WOMAN FIGHTS A TIGER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1607, 7 September 1916, Page 4

WOMAN FIGHTS A TIGER.

TO SAVE HER HUSBAND,

Thrilling details of a woman’s grim light with a tiger that was attacking her husband —a prominent official in the Indian Civil Service- — are published in the Times of India :

Mr H. F. E. Bell, Deputy-Commis-sioner in the Central Provinces, and his wife were tiger shooting near Kotah from a platform in a tree. When a tiger approached, Mr Bell tired, and the beast at once jumped at them. Mr Bell immediately fired again and wounded the beast, which then fled.

Mr Bell, against the advice of his wife and the shikaris, insisted on chasing the tiger, and as soon as he descended from the platform he ran after the animal as fast as he could. Mrs Bell alone followed her husband, the others running away. It so happened that the beast was lying hidden in a bush a little distance off. As soon as Mr Bell had rounded the bush the tiger sprang on him .and mauled him 1 erribly. It crunched the hip bones, and as Mrs Bell rounded the bush she found it sucking the blood from her husband’s hips.

Up to this point there had not been a sound cither from Mr Bell or the tiger, and Mrs Bell was totally unprepared for the terrible slight which met her eyes as she turned the corner.

She pluckily fired her last remaining cartridge at the tiger, but the shot had no effect. Then, with the greatest heroism, site tackled the tiger with only a flimsy sporting rifle in her hand. Regardless of her own safety she clubbed the brute again and again with the butt-end of the rifle, and even kicked it with her feet before it would leave its prey.

At last, however, the beast became frightened and ran away. She then proceeded to. render fii’st aid to her husband, bandaging the wounded parts with strips of her handkerchief. Having done this, she procured aid, carried her husband to .the nearest railway station, and then telegraphed for medical aid. It was all of no avail, for Mr Bell succumbed to his injuries.