THE BARBOUR COUNTY INDEX — MARCH 10, 1909
ON A STREET CAR.
Denizen of Northern Forest Gives Conductor and Motorman a Bad Fright
Winnipeg, Man.—The idea of meeting a real, live, sure enough timber wolf within the limits of a full-grown city is rather a startling one, but in Winnipeg it is not uncommon. A recent visit from one of these sharks of the forest was noted in the society columns of local papers. A late street car was whirling along making up time on a suburban avenue running parallel to the famous Red River of the North when the motorman saw a gray streak flash to a position just between the two rails and stand there threateningly. He had just time to realize that the object was an unusually large, gaunt, gray timber wolf, with its neck ruff abristle, when the car struck it. The fender snapped down to the accompaniment of a terrifying howl of mixed fright and rage, and Tom Jones, the motorman, shouting to his conductor, turned on the power and yanked the reverse. Tho conductor and two passengers who were on the car rushed to the front door, the conductor with a heavy switch thrower in his hand, just as the car came to a standstill.
The moment the car stopped the big wolf sprang to the ground, bewildered and frightened. The motorman and the conductor slammed open the doors of the vestibule as the wolf leaped into the darkness and loped off toward the river bank. Jones pulled his gun and took a couple of pot shots for luck, and the “bone picker” was gone. A moment later, from the river bank, the men heard the long, quavering howl of the true timber wolf echo through the night. The great gray beast was making for the forest in the outlying parks over the snow-covered ice of the frozen Red.
Periodically Winnipeg receives a visit from one or more of these great wolves, driven into civilization from the north by the pangs of hunger. They cover great distances in single nights, following the river over the ice.
From—Barbour County Index. (Medicine Lodge, Kan.), 10 March 1909. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.