Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1876 — How Wilheim Escaped. [ARTICLE]

How Wilheim Escaped.

Wretera Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio yrare fohnetiy rich in materials of wild adventure. The vast feretts of the rerton swarmed with almost every variety <H four-footed game, and its numerous streams and lakes abounded with fish and fewl, while the pioneer aettleis were as hardy and daring a class of men as ever nulled a boat or set foot on a mountain. Tribes of Indians, too, roamed and hunted there, the bravest and fiercest of tire red race. One of the pioneers of this region was a Session named Neuenheyser, a deserter ftom that body of troops hired from Germanyby the British, and sent to fight •gainst the Americans in the Revolutionary war. His descendants still live in the •ante part of the country. Hb son, Wilhelm, was the hero of this story. Wilhelm was a lumberman, and being much of the time in the woods, his encounters with wild beasts were notin frequent That he should ever allow himself to go into the forest unarmed, only provesthat experience itself forgets its caution. One day, near the first of June, he had been peeling the bark from a “ skid" of saw logs. A “ skid” means here a row of logs, lai d aide by side on cross timbers, so as not to touch the ground, but admit the air and become thoroughly seasoned. This arrangement, too, makes them convenient to load upon sleds in winter. Logs cut in May or June are easily pealed, for then the sap loosens the bark, and when it is removed they are left exceedingly slippery until they dry. The place of Wilhelm’s work was near tiie center of a valley about a mile wide, with a bluff on the west side, and on the east gentle hills rising from the bank of a small stream. At the foot of the hills stood a mill, and a clearing of several acres had been made around It, in which were the log houses of several settlers. West of the stream, covering valley and bluff and hills for many miles, was a dense forest. A narrow roadway had l»een opened from the mill to the skid of logs, but no further. Am hour before sunset, an Wilhelm was about starting for home, he heard, as he thought, a woman or child call from the bluff He answered, thinking some member of one of the settler's families had been out gathering early flowers and wintergreons, and had lost the way. Rb voice did not seem to reach the ear ofti* unseen caller, for tn a moment an-1 other more anxious cry came from the bluff. Again he answered, and again the cry, until he became so intent on making himself heard, and finding out the apparent distress, that he began, half unconsciously, to walk in the direction of the sounds. Wiihelm had a nry compassionate heart, and as he drew nearer, and the sad cry came to him more distinctly, even his long*texperience of forest noises did not suggest that it could be other than a human call. Perhaps it was his very experience that made him venture. He thought he knew. As he pushed on through the dense thicket, he became satisfied, from the singularly pitiful tone, that the owner of the voice was a woman. He even thought that he could make out the words, “ Oh, I am lost! What shall I dot’ Then the cries grew fainter, and ran into a low, continuous moan. Stirred to deepest sympathy, Wilhelnr hurried on, keeping a keen lookout up the hillside. He was excited, and had no doubt now but that he should soon see a despairing woman sitting helpless on the ground. He had nearly reached the foot of the bluff, when suddenly the moaning voice changed to an appalling shriek, and he met a pair of fiery eyes glaring out of the bushes on the ledge above him. He had been drawn into the very jaws of a panther. Why he should have permitted himself to be so deluded he never could decide, for he knew well enough that the wailing of a panther is often very much like the voice of a distressed woman. In fact, so perfect is the likeness that the most practiced ears have been deceived by it, and woodmen have sometimes neglected a real human cry for fear of encountering a panther. Wilhelm could only condemn himself for not taking his gun with him. In such cases that precaution is always wise.

Never before had our lumberman been caught so totally unprepared in peril. Even his jack-knife was in some pocket at home or on the saw-logs. Aware of bis weakness, he obeyed the first instinct of fear, and turned ta run. He knew well enough that this course would embolden the deadly beast to chase him. but what else could he do? Before he had gone twenty rods the great cat was at his heels, and he almost felt her savage claws in his flesh. Whirling desperately around, he now faced her, and grasping his high coon-skin cap by the crown, commenced striking at her and shrieking atthe top of his voice. The brute hesitated, crouched close to the ground, turned her head sidewise and, lashing angrily with her tail, stepped round him at a distance of a few feet, evidently watching her chance to seize him. Her fierce yellow eyes shone like fire, and her long red tongue kept lapping her jaws, as if she was fancying how he would taste. No doubt she coveted such a supper as he would make, for Wilhelm was a plump Dutchman. The continual movement of the panther and her intended victim presently brought them on opposite sides of a small thicket ■of briars, and seeing his opportunity, the lumberman again started to run. On ■came the blood4hirsty beast, pursuing fierce and close, somet'mes in advance of him, then at his side, then in his rear, apparently disturbed by the swinging cap, and looking for a better chance to get hold of him. Repeatedly Wilhelm thought she was going to spring upon him, and stopped to gesticulate and yell at her. The last of tneee poor attempts to' fight for his life gave him a little advantage, or probably he never would have reached a place of safety. As he was roaring and hurling his arms about, he flung his coon skin cap, and by a curious hit lodged it, like a muzzle, exactly over the panther's nose. This so amazed the creature that Wilhelm got several rods the start. As soon as she cohid shake off the cap, the panther came tearing after him again, uttering screams of rage. But Wilhelm was now tn sight of the logs, and rushed for his ax. At the end of the sk d, the brute crouched and leaped for him. It seemed she intended to reach him by two springs, landing first upon the saw-logs, but here her instinct failed her. She made no calculrtion tor the slippery condition of the peeled logs, and as she alighted up<>n them with tremendous force, her feet flew from under her and let her down sprawiBmised and evidently discouraged, she spring ofi, but one of her legs bad passed through a crevice between the logs, and in her mad struggles she broke ft. At that instant, two men who had heaad the terrible outcries in the woods came

running from the mill, with axes and handspikes, and falling furiously upon the panther soon dispatched her. She proved to be one of the largest of her speciee. Before midnight her sain ips nailed to the rafters over Wilhelm's bed. And in after years he made many a sleigh-ride more oomfortible by spreading about his limbs the yellow hide of the beast that had intended to eat him.— Youth't Companion.