Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1886 — A MAD HORSE. [ARTICLE]

A MAD HORSE.

BY AUNT LIZZIE.

About a quarter of a century ago the central part of Illinois was a comparatively new country. The prairie was dotted here and there with cabins, but they were so small and their appearance so insignificant Oral their presence hardly changed the monotony of the landscape. As far as the eye could reach the 'ground was covered with rank prairie grass, except now' and then where there was n field! under cultivation. In the autumn, the dry brown grass needed but a spark to cause the whole prairie to be swept by a prairie tire. —— The sullen clouds' of blue smoke rolling along the grass gave the settlers warning of its coming. The only way to thwart it was to leave nothing for the flames to feed upon. But woe, indeed, to him who neglected to prepare for it by plowing the land around his buildings, for the names destroy everything within reach, and, in place of hia stacks and buildings, there is only a chaired, smouldering waste, and he can count himself lucky if he escapes with hia life. Fences, there were none, and the road was but a dim trail across the prairie. At the time of which I write, 185 —, two brothers, named John and George Cross, came to thia locality with their families and purchased farms about two miles apart. *■=?'' ' ■' ■ Though not overburdened with riches, they possessed full as much property as new settlers usually do. Cattle, hogs, good strong horses, a few fanning implements, a little household furniture, dogs, three or .four rosy-faced little children, completed the usual list of possessions. The Crosses erected cabins for their families and straw covered sheds for their hora«B. The hard and almost incessant work of (mttivating the raw prairie left no time for visiting, except on Sunday, and thus it was that scarcely a Sunday passed that the two families were not together at one or the other places. For several months previous to the time of which I write, the country had been filled with rumors and alarms of an evil that walked in darkness!—a mad dog scare —and it was a theme of almost universal apprehension. some, of bourse, gave no credence to the exaggerated tales of horror, and one of these was George Cross. He had no faith whatever in the rumors. He had never Been a mad dog and did not believe there was such a thing, and, as he was obstinacy itself, he held to his opinion with unwavering tenacity. * The rumors, at first vague and shadowy, gradually took shape, and nervous people could not be induced to go out of doors after night and a good many other people, who laid no claims to nervousness, exercised the same prudence. Little children were scarcely allowed to look out of doors by their watchful mothers. Finally a tragedy occurred which ought to have convinced even the most skeptical that the mysterious disease was in their midst. A man living several miles from the Crosses was walking home one night, through the timber that grew on the bank of a creek.—r Hearing a dog yelping at a little distance and supposing that hunters were out, he called to them and whistled to the dog. To his sunrise and consternation the dog leaped out of the dark thicket immediately .on bearing his voice and attacked him fib viciously that to defend himself from the brute he seized it by the head with his thumbs between its jaws and endeavored to throw it on the ground. In the struggle that followed he had to exert all his strength to defend himself, and his thumbs were terribly lacerated. When he was almost exhausted the brute, on hearing other dogs, suddenly gave up ' the struggle and ran off, leaving the poor fellow to stagger home faint with terror and dread. A few weeks after, he displayed unmistakable symptoms of hydrophobia and died after the most horrible suffering. Excitement now ran high and every dog in the country was looked upon with suspicion and numbers were killed without waiting for symptoms. Still, they were not all killed. Some people thought it was only the imagination and would not sacrifice their pets to satisfy public opinion, and sometimes these protected brutes were the ones suspected and were frequently shot down before their masters’ feces bv the excited settlers. An animal suffering from hydrophobia knows no fear, feels no pain and displays the greatest ferocity in attacking it 9 victims. A mad dog is less to be feared than a mad cat, as the former nearly always snaps and bites at the legs and the rabid saliva is absorbed by the clothing, while the latter always flies directly at the face and hands with tiger-like fury. A mad dog, unless confined, will always escape - from home, and moving in a swift trot,,will wander miles in a straightforward course without uttering a warning sound. One morning, when George Cross went out to the stable to attend to his horses, he noticed a 6transe deg lying in the straw at the side of it. The stable was a rude of poles, with the roof and three sides of straw and the south side left open. He gave the cur a kick, partly to get it out of the way and partly to make it leave the premises. The dog sprang at him. growling viciously, and Cross, surprised at its unexpected fierceness, sprang ont of its

Way and the doff immediately ran off. Cross watched" it until it disappeared in the high gra-s and then went on with his work. As he was currying one of his horses, * large, haiiusotne black named Colonel, he noticed a small torn place on one of its legs, much as if it had been snagged or rut, and the thought crossed his mind that (H>rbap* the dog had bitten it. Several days passed and the wound healed naturally, and nothing i ould be seen of it but a faint scar. Three or four weeks afterwards George and his brother looking at the hor-e aud loth men remarked that it did not seem iell, and George mentioned jieeing the range dog at the stable. The horse would not eat the food placed before it.and exhibited a great restlessness, turning about in its stall, end it could not drink without great difficulty. Cross did not associate the cause of the animal s indispositfon wfth tbe wound on its leg, asThe wound itself was apparently healed,. and he administered some simple remedies, such as he had at hand, ami refrained from working it. " But in spile of his doctoring the horse grew rapidly worse, and. from a handsome, well-kept animal, it became shrunken and emaciated. One morning, Sam, George’s oldest boy, came galloping up to bis uncle's in the greatest excitement. “Quick, I’ncle Johh! get on a horse ami come over and see what ails Colonel! He's gone crazy, 1 guess. Father's afraid he’s going to die." As they rode rapidly across tho prairie toward his- brother's place, John recollected what George had told him nbont the dog, and he surmised what ailed the horse, ana, on arriving, his opinion was verified. The stahle was almost demolished. The sides were literally tom out, the poles that supported th • roof were broken off close to the ground, and the straw was trampled to chaff under foot. The horse certainly had gone crazy. It was rearing, plunging, ami striking at everything within reach, until it seemed it would burs! the chain by which it was secured. After witnessing its frenzied movements a few minutes, John turned to George and said: “George, the sooner you put a bullet through thut horse's head, the better. He's mad.” “He’s pretty bad, that's a fact. But I won’t be in a hurry to kill him. Maybe he’ll get over it." “ltutjlon’t yon believe he’s mad?” “ Well, it does look like it. But I don't see why he shouldn’t get over it if he is." The horse now appeared more natural and quiet, and taking advantage of this, George led it out of the stable and hitched it to a post in the yard. But its quiet state was of short duration. A paroxysm more violent than ever succeeded it. In its fury it tore aud hit at the post, the froth flying from its mouth, and its fiery, glaring eyeballs presented a hideous picture of unearthly terror. Suddenly, in the height of its frenzy, it reared on its hind feet and fell over backwards in terrible convulsions. Its eyes shot out and were fixed; its nostrils prodigiously distended. but motionless; its legs stiff and set. If he had suddenly been turned to stone he would not have been any more rigid, and so intense were the rigors the spectators thought he would never get up again. But presently, with a sudden start and a shrill neigh, he would stagger wildly to his feet and plunge around the post as (f the very fiends were goading him with redhot irons. He was insensible to pain, arjd would dash himself against the post with such force as to gash and cut himself fearfully.

John Cross was perfectly satisfied that the horse was suffering from rabies, especially when Le noticed that the wound on its leg hnd opened again, and was discharging a thin, watery fluid. He insisted that it should be killed at once, but GeoTge would not listen to it.“It was too valuable au animal to lose if there was any help for it. He wouldn’t kill it before morning anyway. John went home and came back again in the afternoon. There was no change except for the worse. They had secured it with a larger, stronger chain, but it seemed that even it could not hold, as the horse rolled and kicked and plunged. Its shrill neighs or yells were so unnatural they made one shiver. But nothing could induce George to put an end to its sufferings. He still clnng to the notion that perhaps it would recover. After exhausting every argument he could think of on his obstinate brother; John started to go home. “Bte certain you tie him well, George, or he'll be all over the country by morning. That chain will be worn off by midnight if he keeps on at this rate.” He could not keep his mind off of the picture of the maddened horse and he described it to his wife, and also told how he had urged George to put the poor creature out of its misery. “But you know how George is. He never will do what any one wants him to, come what will. He always thinks he knows best. But then it will be au awful loss to him, and no mistake.” “But if it is mad, he must know it won’t gel well again. Nothing ever did,” said his wife, and then as if a sudden thought had struck her; Bhe exclaimed: “John, just ns sure as the world, if that horse gets loose to-night, he’ll come-over herfi. They always drive him when they com/ and he will be certain to come straight here if he breaks loose." “O, I guess not,” replied her hnsband cheerfully. “Ton'are nervous, Jennie, thinking about mad things so much. Now, that horse doesn’t have any sense. He doesn't remember any more about being here than if he’d been to the moon. Besides. you need not be afraid of his getting a chance to come. He is fastened with a big 6tout chain.”' He did not tell her how nearly the chain was.worn iu.two, as he saw she was already badly frightened, “But, Johu. can't yon build some kind of a barricade around the door and fasten up the open end of the stable?” —— “Why. what would ‘I bufld it out of? Cornstalks?” said he, trying to laugh her out Of her fears. “Tear down the corn-crib," said Mrs. Cross, desperately. “Tear down the com-crib! Why, Jennie, yon must be crazy. Pshaw, what’s tire use of fretting. He’ll not come.” “Then let’s go up into the garret to sleep, anyway,” urged Mrs. Cross as a last appeal. , The house was so small that there was no room for a stairway oh the inside, and the only way to reach the garret was by a ladder on the outside ofthe house. “Precious little sleep we would get up in that little hole. . Think of all the children up there! We would be smothered to death before morning. I guess we will take our chances down here, Jennie. Just go to bed and go to sleep like you always do.” “I can’t sleep, John. I just feel that that horse will be here to-night.” John wanted to go np again after sappier and see about the horse, and really to urge George again to kill it, though he did not tell his wife so, but she would not consent to his going. “Suppose you should meet him on the road, or he should come down here while yon were gone,” said 6he. appalled at the picture, drawn by her own imagination. At the usual time the family retired, and John’s snore soon testified that he was resting easy. Not so with his wife. She

war too full of dread to even close hei eyelids. 1 Her conviction that the horse would be there before rooming was -so strongthat her eyes dilated with fear as she lay in tbs utter darkness and thought of the clumsy: doois and their frail fastenings. She could! shake the whole structure herself, and what protection would it afford against the irresistible fury ‘of a ' maddened horse? Several times some slight sound made bet think the dreadful visitor was coming, but each time it proved to be her fancy. She lay with her head half raised from the pillow, and the baby clasped in hei arms, listening, it seemed to her. for hours. After a long, long time, the little clock chimed out midnight with snch appalling distinctness that Mrs. Cross almost sprang out of bed. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, and po sound save the beating of her own heart greeted her ear. Presently, however, she suddenly lifted hipr head further from the pillow and listened yet more intently, unconsciously tightening her clAsp around the baby until her tense hold almost stifled it. Far off, over the prairie, she surely heard hoofbeats, at first so faint nnd indistinct she could not be sure, but in a few min-' utes she could clearly distinguish each separate thud' as Die animal fairly flew across the prairie. She grasped her husband and shook him with a vigor that would have astonished him at any other time and effeetnnlly awoke him on the instant. At the snme moment, there rang out a wild, shrill neigh, sueceeded by another and another, until every nook and cranny -seemed to echo that horrible outcry. John Cross needed no explanation of that wild cry. He was as panic-stricken as his wife. He leaped out of bed and ran out and began piling rails and everything he could lay hands on around the door. His wife hastily gathered the frightened children together behind a large cupboard and implored her husband to come in. He ran in and slammed the door and hastily barricaded it with pieces of furniture just as the horse, with another wild neigh, rushed up to the house. The brnto threw himself against the shed kitchen nnd splintered it to pieces, and then wheeling around, his heels came thundering against the side of the house with a force that threatened every instant to turn the little cabin over. The children Screamed with terror in spite of their mother's efforts to hush them, and the horse, hearing the noise, -redoubled its efforts to break in. But jU6twhen it seemed about to come crashing through the wall it fell heavily on its side in convulsions. The inmates of the little cabin hardly breathed, so paralyzed were they by tho‘ awful danger that menaced them. When the convulsions subsided the horse rose to his feet and ran down to the stable, where they * could hear him kicking and biting the horses. Seizing this opportunity, Mr. Cross again ran out, and taking* rails from the corncrib close by, he hastily formed them into a barricade around the door, but unfortunately, he made a slight noise, and the horse hearing'him, left the stable and came rushing to the house, so that 'Mr. Cross had to run for his life to escape. The infuriated auinial, disappointed in not finding his victim, threw' himself against the house with such violence that the terror-stricken family expected to be trampled under his hoofs the next instant. After venting his fury on the house awhile, he again went to the stable, and Mr. Cross ventured out to continue his barricade, and the sauie performance was gone through with several times. At last it was again seized with convulsions, this time while it was in the stable, and they could hear it floundering and struggling on the floor. Cross seized his gun and ran down to the stable, and watching his opportunity, sent a bullet crashing through its brain. It writhed a moment in agony and was dead. Its head was fast under the manger where it had caught it "during its struggles. : its body was covered with wounds where it had bit or otherwise injured itself. When convinced that the horse was actually dead, Mrs. Cross said afterward that the whole family knelt down and delivored up the most heartfelt thanks for their deliverance from so terrible a danger. Early the next morning while the family were at breakfast, George Cross galloped up to the door in great excitement. “Have you seen anything of that horse, John? He broke loose some time in the night, and got away. We were all asleep and didn’t know he was loose until this morning. ” ' “He’s dowp in my stable with a bullet through his head. He came over here about midnight and pretty near tore everything down on the place. Seethatshed? I thought he would-come into the house in spite of everything I could do, and he’s kicked and bit my horses until it will be a wonder if they don’t all go mad.” Would you believe it? George Cross was so angry at John for killing the horse, "such a valuable animal," that the two families were not friendly for years. George, always thought that the horse would have recovered, and he bore a grudge against John a long time for killing it. John fully expected that one or more of his horses would succumb to the terrible disease, as they were biffen lir a dozen places, but fortunately they never showed the slightest symptoms, to his unspeakable relief. . ..