Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1894 — FULL OF FIGHT. [ARTICLE]

FULL OF FIGHT.

A Cheetah’s Battle with a Pair of Big English Mastiffs. Dore Lawton has spent some time in the Island of Ceylon. “Speaking of cheetahs,” he said, “ I want to tell you a story of a battle between English mastiffs and a thoroughbred Ceylonese cheetah. “There is a very general impression that the cheetah and the royal Bengal tiger are just* about the same thing, but this isn’t so. The main difference in them is that the former is not so bloodthirstv as the latter. Kight down in his heart he is not a man-eater, but he can digest that kind of meat when occasion requires. As a rule he will give the human brotherhood a wide berth, but if you corner him there is no telling how hard he can fight. Stir him up and he will make the fur fly in a fast and furious fashion. He has been known to lie in wait along the mountain roads for human prey, but these instances are rare, and his manivorous taste is not very highly developed, There are many authentic statements recorded where cheetahs, at certain seasons of the year, have appeared in the mountain villages, generally seeking the fires w'hi.ch have been lighted for cooking purposes on the hard earth floors of the rude huts. Then the population migrate, leave the cheetah to his glory, and report at the neighboring village that the animals are working havoc among the hogs and humans. On one occasion of this kind Capt. Baker, the great Oriental sportsman, made an investigation on the spot, shot a cheetah as it stood before the fireplace in a hut, and made the discovery that the animal had sought the warmth because of a peculiar disease of the jaws and teeth. On examining the mouth of the dead cheetah he saw that the gums were full of maggots, and these, when warmed by the fire, would crawl far enough out of the sockets of the teeth to be reached by the cheetah’s claws. • There was a coffee planter who lived near Kandy, whose bungalow was in the mountains, and whose name was Dawson. He had a number of fine China pigs, which became the apple of the cheetah’s eye. The feline tribesman made nightly calls, and the porkers were borne off one by one. Attempts to shoot the intruder failed. Two English mastiffs, belonging to a neighboring planter, were invited over and placed in the piggery. Dawson, his neighbor and myself wrapped ourselves in heavy coats, for the nights in those parts are very chill, and climbed into a crow’s nest, which had been built in a tree top near by. The early hours of the night were as dark as Erebus and lagged painfully, the oppressive stillness being now and then broken by the cry of somp wild denizen of the jungle. Toward one o’clock the pale light of the moon flickered through the dense foliage. Cooped up in the nest, we were half asleep, when, with a cat-like screech, a magnificent cheetah bounded over the palings of the enclosure, and for an instant crouched to take a survey of the situation. “The mastiff closest the outside, and very near as large as the cat, bounded at him, and was struck dead with a single blow from the cheetah, which then quickly approached the pen. The other mastiff, a female, doubly enraged at the fate of her mate, with a terrific growl fastened her fangs deep in the throat of the cat. A red-hot fight followed. With screeches, hisses and growls the cat and dog rolled over and over, the cheetah making desperate efforts to break the dog’s hold, but it was no go. The mastiff had come to stay. Dawson got down from the nest in quick order, and with a well-aimed pistol shot sent the cheetah to its last, long home. The dog .was horribly injured, it having been literally disembowelled by the claws of the great cat. She was sent via rail to the Marine Hospital at Colombo, sewed up and carefully nursed back to health. The cheetah measured seven and one-half feet from the end of his nose to the tip of his tail, and was about the largest ever killed in that district. “I tell you, sir, the cheetah is a cat from away back. No dog is anything like a match for it in a fair fight. The cheetah is a worthy kinsman of the Bengal tiger, and with the latter animal no lion is to be compared in strength, agility, or fighting qualities.”—[Washington Star.