Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1879 — A Ravenous Eagle. [ARTICLE]

A Ravenous Eagle.

Duluth Tribune. We are in receipt of a letter from C Wieland, Esq., Auditor of Lake county, of which the following is the substance: “Yesterday afternoon while little August Burr, aged seven years, was playing with his sisters—one five years old and the other three years and six mqnths—near by his father’s house, an enormous eaglepounced down upon them, throwing the two girls to the ground. It immediately attacked the younger one, grasping one of the child’s arms with the clawsof one foot, while the claws of the other foot were deeply buried in the child’s face; an it attempted to carry the child off. bu was prevented by struggles. Little August, seeing that he could do nothing with his own hands to help his sister, ran quickly into the house, got the butcher-knife and came out and whacked awav at the eagles legs, cutting one of them severely near the foot, whereupon the savage bird let go of the little girl and attacked the boy, knocking him over, and tearing his pants and giving him some severe scratches. In the meantime the screams of the children brought out their mother, whereupon the eagle flew off to the baru, on which he sat and looked as though he would like to renew the contest should a favorable opportunity present itself; but he staid there a little too long for his own good, as Joe Beltzer, a neighbor, was called, who took down his gun and shot this great emblem of American freedom, and his eagleship, when killed, was found to measure seven feet from wing-tip to wing-tip. “The little girl who had this remarkable encounter is very badly scratched, but not seriously hurt.”