Newspaper Page Text
Aligator Versus
Muskrat.
Some len or twelve vears back the
police jury of Plaquemine parish
passed a law against the capture and
killing of alligators. That parochial
statute would have made the per
secuted saurians of the Lower Coast
smile with happiness far behind their
ears had it been duly respected. Now
Representative Welsh, of Calcasien
parish, has made alligator protection
a State wide matter by framing and
having favorably reported in the
present session of our General As
sembly an act to prohibit the killing
of alligators in any part of Louisi
ana’’
This law ought to, and probably
will, be passed before the fast ap
proaching adjournment of the pres
ent session of our State Legislature.
The good reasons for this existing
parochial and proposed State legisia
tion in defense of our harmless and
peace loving Louisiana alligator are
founded on desires and intents to
preserve the local balance of preda
tory animal life. Within the vears
of this living generation of men the
alligators of Louislana and Florida
have been almost exterminated by
hordes of hide hunters on account of
the high and steadily rising market
value of their scaly skins. |
But in this swinging halance of
animal life of the Louisiana lowi
grounds and the swamps and marshes
the comparatively rapid recent de-i
crease of our alligators has been fol- |
lowed by a correlative increase in the
swarming millions of muskrats thati
inhabit our marshes, infest our rice
fields and depredate to a considerable ‘
extent our cane fields located in re
claimed swamp lands. And, worst
of all, the enormously augmented
supply of muskrats increases the
menace from these vermin to the
safety of our Mississippi River levees
in seasons of high vernal and sum
mer floods, such as that which is now
sweeping down our river coast from
the mouth of Red River to the Gulf
of Mexico. ‘
This noted increase of the musk
rats following the marked decrease
of alligators in the same habitat of
some eight or ten thousand square
miles superficial area betokens that
these rodents of the marshes must
have always formed an important
part of the saurian’s bill of fare. The
writer doubts very much if alligators
are able to capture many full-grown
muskrats, as the latter .although
slow and clumsy as a tanked up Jack
tar ashore, are as nimble as fish in
the water. But as to the young
‘muskrats it is different. They are
born and reared in regular musk
rat villages in diminutive mounds of
dead reeds, flags and grass, similar
to the far strgnger huts of the beav
ers. The muskrat villages are usu
ally placed in the most treacherous
part of the {‘tremblings marsh,” in
accessible to man, but easily access
dble to alligators. :
Conjgc'ture‘mlone may suggest how
many fat and juicy young muskrats
might be consumed in a breeding
season by one good and healthy alli
gator comfortably holed in thé midst
of an average-sized muskrat village.
To prove that the reflective saurians
must avail themselves of such ad
vantages in the accessibility of a lib
eral food-supply, the alligator hunt
ers usually find the muskrat miarshes
the best alligator marshes.
There is another item in this bal
ance account of animal life which
séems to have escaped our local and
State lawmakers. Minks are more de
structive to muskrats in their ma
turity than are alligators. The mink
follows the muskrat ashore, trailing
and running him down, murdering
him and sucking his blood, just as
he hunts to the death the nimble
wood-rabbit and the fleet marsh
hare. He may also pursue the
aquatic rodent in the water, being
swifter as a §wimmer than the little
beast he hunts and an equally good
diver. Of late years the enhance
ment of the value of mink-skins by
several hundred per cent., or from
one dollar apiece to three or four
for first-class skins, has resulted in
the trapping of many thousands of
these animals during recent years.
Hence the multiplication table of the
muskrats has had the advantage of
the large elimination of its two prin
cipal negative factors. The question
of mink-protection is unlikely to rise
to the Aignity of political considera
tion in Louisiana; although the wel
fare of the mink and the weasel has
been for .several years officially
guarded for seasons of varying dura
tion in several of our far Northern
States. The writer presents this
point merely to show that mink-re
duction may also partly account for
the increase of the muskrat species
in such undue proportions in all the
lowlands of South Louisiana, till now
the warcry that was raised against
the pestiferous rodent by the police
jurors of Plagquemine parish a decade
agone is wafted back in trumpet
tones from the far wilds of Calcasieu
on the eloquent lips of State Repre
sentative Welsh.
Although the efficient sheriff of
Plagquemine parish has occasionally
lcaptured and confined a hermit alli
igator hunter, and made fcrmidable
icruises after squads of them, who
have evaded him by fleeing to the
.marsh domains of neighboring par
ishes, that parochial law has been
largely and persistently violated. A
State law would be likewise disre
‘garded by the professional alligator
‘slayers unless it could be enforced
by the seizure and confiscation of all
slligator hides at their points of sale
‘and distribution in New Orleans and
the towns near the coast and the raii
road crossingseof the buyers that
R ————————
i[course through all of our exterdive
in:arsh region. Officers f the law
might as wel] hope to find the prover
'blal- gesdle- In the haygtee as to
catch the protessional alligator hunt
ers in our tidal marshes. 3
In the meantime, the immense
multiplication and.the desirable de
struction of the muskrats in most of
the tier of Southern parishes in this
State are growing to be grave ques
tions. These vermin have alrveady
largely added in several parishes to
the cost and productiveness of rice
culture by cutting the levees meant
to hold in the irrigation water and
devouring the rice shoots and stalks
in ettensive fields. To a more limit
ed extent they have thinned out
stands near the. ditch banks in our
more depressed Lower Coast cane
fields; .and, as our State enginéers
and sugar planters well know, they
are proving a source of annually
greater danger to our great levee
svstem during periods of high water
along the lower part of the Missis
sippi River,
If the salvation of our alligators
should not result in the desired
damnation of the vastly multiplied
muskrat species, the parochial gov
ernments of the parishes most
affected and the State at large will
be forced to take some practical
means to bring about their reduc
tion or destruction. Perhaps in de
fault of the replenished alligator
supply, public trapping, wholesale
poisoning of their villages, and the
payment of bounties on their scalps
might accomplish this result.
The muskrat must go.—The Louis
iana Planter and Sugar Manufac
turer.
THE COST OF TITLES.
The Price of Seliers Patent Comes
iligh in England.
The elevation of Mr. John Morley
and Sir H. H. Fowler to the peerage
is probably as pleasing to themselves
as it is to their thousands of admir
ers; but each of the gentlemen so
honored will have to pay a fee of
at least £2OO for tLe privilege of
adding the title of “ Viscount” to their
names, which is the cost of letters
patent for a viscounty of the United
Kingdom.
For higher rank the fees amount to
more. The new Duke of Devonshire,
for instance, when he comes to takos
the necessary letters patent which
will fully entitle him to his own will
have to pay £350 for the same, in
addition to paying away an immense
fortune in the shape of death duties.
If the change had been that of a mar
quessate the fee would have been
£3OO. A newly-made earl pays £250,
a baron £l5O, and a baronet £IOO.
These fees, however, are only part
of the expense entailed by a man who
is honored with a title. The cost of
investiture, heraldry, etc., consider
‘ably augments the amount. It may
‘be remembered that when Lord Rob
k’ér&&%ebted his earldom in 1901,
‘and was subsequently given the Gar
‘ter, he was presented with a bill for
‘£1750, which at first he strongly ob
jected to pay.
~ To the average readar it will prob
ably seem absurd that when such re
wards for serving the country are
granted the recipient should so suffer
in pocket. It is not so bad nowa
days, however, as in the time of
James 1., who mulcted his baronets
pretty heavily for their privileges.
They were obliged to each maintain
thirty soldiers for defense purposes,
or pay into the Exchequer an equiv
alent sum, which amounted to £1095
per year. Furthermore, to be quali
fied for the honor in those days, one
had to be “a gentleman born,” and
have a clear estate of £IOOO per an
num,
Originally the fees were paid o
certain officers of the State connected
with the business of investing a man
with his title, but they are now more
in the nature of duties, and are paid
into the Exchequer, thus helping to
swell the revenues of the country.
Recently it was proposed that a
further tax on titles—£lo per annum
for a knight, £IOO for an earl and
£SOOO for a duke—should be im
posed, and some irresponsible people
have even dared to suggest that these
titles should be put up at auction and
sold to the highest bidder,
As illustrating the curious demands
made upon a man who becomes a
titled personage, it might be men
tioned that at the beginningsof the
year 200 celebrities, who within the
last four years have been granted the
privilege of prefixing their name with
“Bir,” each received a letter from the
Walker Trustees, Edinburgh, asking
for a sum of £3 6s. Bd., which, it was
said, was due in respect of each gen
tleman’s creation as Knight of the
United Kingdom. In the case of a
baronet £5 was demanded. When
inquiries were made it was found that
the Walker Trustees, of whom very
few of the titled .gentlemen had ever
heard, had purchased the rights of the
Heritable Usher of Scotland, one of
the many functionaries scattered
about the United Kingdom who were
entitled to perquisites in the shape of
fees from persons whom the King
honored by conferring titles upon
them. .
~ Practically all the office-holders
who were entitled to these perquisites
surrendered their rights to the late
‘Government in return for an annual
;allowance. The Heritable Usher of
Scotland, however, declined to do 80,
and consequently the Walker Trus
‘tees, as holders of that office, sent
out their much discussed requests for
fees to newly made knights and baro
nets.—Tit-Bits.
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The United States produces nearly
forty-eight per cenmt, more coal than
Great Britain,
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How the Pan-American “Temple of Pei@}e." ‘at Washington, Will Appear
When Finished.
Prevents Chicken Flying. &
An lowa man has designed an anti
flying chicken wing attachment hav
ing in view to.prevent the annoyance
and damages incident to chickens
scratehing in your neighbor’s garden.
As shown in the illustration, the de
vice is attached to the chicken's wing.-
It is made of parallel pieces of wire
bent into the form of an elbow, with
a hook at the end. To apply the at
tachment to a chicken'’s wing it is
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slipped over the wing and by placingJ‘
the parallel sides toward each othem
the hook can be snapped in position
and retained by the resiliency of the
wire. The hook will be on the inner
corner of the wing and will prevent
the device from slipping off. The
chicken will thus be prevented from
spreading the wing as required to fly
and thereby unable to get over a
fence into the neighbor’s garden.—
Washington Star.
———e e :
Handle For Cooking Utensils,
The device shown herewith pro
vides a ready means for lifting a hot
pan or like utensil from the stove.
It is formed of a single piece of sheet
metal doubled upon itself to provide
a bifurcated spring handle. The
lower end of the handle is formed in
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Handle for Cooking Utensils. )
the shape of a blade, which may be
inserted beneath the cooking utensil.
The opposite end is bent to form a
gripping surface, which fits cver the
edge of the pan. In use the two ends
of the device are caused to automati
cally grip the pan by the very act of
grasping the handle.—Scientific
American,
Uninherited Forgetfulness.
It was a severe trial to Mr. Hard
ing that his only son’s memory was
not all that could be desired. “Where
in/ the world he got such a forgetful
streak is beyond me,” said the ex
asperated father to his wife on one
occasion.
“What has he forgotten now?"
asked Mrs. Harding, with downeast
eyes and a demure expression.
“The figures of the last return
from the election on the bulletin
board,” and Mr. Harding inserted a
finger in his collar as if to loosen it,
and shook his head vehemently.
“Looked at 'em as he came past-not
half«an hour ago, and now can't tell
me,
“*As I said to him, ‘lf you're so
stupid you can’t keep a few simple
figures in your head, why don't you
write ’em down on a piece of paper,
as I do and have done all my life,
long before I was your age!’ "—
Youth's Companion.
Burmah is to have a Pasteur in
stitute. q
PHILAN THROPY.
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:: - =—From Brooklyn Life.
~ An Unsuccessful Beacon.
_Speaking of the perversity of
country ‘“squires,” State Senator
John S. Fisher, chairman of the
Pennsylvania capitol ipvestigation
commission, told this story recently:
- “We have an old codger out in
Indiana County who fears neither
lawyer nor court. Not long ago Dick
Wilson had a case before the ‘squire,’
and knowing his man, he went to the
office fortified with a dozen or more
supreme court decisions.
- “Wilson argued his case, cited
several opinions, and finally re
marked: ‘Squire, I have here some
decisions by the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, which I shall read.’
- “Wilson finished one decision when
the justice interrupted, saying:
. “'Mr. Wilson, I reckon you've
read enough. Those Supreme Court
decisions are all right so far as they
gO, but if the Supreme Court has
not already reversed itself I have no
doubt that it will do so in the near
future. Judgment lis, therefore,
given against your client.’ ’—New
BEngland Grocer.
Schoolboys’ Weather Observations.
~ An interesting method of instruct
ing boys in that part of nature study
pertaining to the atmosphere has been
devised by John Reid, the headmaster
of the Reckleford Council School at
Yeovil. Each day of the school week
several boys are sent to the corpora
tl(@ gas works to copy the records of
‘barometer movements and rainfall
there kept, one or two less experi
t@eed lads accompanying them.
,M,e;nwhi]e other boys note the direc
tion of the wind and record the tem
‘perature from readings of thermome
ters Hung in the open on the north
and south sides of the school. The
‘teacher of the class then enters the
particulars on a sheet, and encour
ages the scholars to make deductions
from the collected data. The boys
eopy the results, and every Friday
gdi write an account of their ob
'servations in the form of “general re
'marks” on the week’s weather.—Lon
don Evening Standard.
| © A Permanent Position.
| There was not even standing room
| ingge 8 o'clock crowded car, b‘.%nons
‘Mote passenger, a young woman,
wedged her way along just inside the
doorway. Each time the car took a
sudden lurch forward she fell help
lessly back, and three times she land
ed in the arms of a large, comfort
able man on ‘he back platform.
The third time it happened he said
quietly, ‘‘Hadn’t you better stay
here?”—lUncle Remus's—The Homd
Magazine. -
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A Hundred-and-Ten-Year-Old Mok;
Squaw—Juana of Isleta.
Hot,
Those scientists are right; the sut
| 18 losing its heat—and we are getting
it.—Floridd Times-Union.
SIGNIFICANT CASES WHERE HISTORY IS SILENT.
Probable Facts ia Regard to Gen, Wolle's Death, For Instance, Are Usually
Ignored--New Versions of Famous Deathbed Speecties, - - -
listory doesn't always repeat it-|
self, the time-worn axiom to the
contrary notwithstanding, The ac
cepted authorities agree also that his
tory does not always deal strictly in
hard facts. Bits of fiction have been
dropped in from time to time, o® un
pleasant truths glossed over, if not
wholly omitted, simply to save the
popular faney from a shock. Histo
rians are wont to excuse this kind of
inaccuracy on the ground of poetic
license and let it go at that,
Although standard historians make
no mention of it, there is reason to
believe that General Wolfe was shot‘
by one of his own men in the battle
with Montcalm before Quebee. He
fell early in the conflict. REdward
S. Ellis, of Monteiair, N. J., for many
vears a profound student of history,
furnishes probably the most accurge
account of the killing of Wolfe that
is to be found outside of the histories. ‘
He does not vouch for the truth of
it, but gives it for what it is worth
and thinks it merits consideration,
“I have no doubt many will not
be willing to accept what I say about
the manner of General Wolfe's
death,” says Mr. Ellis, “but at the
same time I think that even the most
skeptical must admit that my version
of it may have foundation in fact.
Here is my authority for it:
“My father was horn up the State
in 1803, and lived to an advanced
age. When I was a very small bhoy
I recall that one day he pointed out
to me a faded old house not far dis
tant from our old homgz, and said:
‘Therc once lived the man who shot
General Wolfe.’
“Of course this incident of my
early life is rather vague, but that it
actually happened I cannot doubt, for
I nave always been blessed with a
retentive memory, As I recall now,
my father said that the man who
lived in the house he pointed out to
me was named Smith, but as to that
there is some doubt, since he died
long before my time, and his family
was lost trace of.
“But that my father knew and re
membered Lim well cannot be doubt
ed. He and others in the neighbor
hood often listened to the old sol
dier’s account of the shooting of
Welfe. 1 know that my father
heard the story from his own lips
many times and firmly believed it. 1
know also that my father was rigid
ly truthful, and that ne and his
neighbors without exception accepted
the venerable soldier's statements as
trustworthy.
“My father handed the story down
to me just as he'got it. The soldier
said that he and a brother several
years his junior were serving as pri
vates in General Wolfe's army at the
‘time of the siege of Quebec. One
day a letter was brought to them
through the lines apprising them of
the fact that their mother was at the
point of death at the family home not
many leagues distant. The letter
begged them to make haste if they
wished to see their mother alive.
“The brothers applied for a brief
furlough, but in the extremity of the
circumstances, when every man was
needed in the ranks, this was re
fused. The elder brother then
begged that the younger one be per
mitted to see their mother, pledging
his own life that the brother would
return to the army without delay.
But this plea also was refused.
“That night the younger brother
stealthily slipped through the picket
lines with the assistance of some of
his comrades and hastened to the
bedside of his mother., He barely
took time to say a last good-bye be
fore setting out on his return to the
army before Quebec. He rejoined
his company several days before the
battle, but already he had been re
ported as a deserter and was haled
before a drumhead court-martial,
“The young soldier was speedily
found guilty and sentenced to be
shot. General Wolfe himself issued’
the decree of death. The old man
told my father that, with the refine
ment of cruelty worthy of an Apache,
General Wolfe compelled him to be
one of the firing squad. This Is a
point in the venerable soldier's story |
that is extremely difficult of belief, |
and it may well be that at the sunset
of his life he grew morbid and came
to believe a mere fancy that had
grown up in his mind,
“Even to-day I can recall vividly
the closing words of his dramatic
story as my father repeated them to
me,
“‘I don't know whether 1 shot
General Wolfe or not,’ the old man
was wont to say, ‘but [ do know that
at close rauge 1 took deliberate aim
at him and saw him fall when I
pulled the trigger.” ”
The last words of great men in his
tory have ever been a fruitful source
of hero worship. For example, where
is the gchoolboy in all the wide coun
try whose pulses have not quickened
at the story of the death of Captain
Lawrence, commander of the luckless
frigate Chesapeake in the battls with
the British ship Shannon off Boston
in the war of 18127
“Don't give up the ship!” eried the
indomitable sea fighter, according to
all of the standard school histories.
Highly dramatic and eminently ap
propriate to the occasion, as must
be admitted, but not strictly in ac
cord with facts, There is ezcellent
reason to suppose that Lawrence's
historic “last words” were the crea
tion of a Boston editor’s fertile brain,
When the news of the Chesapeake's
capture and the death of her famous
eommander reached the eity the peo
ilo were fired with excitement, The
editor was put to it to give a dra
matic account of the battle that
should thrill his patriotic readers.
‘“‘What were his last words?” he
demanded of those who were giving
him the details. His informants
could not recall that Captaln Law
rence had given utterance to a single
word after he fell mortally wounded
on the deck of his ship; in fact, they
were sure he had said nothing.
*‘Oh, but he must have said some
thing,” insisted the editor. “At any
rate, he should have done so.”
And thereupon he penned the
words that have thrilled every gen
eration from that day to this.
The dramatic death of John
Quiney Adams on the floor of the
House of Congress also gave the
writers of his day an opportunity
for putting fine words in his mouth,
At that time Dr. W. A. Newell was
a member of Congress from New
Jersey, and subsequently became
Governor of his State. He was the
first to reach the stricken man as he
sank to the floor.
Dr. Newell later in life insisted
that Adams’ last words, spoken to
him, were:
“This is the end; quick, a little
brandy.” -
Which doesn’t accord with popular
histories of the event by a long
shot,
In the records of the War Depart
ment at Washington is a certain dis
pateh from General Hooker, giving
some of the details of the battle of
Chancellorsville, in which he was in
command of the Army of the Poto
mac. The dispatch modestly an
nounced that during the progress of
the battle the Federal commander
had been severely ‘‘stunned by the
concussion of a cannon ball against
a column at the front of his head
quarters’” on which he was leaning
at the moment.
If any credence may be placed in
unofficial reports that came back to
Washington later and eventually
reached the ears of President Lin
coln it wasn’t a cannon ball that
“stunned’” General Hooker, but a
large jug of excellent old bourbon.
This report was corroborated by Mr.
Ward, the artist, who confided to
some of his friends the fact that dur
ing the battle he had seen the Fed
eral commander more than once with:
‘his mouth fearlessly at the muzzl¢
of the jug.
General Sam Houston is another
of the famous figures of history to
profit by the charity of historians
who put a halo about his head. Good
soldier that he was, the old fron
tiersman who led the revolt of Texas
was far from being a model of mo
rality and sobriety.
General Houston was in command
of the American forces at the battle
of San Jacinto, in which the Mexican
General, Santa Ana, was captured.
His captors took him post haste to
General Sam’s headquarters in the
field so as to give him a chance to
surrender his sword to the proper
cfficial. vesk WY
What was the consternation of
General Sam’s staf# when they found
him far too drunk to take part in
the ceremonies. They rollel him
about in his tent, cuffed and kicked
‘him unmercifully, but he snored on
iln bligsful ignorance that he had just
won a decisive battle and captured
a great general,
Reports of this incident got back
to President Lincoln at Washington.
Out of friendship for General Hous
ton he is said to have been instrumen
tal in keeping them out of the war
records. — From the New York
Times. -
S —————
PERFUMES AND SIMPLE LIFE,
Government Sets Bad Example »f
Lavish Style,
Mourning over the luxurious and
corrupting habits of the Athenians,
Demades once suggested to Phocion,
“why do we not persuade the people
to adopt the Spartan form of govern
eent?” Thereupon Phocion an
swered, “Yes, indeed, it would bhe
come you much, with all those per
fumes about you, and that pride of
dress, to launch out in praise of Ly
curgus and Laced:emonian frugal
ity.” 8o Plutarch tells us.
Phocion was one of the wisest of
the Greeks. He saw that the simple
life and the luxurious life could not
get along together, and that as long
as the representatives of society and
government were themselves addict
ed o luxurious habits, it was useless
to try to teach the people the virtue
of simple living.
The idea of Phocion“was that it
made no difference how beautiful the
purpose one proclaims, if he did not
exemplify the truth in his own life,
!the preaching was in vain. If De
wnades would make Spartans out of
|the Athenians, he must forego the
perfumes and costly raiment and be
a Spartan himself.
The lesson is that a government
which is lavish and keeps up a lux
urious public service, as is evidenced
by aristocratic society and cham
pagne banquets, spreads a nat of cor
rupting influences before all the peo
ple. If we do not want socialism to
spread, we have need to listen to the
words of Phocion.—Ohio State Jour
nal,
a————————
Cuba exported $1,829,023 worth
of tobaceco, $965,310 worth of cigars,
$24,284 worth of cigarettes and sll,-
565 worth of cut tobacco in March,
1908,
