A Queer Battle
A terriflc enoounter between a dog and an eagle recen tly occurred on Roanoke lsland, N. C. Roanoke Island is twelve miles long and two wide, and is inhabited by some seven hundred persons. Regarding the flgV.t, the Eliz.ibeth City Economist thus describes the savage affair : On Friday, a soaring eagle, lowering in nis pride of aaight, turned his farseeing eye from gazing at the sun, upon the quiet yard of Walter .Dough. A flock of fat geese invited his sight and tempted his taste. The glance was father to the thought - and down he pounced. The feathers fiew, the geese squawked, and there was a sensation in that farm yard - and there was a dog there, too. A goose is put down as a fooi, but it is a vulgar error. A goose is a particularly smart fellow. And so was this one the eagle struck in Walter Dough's yard. As soon as the eagle struck, the goose ran under the house which was some two fee above ground, with the eagle fastene to its back, and the rest of the flock in hot pursuit. And there the fight grew fast and furious. Forty bitten an( flopping geese on one side, and the king of birds on the other. Although outnumberedthe eagle maintained the fieht and ciung to his victim. But soon another enemy appeared Au enemy more terrible than an anny of geese - a buil terrier dog - little, but f uil of fight. It wasn't fair ; and the dog had no natural beligerent rights in a combat between birds, but he carne with a bound, and the eagle had no time to settle questions of military ethica ; so he threw himself on his back (eagle fashion) to do his best in this hard fight between tooth and toenail. The dog made a lunge at the eagle's breast and the eagle stuck his claws deep into the dog's fore shoulder. The blow was simultaneous on either side. 13oth blows told. But a terrier never, and an eagle bardly ever says die. The only witnesses of the dread combat were the geese who now stooc off and looked ou and Miss Martha Brothers, who was Bis ging to her spin ni]ig jennie, in the house alone when the light began, and who in the ene was to be the conquering heroine crowned with the laurels of victory. The battle raged. Teeth gnashed. Claws staved. Eyesflamed. Buteagles, like men, contend against odds when tighting against f ate, and so this eagle's great heartsank within him, and turnng tail upon his foe he sought safety in fligbt. But bis retreat was slow and f uil of difficulty- f or he had fifteen pounds of buil terrier swinging bebind him. He reached the yard fence. With one desperate effort he sought to scale it. He reached the topuiost round. He bore a weight he could not f urther carry. There they stood, victor and vanquished. Then it was that Miss Martha Brothers, the true hero of the flght, came to the front and won the palm of victory. Seizing.a rail, with one feil swoop she came down with a crash upon the eagle's head, and left bim prostrate, struggling in the agonies of death ; the victim of a combination too powerful to be resisted. Alas poor eagle ! He measured nine f eet bet ween the tips of his outstretched wings.
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Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat