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Show PANIC STRICKEN COMMUNITY. People Nearly Frightened to Death by a Strange Animal. Independence, la., Aug. 4. This tow nship is wild with excitement over the appearance of a strange animal in the Kress neighborhood that makes night hideous with its roaring. The beast is supposed to bo of an amphib-ious amphib-ious nature and to have drifted in with the late high waters. As near as can be located, it has taken up quarters in a creek which passes through the farm of Georgu Powels. It is generally supposed sup-posed that the animal remains secreted in the uuderbrash of the stream during the day and at night wanders forth in the search of food, for it is then that it raises its terror-inspiring voice, which is described by those who have heard it as a cross between the roar of a lion and the screech of an enraged panther. Several persons walking or driving along the road have heard the roar and became almost panic stricken, and cannot be induced to travel over the route again. One young man accompanying a young lady home heard the appalling sound but a few yards distant, and being unarmed rather than, pass over the same route again, made a detour of nearly ten miles to reach his home. Dozens of similar instances might be cited. It has at last become a matter of so much importance that the farmers here organized for a hunt and invited the Independence militia and gun club to join in the festivities. |
