MAN ROUTED BY WEASELS
When Weasels Attack

Man Routed by Weasels

A most unusual story regarding weasels appeared in Public Opinion, 26 June 1885. It revealed that this was an era when men had to fight the elements, nature, and occassionally even weasels to survive. A Man Routed by Weasels "Delos Lante, an Elk county farmer, has been annoyed greatly this winter by weasels in his poultry yard and house, the bloodthirsty little animals having killed his fowls by the score, and defied all efforts to trap them. The other day Mr. Lante was walking through a stony field on his farm, and he saw a weasel run into a big heap of stones piled loosely in the middle of the field. He had a walking stick, and going to the stone pile, began to throw down stones to get at the weasel or scare it out. Presently a weasel jumped out, and he struck it with his cane. It did not run away, but sprang at Lante's throat - the spot a weasel instinctively tries to seize. "The farmer struck it again and hit it, but it returned gamely to the attack, and whether in answer to a signal or not the farmer does not know, weasels began to swarm out of the stone pile on all sides, and in a second were springing upon Lante, climbing nimbly up his clothes, trying to reach his face. They bit him with their sharp teeth, and finding that he would be unable to keep the savage little blood-suckers from fastening their teeth in his neck without help, he shook them off as best he could, and started at the top of his speed for home. The weasels followed him until he sealed the fence. His hands were bleeding from a dozen wounds, and if he had remained to fight the weasels they would undoubtedly have overpowered and killed him. In the afternoon Mr. Lante returned to the stone pile with two men, two guns, and a dog. They routed out the weasels and killed thirty - a colony which had been devastating the entire neighbourhood for a year or more." N. World disasters - The year of 1898 Introduction of the potato into New England North polar exploration Tragedy in Klondyke End of a century The Sinking of the Titanic and Other Great Sea Disasters