Evening star. [volume], August 27, 1911, Page 3, Image 48

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
HOW the Employes of the
District Pound Do Their
Work?A Quick Swish of the
Net and a "Mutt" Is Doomed
to the Charcoal Fumes?
Few Dogs Are Claimed
After They Are Once Cap
tured?But the Common
Curs Get First Call?When
the Dog Catcher's Wagon
Approaches.
T the rlverward
end of 2^d street,
a stone's throw
from the upper
curve of the speed
way, and undor
the shadow of the
Marine Hospital,
st.-mds a little,
whitewashed. one
room building,
with other white
washed sheds near
bv. Down the cobbled alleyway are rows,
at either side, of wired or slatted pens
or cages. A flagstaff at one corner, from
which the Stars and Stripes float, shows
that tho business carried on In the littl"
group of sheds and cages is official. All
that lacks is an archway over the en
trance to the cobblestone drive, with the
words:
"Leave hope behind, all ye (dopst that
enter here."
For this is the District pound; and fig
ures show that not more than per
cent of the stray canines collected and
carried thither from every corner of the
District ever emerge from that gateway.
*
4k *
"Buck" Parker, twenty-five years an
employe of the pound, was busy with the
morning's catch. Big. broad of shoulder,
muscled lik?* a flchtinK man. and so
quick of hand that even the ?iuickest
niovinc, snappiest of dog.s never has a
chance to set its teeth in his flesh, he
seized canine after canine behind the ears
and swung them, helpless and not even
kicking, from the wire-barred dop wag
on or the pens and cages. "Every little
movement had a meaning of its own;"
not a trace of lo?*t motion showed in
"Buck's" work. Out of the wagon or
the cage, into a certain zinc-lined box.
painted red; and as he worked he whis
tled, in the mellow, fluty notes tJiat only
the black man knows how to make, the
air of an old hymn. It seemed to fit the
occasion, that hymn tune:
"We shall meet h??.Tonfl the rlrer.
Where the surges reuse to roll."
For the season now is that at which
Sirlus. the Dog Stfer, blazes in the east
ern sky a little after sunset. And that
Is the time of year when dogs?strays,
tramp dogs or petted favorites?go mad,
or fall in fall in frothing, snapping fits.
Hydrophobia?which word, by the way,
means simply "fear or hatred of water"
?Isn't nearly so common among dogs as
a great many persons think: nevertheless
it does exist. The bite of a dog suffering
with hydrophobia, or rabies, is to be
dreaded as ia the bite of a rattlesnake.
Prompt treatment is required, else the
one bitten is likely to die a very terrible
death.
*
? *
So, In these the days of the dog. the
wagons and men of the dog pound are
busy picking up strays in the city and
Caught1
Bu c tC Tais. k t. r.
Landing A 'Mtjtt
the suburbs, and carrying them off to the
little whitewashed buildings at the font
of ^.?d street?and the bis: zinc-lined box.
Any canine running at large unmuzzled
is prey for the dogcatcber. The dog may
be ihe pet of a family of the porterhouse
class, or he may glean his living from
the garbage pails of Willow Tree alley;
he may rest his bathed and combed car
cass on upholstered davenports or wear
the liair off his knobbed flanks sleeping
011 the cold bricks; his silver-plated collar
may bear the tag that says his 1011
license has been paid, or he m^y not
wear even a frazzled bit of rope for a
collar. But if ho hasn't the muzzle, that
the health officers say he must
wear he is the dog catcher s legitimate
prey, to be meshed in the big. long-han
dled net. bundled into the red wagon with
its heavy wire-barred doors and borne
away to that place from which mighty
few canines ever return.
"Humane" persons frequently throw fits
about the muzzles that dogs are required
to wear for the protection of humanity in
general. Not long ago one of these "hu
mane" persons?a ladv in the northwest
part of town?observed a spaniel in her
back yard. The spaniel was securely
muzzled, and he didn't like the muzzle.
He rolled on the grass; he pawed and
scratched at the wires and straps of the
contrivance, and anon he sat on his
haunches and howled. He wanted that
muzzle off. And he was hot and Jired
and frightened, too.
*
* *
The humane lady went into the yard
and coaxed the spaniel to her. He came,
as friendly a kiyoodle as ever wagned a
tail. The humane lady petted and caress
ed the canine, and unbuckled the straps
of the muzzle. No sooner was the muzzle
removed than the dog, with a snarl,
bolted under the back stoop, and there he
mgp.
M-Z-yi
mti
: %;?
fe
The Pistkict^Pound- Toundmasteil Kuhn;.1. Seated,
stayed, snapping, snarling and green of
eyes, until a policeman was found to
take him away, while the humane lady
never ventured into' the hark yard until
he was gone. She has sworn off removing
muzzles from stray dogs.
Now. of course, that dog was fright
ened?scared into a panic. He was not
mad, really: but just the same, a snap
from his teeth would certainly have been
painful, probably dangerous: because
blood poisoning may he almost as bad
as rabies, and the bite of a scared dog
very often produces a serious case of
blood poisoning. The better plan is to let
sleeping dogs lie, and to let muzzled dogs
stay muzzled.
Scientists have estimated that 1 ttakes
just fifteen and two-fifths seconds for all
.the residents of a circle of one-Jialf mile
diameter to know when the dog catcher's
wagon is in the neighborhood. I*ike an
electric flash the intelligence flies from
house to house: nobody bears the news,
hut just the same it gets there.
Into some quiet suburban street, early
in the morning, a red wagon turns. A
couple of colored men occupy the seat.
Their badges are hidden under their coats
and there is no sign on the wagon to
"give it away." But in the minutest frac
tion of a jiffy every front porch is peo
pled; women cry frantically for "Fido,"
small boys whistle "Rover" or "Prince"
into the back yard, and little girls add
their quota of hysterical weeping to the
general tumult. In all the racket the dog
catchers move serene; some luckless cur,
unmuzzled or untagged, streaks it across
the street; a huge net, long of handle,
and with a husky "catcher" at the
handle's end, descends over the fleeing
yelper; the cur is bundled into the wagon,
and the procession moves off. while some
laddie shrieks and throws stones, the
while he bemoans the fate of "Duke,"'
who is on his way poundward. About
one dog from a territory of eight blocks
square is ail the dog catchers can hope
to land on any one trip.
*
* *
So it is that the dog catcher's wagon
starts early from the pound. On its way
I The Dog Catcher's
cBicj.Net.
not-later than ?? in the morning, it de
scends on the chosen hunting ground
while th* woman folk arc busy with their
morning work. But pvpn the early hour
fails to fool the dogs and the people: a
subtle flash runs from house to house be
fore the wagon comes in sight, often:
"the dog catcher's coming," it says, anrl
.Airs. Soandso waits on her front stoop
with a teakettle when the wagon drives
up. and. "afther my little Fido, ar-re ye,
ye murdherin' thafe av th* worruld. l>e
kase he have no muzzle? Well, if ye
shtep a fut in me var-rd I'll scald th"
black shkin off vez." And then a shout
to the neighbor across the street. "Oh.
Mrs. Schmidt, 'tis th' dog catcher; hurry
and ge.t Bisniark into th' house." Then
the (dog catcher's) hand has to be consid
erably quicker than the <dog's? eye, or
the red wagon draws a blank. The fact
that the wagon never goes back to the
pound empty Is a silent testimonial to the
quickness of hand of the men who handle
the big net.
Poundmaster Kuhn. who holds In tne
hollow of his hand the lives of the IHs
trict's stray and unmuzzled canines, went
on the job on the 13th of July last. He
succeeded Samuel Einstein, deceased, who
for more than thirty years had charge of
the pound, and, new broom that he Is, he
is sweeping clean. The red wagon comes
in, every day except Sunday, loaded to
the Plimsoll marks with the strays and
waifs of District dogdom. The wire
cages and the immaculately whitewashed,
slatted pens are full?so full that fre
quently, to make room for new arrivals,
old boarders must make the trip to the
zinc-lined box, where, in the charcoal
fumes ? favorite method of Frenchmen
tired of life?they go to sleep.
The Horning s Catch
To Poundmaster Kuhn they iflme-??urss
of low degree?"mutt*," the\ < all tli?-m
there?and dogs of distinction alike. Tito
yellow alley mongrel rubs ni*-ps with the
fox terrier of lineage; the half-breed buii
dog shows teeth and "gr-rr-rs" ;it tin
silky colli*'. Hii'l the flea-bitten >-oon bound
gazes with mournful even at his cage
mate.. a wire-haired, long-snouted, bench*
lepged Irish terri'-r, which, head cocked
sideways, looks intelligently and anxious
ly into the face of the visitor, as if to
say: "You, sir. look as if you knew a
good dog: aren't you going to take me
out of this?"
*
* *
Rut, says Mr. Kuhn, the "mutts" are
mor? frequently redeemed than are the
good dogs. A mangy, flea-ridden, nonde
script cur will be taken out, smothered
with caresses and borne away, while a
screw-tailed Boston terrier/or a magnifi
cent setter, unclaimed and unredeemed,
goes into the charcoal fumes. Of all the
dogs that find their way?or have it
found for them?to the cages of the
pound, only 2 per cent are taken out by
owners or buyers For one may buy a
dog at the pound by paving a small fee,
and frequently tnere are dogs there that
are worth buying:. Xot long ago a genu
ine wire-haired Irish terrier, with all the
look of a pedigreed animal, was taken
at the Capitol, where he was wan<*ering.
tagless and unmuzzled. Such animals
are kept a week or ten days, in the
hope that the owners will call for them:
and even the men ;it the pound, hardened
as they are to disposing of homeless
canine wanderers, deter as long as possi
ble the final disposal of a good dog.
*
M *
Maybe it seems cruel, the work they
do down there. But the unmuzzled dog
is a menace, c\en when he happens t?
l>e a pam|>ered pet; much more so when
he is an alley stray. Almost in the
shadow of the prmnd the other day a po
liceman spied such an unmuzzled animal.
Thinking to save the trouble of sending
a wagon for the dog. the policeman start
ed with it to the pound On the way
the dog scored the officer's hand aerosa
with a tearing snap of his jaws, and,
locked in a separate cage, the beast lurks
in a corner, growling and snarling. It ta
"under observation" now, to see if it is
rabid, while the officer carries a painfully
cauterized hand around, bundled up
antiseptic swnthings.
S" the red wa<on daily makes its early
morning rounds: big Buck Barker whis
tles while he disposes of the day's quota
of homeless, ownerless dogs; those who
own the dogs, but refuse to muzzle them,
as the law requires, rage and imagine a
vain thing?namely, that the dog catcher
is doinp piece work, and that he la pai?
in proportion to the number of dogs ha
brings in, which isn't true at all?he ia on
a straight salary, and gets it whether
he catches any dogs or not. But tha
stray do^ |>opulation doesn't seem ta
decrease materially: the alleys and court a
and the side streets, an well as the main
thoroughfares of the city, show llttla
apparent falling off in the number of un
licensed. muzzleless canine Ishmaela
Poundmaster Kuhn is dreading the day
when the order for picking up stray rata
goes into effect. Every dog may have
his day, hut, as somelxidy has remarked,
the nights seem to be reserved for tha
cats; and when that cat order becomea
effective the fot'ce at the pound will have
to work double shifts?days for the en
snarement of luckless dogs and nigbta
for the apprehension of the night-bloom
ing feline.
And that is going to make It pretty
hard for "Buck" Parker.
MME. GEORG BAKMETIEFF, WIFE OF THE RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR.
IS a Former Washingtonian,
Daughter of Gen. Edward
Fitzgerald Beale and Sister
of Mrs. John R. McLean?
Her Debut and Marriage Oc
curred in the Old Beale Man
sion on the Corner cf 16th
and H Streets During the
Administration of President
Arthur?The Ambassador
and Mme. Bakmetieff Will
Not Come to Washington
Until the Early Autumn?
The Latter Is Traveling With
Mrs. McLean in Dalmatia.
BY MARGARET B. DOWNING.
X the coming of
Georg Bakmetieff
and hi?- American
wife to the Russian
embassy ?t Wash
ington there is sig
nal proof that the
old order ehangeth.
Until ten years a?o
such an innovation
would have been
pronounced impos
sible. but the king
dom of the czar is making concessions to
modern progress. The foreign office of
8t Petersburg had an Iron-clad rule that
no diplomatist having a wife from alien
lands should ever be sent to the capita!
of t4iat country. Russia has always pos
sessed a wholesome fear of feminine in
trigue. and it was the opinion of the
diplomatists at the helm tliat foreigners
were apt to embroil them in embarrass
ments. and tiie rule was made to minimize
the danger as far as possible. The same
rule held in Germany, but the kaiser saw
fit to make the exception when he sent
the late Baron Speck von Sternburg. close
friend of President Roosevelt, whose
wife was Miss l.angham of Louisville.
The experiment was eminently successful.
When Baron von Sternburg died another
diplomat was selected also having an
American wife. Count von Bernstorff,
whose wife, formerly Miss Jennie Luch
meyer, was born in New York city.
The next chatelaine of the Russian em
bassy will be an impressive figure in of
ficial society. I'nllke the ladies who have
been paramount at the Germany embassy.
Mme. Bakmetieff is entirely American
?Ad descended from heroic stock on both
sides of her house. The Baroness von
Sternburg was American by courtesy
only She was born in England and <ame
of that well known l^ondon family own
ing the lansham Hotel for many genera
tions. She spent her girlhood in Ix?uls
Vllle as the Kuest of her uncle, Arthur
L*ngham The Counters von Bernstorff
Is only accidentally an American Her
patents are natives of Hanover, and her
father was connected with the German
consulate in New York.
v
* *
The presiding: lady of the Russian em
bassy comes in direct line from that
Thomas Be ale of Georgetown, one of the
original proprietors of the Federal city.
This Thomas Beale came from the border
country between England and Scotland
and took up valuable lands in the newly
established city of Georgetown. the
mother city of Washington. He was one
of the committee of iand owners who
met the father of the country March 30,
1791, and agreed to sell all their land on
the east side of the Tiber or Goose creek,
now Rock creek, "in consideration of the
good which they expected to derive from
having the Federal city laid off from
their lands," as the old agreement reads.
This paper, bearing the signatures of
George Washington and of Thomas Beale
and Dave Burns and the other original
proprietors, is among the cherished
chronicles of the Beales, and Which in
cludes all their landed transactions from
the year 174?; until the establishment of
the Capital city.
Mme. Bakmetieffs father, Edward
Fitzgerald Beale, was the young son of
Thomas Beale, and with his brother, the
late John Beale of Georgetown, was the
joint inheritor of his wealth Edward
MME. BAKMETIEFF.
Fitzgerald Beale was the rare type of
man who distinguished himself in three
different avocations, in the navy, in the
army and in the field of diplomacy. He
was born in the old Beale mansion on the
Tenleytown road near Washington in
IKEi and entered the Naval Academy at
Annapolis in his sixteenth year. He
achieved marked success and graduated
at the head of his class in 1842. He was
assigned to duty on the Pacific coast and
served under Commodore Stockton with
the Pacific fleet. He was in the
Mexican war. but after that short but
active military experience he wearied of
the inertia of peace and resigned his com
mission to enter the civil service of the
Cnited States. He acted for some years
as Indian commissioner for California,
New Mexico and the other possessions
ceded by the treaty of Gu&daloupe
Hidalgo I?ater military life, especially
in the Indian country, appealed to his im
agination, and he applied for service in
the army. President Pierce appointed
him brigadier general, and he entered the
I'nion army after the firing on Fort Sum
ter, and served throughout the four
years, part of the time on the staff of
Oen. Grant. When the hostilities ceased
Gen. Beale again sought the quiet of civil
life, and took up large estates in Los
.Angeles and about Santa <*lara. county,
Cal., where he engaged in sheep raising.
*
* *
His two daughters, now Mme. Bakme
tieff and Mrs. John R. McLean, who were
Mary and Emily Beale, spent their early
girlhood on the Pacific coast and re
ceived most of their education there. In
1870 President Grant appointed his old
friend and staff officer minister to Aus
tria and he remained there for nearly
four years. His daughters received every
advantage of travel and of residence at
one of the most cultured and stately
courts in Europe, an experience which
fitted them both for the high social po
sition attained in their after life. The
elder daughter Mary, now Mme. Bakme
tleff, was always noted for her love of
history and philosophy and gave many
hours to the study of the languages. She
made her debut in Washington in the
early eighties in the fine old Beale man
sion, on H street. This old house is fa
mous in local annals as the home of Com
modore Decatur, and it was to this resi
dence that he was brought after his fatal
duel with Barron at Bladensburg.
The old mansion has passed through
many vicissitudes and was once the
French legation. It was purchased by
Gen. Beale after his return from Vienna
and fitted up in superb style. Both
his daughters were married in St. John's,
which is opposite, and their wedding re
ceptions occurred in this stately home.
M. BakmetiefT was filling a minor post
when he captured the heart of the elder
Miss Beale. The wedding was one of a
series of brilliant nuptial events whicli
marked this same winter. IKS'!, and which
included the nuptials of James G. Blaine s
eldest daughter, Alice, to Gen. John J.
Coppinger; of Senator Thomas Bayard's
daughter. Mabel, to William Warren of
Delaware; of Miss Dora Miller, daughter
of the millionaire justice from California,
to Capt. Richardson Clover and of a
score of other weddings equally Import
ant. M. BakmetiefT remained in Wash
ington only a few months after his mar
riage. He was sent first to the Balkans
and later to Korea and to Toklo. His
diplomatic career lias been phenomenally
brilliant and he has stepped from one
post to another, always going higher, with
a rapidity hitherto unknown In the grad
ed foreign service of Russia He has
now reached one of the most exalted a?d
important posts under the foreign office,
while he is on the sunny side of fifty.
? *
Mme. Bakmetieff has never permitted
her interest In her home city to lag dur
ing these many years in which she has
lived abroad. Seldom have more than two
years elapsed without a visit of two or
three months to Mrs. McLean and her
close friends in this country. She spent
several months here last spring and it
was then that the rumor that Baron
Rosen's failing health would lead to his
retirement and the logical successor was
M. Bakmetieff. But for a time it wa*
fear^4 that Mme. Bakmetieff s nationality
would prevent her husband ever being
sent to serve in Washington. But his
eminent fitness for the post triumphed
over prejudices and he will come to the
American capital as the youngest diplo
mat of the first rank which Russia has
ever sent to any country and the first
coming to Washington with an American
wife.
Mme. Bakmetieff soon after her mar
riage began the study of Russia, its lan
guage, people and traditions. Her hus
band is Greek and entered the services of
Russia after he had attained his ma
jority. The foreign office of .Russia
seems to possess many distinguished men
from other lands. The last ambassador.
Baron Rosen, was German and a native
of the Baltic provinces He became a
naturalized Russian after serving for
some time in the German army. The
ambassador who preceded Rosen, Count
Arthur Cassini, was. as his name pro
claims, Italian, and his father had come
from the royal observatory? at Turin to
take charge of Jhe Russian Astronomical
College near St. Petersburg. But M.
Bakmetieff is a devoted adherent of the
czar and a stanch supporter of his poli
cies. His service in Tokio after the Rus
so-Japanese war placed him in the
front rank of diplomatists. He had also
served In Korea during the troublous
times before and after the Chino-Jap
anese war and just prior to the brush
between Russia and Japan. During this
time Mme. Bakmetieff proved how much
assistance a sympathetic and Intelligent
helpmate can be to a diplomat. Having
learned Russian she pet about learning
the polyglot languages of the east and
during her residence in Seoul she became
proficient enough to entertain the Korean
court ladies and chat in their own ver
nacular. She gave numerous pleasant
social functions and gained many friends
for the cause of Russia in the quaint lit
tle kingdom which has now passed out of
-the family of nations. Mme. Bakmetieff
admired the Koreans very much and has
written some spirited accounts of their
home llf?\ their philosophy and religion.
There, unfortunately, she never permitted
her friends to publish. Russia as a rule
does not encourage the wives of her
diplomats to publish their impressions
of lands where they lived under her offi
cial care.
*
& *
Mme. Bakmetieff has made it a rule to
retain Russian servants and to speak the
language of the Romanoffs exclusively In
the home. She told some friends here
last spring that the Russian is a soft and
beautiful tongue, as musical as any in
modern use. Americans, she said, were
prone to Judge it by the harsh-looking
"tsch," "tcz," "teh" and such terrible
seeming combinations. But in Russia
these sounds are represented by a single
letter which is mellow and easy to pro
nounce. Enthusiastic as she Is over the
language of Russia and its literature. It
Is probable that Mme. Bakmetieff next
?winter will make a study of it popular
and that she will give readings from
her favorite Russian authors> for the
benefit of her friends.
Whether the old Beale mansion, long
untenanted, will be restored again tn its
pristine glory as the Russian embassy Is
a subject in which Washington is deep
ly interested. Since the death of Mrs. Ed
ward Fitzgerald Beale. which occurred
about eight years ago, the home has been
closed except for a brief period when it
was occupied by Truxton Beale and his
wife last winter. The property was
deeded to her only son, Truxton Beale, by
his mother, and he in turn has willed It
to his son, young Truxton Beale, the
child of his first marriage to Harriet
Blaine, daughter of James G. Blaine.
This 'boy is not yet sixteen, and it is like
ly that it will be years before he would
wish to occupy suoh a spacious residence.
Mrs. Harriet Beale owns a house of her
own on K street. The Russian embassy
has no permanent home in Washington
and the lease on the present property
on I street, taken by Baron Rosen, ex
pires this comin? autumn. Friends of
Mme. BakmetiefT say that it is but nat
ural that she would like to reign as> mis
tress of the Russian embassy in the home
of her father, the home from which she
went forth a bride. The house is emi
nently fitted for such entertaining: as an
ambassador must Rive. The drawing
rooms cover largo space and are <jf no
ble proportions, with high ceilings, beau
tifully painted. Gen. Beale had gathered
art treasures from every land and tins
home stands furnished as it was during
his .lifetime. With a few accessories It
will he one of the handsomest foreign es
tablishments in the city.
*
* *
Besides being so interesting in herself
and in her official status the circle of
relationship which the new chatelaine of
the Russian embassy has would make
her important at any time. Through her
brother-in-law, John R. McLean, Mine.
BakmetiefT is connected with Admiral
Dewey, whose wife was Miss Mildred
McLean. She is also connected with Mrs.
Ludlow, wife of Admiral Ludlow, also a
sister of Mr. McLean. She is the first
?ousin of the former Mrs. George Bloomed,
now Mrs. Laurence Heap. who was Violot
Beale, daughter of the late John Heal?
of Georgetown, and of Beale Bloomer, re?
cently married to Mis# Katherlne Cla
baugh, daughter of Judge Clabaugh of
the District court.
With the coming of Mme. BakmetlefF
the number of American mistress?* to
ambassadorial homes in Washington is
>iow three, the other two being
Mme. Jusserand and . Countess von
BernstorfT. wives of the French and
German envoys. The mother of Mrs.
Bryce was an American woman, so ah?
calls herself a granddaughter of Unci#
Sam In the lower diplomatic rank, that
of ministers, there are Americans presid
ing ovft- such important homes as the
following: the Dutch legation, -^ne.
l>ondon. who was Miss Lydia Bust Is of
New Orleans; the Danish, Countess von
Moltke. who was Miss Cornelia Thayer
of Boston: the Belgian, Mme. Havenlth.
who was Miss Helen Froulke of this city:
the Spanish, Mme. Riano, who was Miss
Alice Ward of New York, and the Greek.
Mme. t'oromilas, who was Miss Anna
Cockerell of Missouri. The presiding lady
of the Turkish embassy is a young
American girl, formerly Miss Carey F?1
lowes of Brooklyn, who Is the wife of the
ambassador's son and his first secretary.
t
Freak Farms a Big Profit to Their Owners.
THERE are queer and freak occupa
tions engaged in by people of th??e
United States, and among them
may be classed farmers who have given
up corn and cotton and entered the
freak ranks.
A few years ago th? fellow who boldly
announced that he was going to start a
s^tunk farm in Minnesota was laughed
at and derided, hut when he proved that
he was making a cartload of money out
of his venture others followed In his
footsteps and now there are a rtumber
of skunk farms in different sections of
the country. At first publication of the
facts about the skunk farm the Agricul
tural Department was flooded with let
ters asking about this# species of farm
ing. The department being in the dark
about the skunk farm thought the matter
a huge joke, but as letters continued to
flow in the Secretary begged the news
paper correspondents to announce that
the department was In ignorance of any
such undertaking and had made no In
vestigations along the skunk line. How
ever, matters changed and the Agricul
tural Department realized that there was
something in it, and the animal has re
ceived attention at the hands of the ex
perts of the Secretary. Skunk farming
is not a joke, but a money-making enter
prise.
*
ak *
Near Ix>s Angeles, Cal., a Frenchman
named Vernot is engineering a successful
snail farm, and so far his is the only
snail-raising farm in the United States.
About two years ago Vernot imported a
number of snails from France, and so
rapidly did they increase during the
breeding season that he found it neces
sary to employ additional help on his
farm. He has succeeded in producing the
slimy repulsive-looking creatures at a
rate entirely gratifying to himself, and he
believes that he will experience no diffi
culty in finding a market for all that he
can rais*. In the event of the demand
not being sufficiently large in this coun
try. he says he can ship them to Paris,
at which place more than nine tons of
snails are consumed annually as a* arti
cle of food. Vernot says the proper man
agement of a snail farm does not require
very laborious work, and all that is need
ed Is an inclosure in a moist place, so
protected that the crawling gasteropods
cannot crawl away, but they are not giv
en to breaking away like a herd of Texas
ponies and scampering away to parts un
known.
Although the national law makers
kicked vigorously on an appropriation
for continuing the governmental experi
ments in frog farming, the work will go
along just the same. States and individ
uals have demonstrated that there is
big money in raising for market the
low-browed songster of the marsh, and
even without the "scientific" assistance
which the government might be able to
give in frog farming, there Is not likely
to be a scarcity of frog legs. Pennsylva
nia maintains a large frog farm, perhaps
the most extensive of any state, but the
largest individual froggery is owned and
run by Mies Edith Stege, at Stege, Cal
This farm covers nearly ten acres, and
last year the young lady marketed mora
than :V>00 dozen frogs' legs, from which
she netted' something more than $2,000.
A fairly good business for a freak farm.
*
* *
Down in Maryland, on the Chesapeake
near Crisfield, Mr. Lavalette owns a ter
rapin farm which covers several acres
and on which he has more than one
hundred-thousand-dollars' worth of dia
mond backs, ranging in size from that
of a ten-cent stiver piece to the "buster"
terrapin, which are worth as much as
$100 a dozen. Nothing has been offered
to good feeders which can take the place
of terrapin and champagne,, and Mr
l.<av>alette has never experienced any
trouble, in selling the output of his farm.
These toothsome birds are getting
scarcer every year, until now large ones
are worth their weight in silver. l.ess
than seventy-five years ago Maryland
had to enact a law prohibiting slave
owners from feeding slaves terrapin meat
oftener than twice a week, as the food
was too rich and produced disease. At
that time terrapin sold for as low as 50
cents for a wagon load. Washington
and I.<afayette entered a protest at be
ing fed terrapin at Yorktown. There are
other terrapin farms on the Chesapeake,
but Mr. I^avalette's is the largest in the
I'nited States.
in the same section, too. there are a
number of crab farms, and the crab
farmers can match dollars with any
class of small farmers in the country.
The crab season is a short one, and It Is
easy money for hundreds of persons on
the eastern sho'. The first shipment of
any Importance from the Chesapeake
crab farms was in 1887, when the output
was valued at $84,000. but It will now
reach $1150,000, with 8,OCX) farmers and
4,000 boats.
?
* ?
Along with the good-eating freak farms
must be placed the possum farms, of
which there are a number In the south
ern states. These farms for the luscious
'possum are simply tracts of land with
an abundance of persimmon trees. No
one is permitted to hunt on the land ex
cept those who pay for the privilege, and
with the permit goes a guarantee that
large, ripe 'possums will be found in
a-plenty. One old negro near the Van
derbilt estate in North Carolina cleared
good money for several years on his
'possum farm, but to each hunter he said
it was mighty hard to see "dem possums
gwine erway, 'case ef dere afci anything
I do love hit am 'possum an" 'taters."
The ostrich cannot come under the clas
sification of good eating, but there are
a number of successful farms where
these birds of beautiful plumage are
raised, and the female portion of our
population is more interested in fine
plumes than something for satisfying the
appetite. The flesh of an ostrich is about
as palatable as a brass fire dog and about
as juicy, and as a toothsome bird lie is
a rank failure.
Another farm in which the ladies take
a very pronounced interest is that devoted
to raising cats, of which there are hun
dreds in the United States, and for which
the "choice of the pick" always fetches
the fanner a good price. Once or twice
within the past two years men have been
freakish enough to start cat farms for
the purpose of raising them for furs. A
fellow down near Augusta <ia.. bought
up an army of black cats and announced
that he was going to supply furriers with
black cat furs. The felines proved a
nuisance and he was forced to abandon
his farm. There is a colony of tailless
cats at Barnegat L,ight, on the upper
Jersey coast, and an attempt to establish
a farm proved futile, as the cats without
caudal appendages refused to be tamed
and would tight like tigers.
*
* *
Down in Watkinervllle, Ga., there is a
man who conducts a regular snake farm
and who has made a good living by rais
ing snakes for sale. He has a large num
ber always on hand, and says he can
handle without fear any kind of snake,
including the rattler. Over these reptiles
he seems to have some mysterious, sooth
ing power, and but for the fact that some
of the townspeople object to his snake
farm, his life would be pleasant and his
occupation more profitable.
Not an uncommon sight in some of the
southern states is the gourd farm, and
it is an investment which pays well.
Recently Repi esentative Adamson of
Gedk-gia brought to a friend in Washing
ton a gourd with a handle more than
four feet in length and with a beauti
fully shaped bowl not larger than a large
cocoanut. This species of gourd Is raised
to be sold and used as a dipper. It is
claimed that a drink of water from a
clean well seasoned gotird is better and
sweeter than from tin or glass. Another 1
gourd raised for market is a very small
egg-shaped one, which is used by indus
trious housewives as h darning egg.
There are large, round gourds which sell 1
readily and can be easily converted Into i
salt and cofTee bins and bins for other j
purposes.. These large gourds are fre- i
M.
fluently used as peck measures in tH#
rural districts.
The Virginian wlio conceived trfe idea,
of a mint farm evidently was not un
familiar with the refreshing qualities of
a Julep. Ho has found a ready and rood
market for all the mint his farm has pro
duced. The farm has now been run 'or
three years, and its owner has accumu
lated a plea sine hank account.
m
* ?
Amonjr th*? rank freaks were placed
pinsener farms a decade ago. but fortune#
have been made by ginseng farmers. For
merly nearly all the ginseng produced is
this country was exported to China,
where it is used for almost every ail
ment. but the physicians of this country
are now using it very largely in theli*
practice, and immense quantities are
sold In the I'nited States. Missouri lead*
in ginseng farms. Perhaps none of th?r
queer farms are paying larger prollts
than that of ginseng.
In some portions of Texas the prickly
pear has long been regarded as an un
mitigated nuisance, but now that it has
been demonstrated that good denatured
alcohol can be made from the stems,
which heretofore have been thrown away
when the pear has been used for horse
food, the despised thiug has become val
uable. and the people of Texas are get
ting in their prickly pear farms in th?
cactus region. The prickly pear farms
promise to yield immense profits.
Uncle Sam is going to estu-blish another
camphor farm in Texas, and it la be
lieved that the new industry will prove a
success. The crop requires no attention
except the sowing and harvesting, and at
present prices an acre of ground shoul<>
produce not less than $450 worth or
camphor. At present the Japanese gov
ernment controls the world's supply of
camphor, but it is now conceded that the
I'nited States can raise just as good an
article. It has been suggested to the
Secretary of Agriculture that in estab
lishing thesp camphor farms it might add
to the comfort of a mimtier of persons to
placo them in closc proximity to the
skunk fauns.