Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1875 — A Leopard Loose. [ARTICLE]

A Leopard Loose.

Philadelphia was recently convulsed over the escape of a leopard. This is the story as told by the Prett: The leopard is an animal not much larger than a bleating lamb, but rather more spirited in nature. It does not love to be fondled, and hates to be boxed up like a hundred-weight of smoked hams and knocked about from pillar to post. One of these pretty little animals, the same spotted individual mentioned in yesterday’s Prett as having got loose on the barge Chesapeake, lying at Arch street wharf, is still saunteriLg about in the hold of that fated vessel and amusing himself examining tbe precious cargo consigned to Philadelphians, who find patient Waiting for their freight no little loss, and springing at the eye-balls of those who dare to glance at his Oriental majesty through convenient knot-holes in the hatches. A thousand plans for capturing the beast have been suggested, but none of them carried into effect, except the setting of a trap, which up to the present writing has not secured him. The wharves around Arch street were crowded all the morning by people who stood on the docks watching the vessel and movements on it. Although for a time the barge was. sufficiently close to the wharf to be boarded, and the men on board sufficiently idle to be bored, not a single life insurance agent made his appearance. This can only be accounted for on the theory that life oh the Chesapeake is at a ruinous discount. A strange part of this accident is the alleged fact that the animal was boxed up like any other freight, and placed on board by stevedores without the knowledge of the Captain or his men. The animal’s escape was the result of a rot m one of the timbers of which his box was constructed. The animal had sufficient instinct to know that the rotten portion of the box would offer very little resistance to his claws, and he pawed at it constantly until the iron bars fell out and freedom was his. Yesterday afternoon he was inveigled into the forward portion of ’tween decks, and then was barricaded in. By this move the unlading of the Chesapeake was rendered possible; the barge was towed to land, and a gang of stevedores went to work with a will. Headkeeper Nash, of the Zoo, thought over the situation, and, having heard of fighting the devil with fire, concluded to tackle this devil with water, and, after arranging a “ shiftingbox” in such a manner that the leopard could walk into it if so disposed, a gentle persuader was brought to bear upon him in the shape of a stream of water an inch and a half in diameter from a tug-boat hose. But the leopard was not that kind of a leopard; and instead of being driven into the box he valiantly charged his hydraulic enemies, and the way those men dropped that hose and shut that hatch was really astonishing. At one o’clock this morning, when the Preet reporter left the Chesapeake, - the leopard still had things pretty much his own way, and seemed happy over it. Headker per Nash was rather down-heart ed, but not utterly despondent, and was making ready for a flank movement, which, he believed, would lead to the reduction of the enemy. A hole was to be knocked through the bulkhead, behind which the leopard lay, and the “ shiftingbox”—arranged with a falling side'door at one end—was to be brought to hear upon the opening. Then a lever was to be rigged to hold up the door, and a piece of meat was to be tied to the lever, and a fond hope was cherished that the leopard (the poor beggar has had nothing to eat since last Monday) would bite at the meat that jerked the lever that held the door that shut the box that Headkeeper Nash built. Absolute quiet was necessary to the success of this plan, and so about 1:30 this morning the Chesapeake, having been unladen, save the useful cotton bales which served for the barricade above mentioned, swung out from her dock and anchored in mid-stream, and there at this writing (two a. m.) she lies. Across the pale moon’s face flit ghostly clouds; against the vessel’s sides swash softly the dark waters of the river, and no other sound breaks the dense stillness. Yet Headkeeper Nash has both eyes open and the trap is set Will the leopard enter it? Who, ah! who can tell? Later.— They've got him! At 2:45 a. m. the trap was finally set and at 8:15 the leopard was gauget!!! Bq ends our Ibplogioal sensation.