As it was, the dog bit and tore the flesh of her lower limbs in a dozen or more places, and she will be an invalid for some time to come.
The bulldog was the property of a colored woman named Mrs. Hester Beal, who occupies the flat over the shoe store. During the owner's absence, about 10 o'clock Saturday morning, the big brute stole out into the yard where Eva and her younger sister were playing.
As soon as the dog saw the girls, without the slightest provocation, he became enraged and flew at them savagely. Both girls screamed and ran toward the kitchen door, which is but a step or two from where they were playing.
Eva was the nearest the brute, and before she could reach the house he had caught her by the calf of the leg, biting clear through to the bone and tearing the flesh. Eva struggled and cried out, and tried to get away from the ferocious animal.
Before help could arrive the dog had bitten her in a dozen places and was trying to down the child, which it would probably have done had it not been for the timely arrival of Jones, the carpenter, who attacked the dog with a club, beating him soundly about the body. The brute still clung to the girl, however, until Jones struck him with a hammer, just back of the ears.
This stunned the beast for an instant and made him loose his grasp on Eva who was at once removed to the corner drug store where medical assistance was summoned.
Dr. J.W. Meek was not long in putting in an appearance. He cauterized the wounds, several of which were of quite a serious nature, and then dressed them carefully and expeditiously.
Meantime the bulldog had come to himself, and made a spring at the carpenter, displaying his incisors and growling savagely. He was weak and half blinded from his recent pounding, and he miscalculated his strength, for he fell back to the ground and slunk away into a barrel.
Officer Daley, or Casey, from the Lake Street Station - there seems to be doubt as to who traveled the beat that day - appeared on the scene after the danger was past, and was requested, even by the owner, to shoot the dog. Coward-like he declined the job, fearing to go near enough to the barrel where the brute lay. Again and again the cowardly officer was importuned to shoot the dog, but he tremblingly refused.
Dr. Meek was applied to for assistance by the neighbors. As soon as he had attended to Eva he went home after a rifle, with which he shot the already half-dead brute, much to the relief of quaking Mr. Daley or Mr. Casey, as the case may be.
The doctor examined the animal's blood and pronounced it perfectly pure. The dog was not rabid and little Eva will in a few weeks be out with her playmates, as lively and sound as ever.
The neighbors and Eva's father and mother speak in the highest terms of Dr. Meek's skill and bravery, while many of the contemptuous expressions directed at the cowardly officer by the male population of the neighborhood are couched in terms best expressed in print by long dashes and omissions.
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Daily Inter Ocean, May 28, 1890
