FO UR-FO O TED PRIZE-FIGHTERS. 



255 



enough to throw him into a fit of that fury which hash- 

 ish is said to produce in the human animal ; he is in a 

 chronic state of furor litis, ready to run amuck at the 

 first opportunity. Under a real provocation this trucu- 

 lence rises to a perfect frenzy: in his efforts to break 

 his tether, an angry bull-terrier will tear the hide of 

 his neck into shreds or snap his teeth on an iron chain, 

 and, if he can break loose, danger will count for nothing 

 against the rage of glutting his revenge. The prospect 

 of certain death may be said to have no terrors for a 

 thorough-bred fighting-dog. Spanish wolf-dogs will 

 successively rush upon a bear whose paw has smashed 

 every comer at the first blow. A Danish mastiff will 

 go headlong upon a man with a levelled shot-gun. 

 Nay, Baron Gaisner, a well-known Vienna sportsman, 

 laid a wager that his rat-terrier would tackle a big blood- 

 hound ; and at the word of command the little dog won 

 the bet by losing his life. 



Some farm-dogs do not even wait for commands to 

 fly at every stranger passing their premises. Three 

 years ago a large panther escaped from a menagerie- 

 man who had pitched his tents near Lansing, Michigan. 

 Toward evening the deserter appeared at the door of a 

 wayside smithy some three miles south of Lansing. 

 The smith flung a piece of coal at his head, and the 

 panther trotted off, and was passing the fence of an 

 orchard, when a vicious-looking cur leaped over the 

 enclosure and without a moment's hesitation fell upon 



