marshes,
and just at the particular moment
when the eagle reached the ground


with his burden, shot went
CT so dangerously and alarmlngly
near him (for the hunter was behind a
clumH Of bushes about twenty yards Oh,
and had his back toward the spot where
the eagle and the child wsre), that be
mounted into the air again, bat this time
without his burden. The pursuing girl
was filed with JOY when she beheld the
bird rise without the child. Bat fearing
be would return, as he seemed inclined