From the Adventure Magazine.
The cougar is, next to the wolverine, the oddest jigger among the wild thinkers, barring human savages, of course. A quirk is characteristic of the cougars (pumas, panthers, mountain lions, all one). They walk alone and alarm countless humans out of sheer companionableness, with no least intention to harm. There are records of hungry cougars attacking and badly wounding children and men. In northern California a local doctor tells me he was nearby when a boy was badly clawed and a woman who went to his rescue was injured to the death. But these hunger (probably) attacks are balanced against many times more demonstrations of friendliness, like the cats that walk with late passers-by in silent, dark hours of metropolitan nights. We have been so eager to butcher wild life, especially the nobles of the forest, that we have only the faintest understanding of the mental processes of the creatures. The humor of bears, the pride of the deer, the fancies of the cats, the exuberance and conscience of wolves—what do we really know about them?
The Evening Star, Washington, DC, August 8, 1926
