12
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
APJIIL 25, 17.
it r wn wiriw " tm www m mm m
Fox, a Clever Rogue
New Orleans Picayune: The fox is
given the palm in natural history fur
being tha slyest of the animal bunch;
he Is considered the confidence man of
tne cntiro dumD nrute creation, ana
. had you known the clever little villain
that I once encountered in Kentucky,
.some miles south of Louisville, you
would have doubtless reached the con
clusion with me that the fox wasn't
accorded half his due, and that he
should be placed In the category of
master rogues."
J. C. Foley, representing a Chicago
leather firm, a guest at the New Dene-
chaud, sat In the broad rotunda of the
hotel, and to a few acquaintances of
an hour told stories, and in the course
of hi i yarn spinning Mr. Foley elabor
ated on Master Reynard's genius for
making his way in the world at the
expense of all creatures.
"I stayed at a fine house, surround
ed by a big estate, south of Louisville,
for several weeks, in the fall of 1899."
Mr.' Foley took up his narrative, "and
it 'wan' while I wa3 there that I made
the acquaintance of the fox I am going
to tell you of and became quite chum
my with him.
"The fox was n pet, belonged to Mr.
Caldwell, my host, and that animal had
moro sense than lots of people I've
met; but this is no reflection on pres
ent company, believe me. The fox
t they called him Red, because of the
color of his coat had been taken when
a cub'at the end of a big hunt. The
poor little fellow's mother had been
( torn to pieces by the hounds. She'd run
to her burrow, you know, and the oub
was saved from death by Mr. Cald
well himself, just as a terrible dog was
about to seize him in his daws.
"Red was suckled on a bottle for
some timvtut his health was good and
ho grew and -developed Into a splendid
specimen of his species. Tied was treat
ed well by everybody. The servants and
iarm lianas naa tneir instructions re
garding hinlt and he was allowed th'i
run of the place. But at an early age
his true nature asserted itself, so I was
told, and ho executed a raid on the
poultry yard which netted him a big
fat goose thnt had been set aside for
holiday feasting. Red was caught by
his master as he was galloping , away
with tljrd$aj(l;gp8f 4nhte-jf$ogthpand
Mr. Caldwell their and there 'gaye-fled
a lesson that left a lasting impression.
He took the goose away from the fox,
and then lammed the furry little thief
with a rattan cane until Mr, Red
yelped with. pain. That cured theTox
quite effectually of helping himself to
homo poultry, but It did not raise the
barrier against depredations in the
neighborhood, and many a time did Mr.
Caldwell have to pay some near-by
farmer for. Coasts, enjoyed by Red. -
"Mr. Caldwell was greatly attached
to the boast, and let it be known
throughout the district that he was
willing to make good for any damage
mo creature might work in his rov
ings, so, of course, the neighbors did
not use Red as a target for pistol and
gun practice, only presented their bills
after he had visited them.
"When I had been at the place a few
'ays and made friend with Red, Mr.
Caldwell" Invited me to take a horse
back ride with him to a farmer's house
a few miles away. 'I have to go over
there and pay for" a dozen or so fine
chickens that rascal there killed,' Mr.
Caldwell said, and as he spoke he in
dicated the .spot in front of the hearth
stone, where lied lay curled up on a
rug sleeping the sleep of the innocent
and just.
"We made the journey on our thor
oughbred mounts in a little while, and
the farmer, who was named. Jinks, ac
corded us a hearty welcome. Invited
us Into the sittlnq-ioor.i. after our
horses had been taken in charge by a
boy, nnd placed a decanter containing
Funic genuine tuff, with the necessary
Kla.'ses, mi tli . table heforo us.
" 'Mr. Caldwell.' Jinks began, after
we had taken one for sociability's
sake-, 'that fox of 'yours Is th worst,
depredator this countryside has ever'
seen, and would you believe it. sir, he
caught my chickens, not through
itiivl;iM ss, but by the uu anest kind of
tikkciy.'
"Jinks made his p tatemeut.and If It
hadn't hem vouched for by bH portly
wife, a pillar in the Itaj list church, I
hardly think we would have believed
it.
"Three day before. It nppearn, (he
hired boy had neen lied slinking alons?
Hie road lone th' lln of fences,
I (dim? for the Jink f.tjtii. Red was
i!v to be dlidiT'iuilsbed from ibo
i r member of hi 'family by a
' . ; id collar, bearing u silver plate
i' td studded with bra koolm that in
f; tied hi neck, and the boy at unco
It an led to th farm mid told Mr. Jink,
v . lib sh. icmiU that nil th rhlcken
In the hide yard, the only one that the
fox could well Ruin entrance to, were
luHd tnti i!h Ir frail wire houxe. and
ttr ditr ff. .! end Tautened with a
J.tU h that was operated f n, ftrlnar.
"Mr. Jinks pusued this course for
the reason that he couldn't waste
time standing guard in the yard, and
the chickens all housed, he went off
to another portion of his land to do
his work. The fox, it seems - lay in
the bushes at the . edge of a wida
ditch, and watched through the
chinks in the fence until Mr. Jinks
and his boy had departed, and then,
arguing that the coast was clear,
crept from his place of concealment
and crawled under the gale into tha
yard. He found the chicken all be
yond his reach, but his natural slyness
came to his assistance, and -after leap
ing to a shelf against the house and
overturning a pail of corn, set there
to be'fed to the poultry later, he went
to the chickenhouse and opened ' th
door. He doubtless accomplished this
feat by taking the string controlling
the latch in his teeth and springing
backward. This trick alone proved
that Red was far above the averag;
fox in point of Intelligence, and that
he had either seen some one work' a
L'.imllar door arrangement, or had in
stinctively divined the purpose of th
string. -
"After opening the doorMie must
have slunk under the edge of the
house and laid there patiently wait
ing for his evil scheme to work. And
work it did, for chickens are even
more foolish than geese, and twice as
silly as ducks. The unsuspecting
fowls, left their high perches, tempted
by the corn which lay on the ground
out in the open, and went to the
feast which had been prepared tor
their undoing.
"Clucking and cackling with glee
they fell upon the orn and began de
vouring it, and then, like a red
streaked, the fox's lithe body emerging
from under the hojee, passed across
the Intervening , space. Before the
chickens knew, It Red had pounced
right In their midst and with rapid
bites, tore the heads from several of
them, and as bad luck would have it,
three of th chickens killed were im
ported Plymouth Rocks.
"The screeching from the poultry
yard brought Mrs. Jinks to the side
door, and she was just in time to see
Red slip under the, fence and dash
down the road in "the direction of
hc-re.with two feathered-carcasses in
his mouth' Thr'bther deMA"1Wte: 'hir
was' forced"f6 leave behind. '
"Of course Mr. Caldwell settled, for
the Plymouth Rocks, and all the way
home he was muttering curses on the
oflending Red. Rut I noticed when
he entered the dining-room and Red
came bounding to fereet him with
short joyous barks, such as a dog
would make, he stooped and tenderly
stroked tho animal's head. '
"Since that experience I have always
inclined to the belief that , the higher
order of the lumb animals have some
other force to monitor them than just
plain instinct."
BITS OF WASHINGTON LIFE
WASHINGTON. April 19.-Mrs. Mary
Ellen Lease, only a few years ago the
joan or Arc or populism, and, who af
ter mat party's decline and fall, ml
grated from the war-inspiring atmos
phere of Kansas to New York, Is now
a regular lecturer on-Sundav for one
of the big ethical culture societies of
the metropolis. Mrs. Lease went to
New York to practice law, but she
appears not to have persisted lontr in
that held of endeavor, as no record has
yet ueen made of her appearance be
fore the bar. .She was a stanch sup
porter of President Roosevelt in the
last campaign, as were other forceful
women of tho west who were promi
nent in the poDUlist moyement.
Albert E. Mead, governor of the
state of Washington, is sometimes
likened to Abraham Lincoln, not be
cause he resembles the emancipator in
personal appearance, but because of
his manner of speech and his witty
way of saying things. Governor Mead
was born In Kansas in 1SG1, but his
parents removed to Ulinoia when he
was a youiiK man. Ho Is a graduate
of the. Southern Illinois university at
Carbondale and of the union college of
law at Chicago. Ho began tlv practice
of his profession In LcotI, Wichita
county, Kas.. in 1885. He moved to the
state of Washington and settled In
lilalne, Whatcom county, was elected
mayor In 1K9;! and In the fall of the
name year wan chosen to the Htate
legislature. In IV.tS ho was elected
piomcuting attorney of Whatcom
county and removed bin residence to
lt'-lllnghnm. the county seat, lie waa
re-elected prosecuting attorney In 1S00,
lituinoi to the practice of law on the
expiration of Mm term and lit lt(4 waa
itoi.itiuited for governor on tlw repub
Mean ticket and b eted, lie Ik nerving
iourynr term.
A new memWr of lh t'nited StiiUs
enate man who cornea un the enolea
of the people of his state, and not be
cause he has purchased his seat with
trust-made millions is W, E. Borah
of Idaho, successor to Dubois. Sena to
Borah was born in Illinois. Then h
was si farmer boy in Kansas. Later n
taught school, learned the law an
struck out for the coast. HeS couldn'
pay farther than Roise, Idaho, so h
nailed up a shingle there. It was tord
bk.uuiii. nesenuy ne won a kwk
raiser's case against the Union Pacifl
and business began to flow his way.
But he Jsn t rich even now
Newspapers of Kansas declare that
wnen nan Antnnny. editor or tne
Leavenworth Daily Times, is elected to
the house of renresentatives he will he
head and shoulders above -almost any
member Jn that branch of congresr.
Anthony Is said to be six feet and four
Inches high. Congressman Cy. Sulla
way of New Hampshire is the giant of
tne house. He measures six feet and
six inches In height and is built in pro
portion.
Congressman Galusha A. Grow of
Pennsylvania, who reeentlv died, tool-
a leading part in the house almost
rrom nis nrst appearance there. Con
gress was trying to straighten out the
momentous nue.stions whieh nreeerieH
the civil war, and Grow plunged into
the controversy with all the force of
ms nature. un February 5, 1858, he
had a personal encounter on the floor
of the house with Congressman Keitt
or houin Carolina. Kent, resenting an
objection which Grow had made to a
message from President Buchanan
asking for the admission of Kansas to
the union, walked over to him and
asked Mm. what he meant by object
ing. Then he added:
"If you want to object, go over to
your own side of this chamber!"
"It's a free-hall," responded Grow;
"I'll bo where I nlease."
Keitt sneered back: "You're nothinz
but a black republican puppy. G
uacit to your own side.
Grow retorted: "No matter what I
am, no nigger driver can crack his
wmn over me.
t Then Keitt sturck at the . Pennsvl
vania congressman, missed, and got, In
return to blow behind the ear which
sent him to his knees. What wag al
most a free-for-all fight between the
two sides or the house followed, but
later Keitt apologized. For the
stand which he took on the floor that
uay tne Kansas fres state settlers pre
sented Mr. Grow a gold medal, hear
ing on one side a figure of an nnifftori
armband the legend: "The first blow
struck for fr'pHnrVi "
Engineers throughout the rwlamallnn
service are growing restive because of
Secretary of the Intfrior finrfipirt'., Aa.
lay in making known the substance of
tne report nied by Special Agent Al
bert R. Greene of Kansas, who after
making an extensive trin thrmwh Ti.
ho, is said to have uncovered what Is
regarded as rerious irregularities in Che
reclamation project's under way in that
state, ine rcnort concerns nari rniar.
ly the conduct of the work at De?r
I' lat reservation, the biggest project in
Idaho, involving the irrigation of a
majority of the 1,500 eighty-acre farms
to be thrown open to public entry with
the completion of the work.
Fortunate is the woman who has
successfully cultivated the habit of
sleeping at will. It Is said that Miss
Julia Marlowe can rest between scenes
of the- most exacting- plays- by her
ability to drop asleep when she pleases.
These little rerlods
are great restorers, ana there need be
no s;,eriai preparation for them. One
associates sleep with darkness and bed
but daylight, soft couches nmi
chairs are just as good for sleeping
purposes oniy tne power of will-concentration
is lacking, and that is so
general as to bo a serious drawback
to good work in all directions.
The greater the thief, the louder
he cries about injustice and persecu
tion when he is finally caught.
NOT PARTICULAR.
"Yd reward you (hie) buy, but
I (htc) haven't a red cent" .
Any old cent wLU to, bo
Don't vedai 2 vA&r
t ir
SIDELIGHTS
jjfcflEOPLE do not dance now with any
(jtjgj vim. The mammoth is no more.
The buffalo is nearly extinct. We are
after the mosquito and consumption.
Perhaps even the fool will one day be
abolished. But shall we tamely sit by
while dancing and the very household
fly are menaced, asks the Boston Tran
script. Rise, sturdy citizens of this
soulless age, and hurl back these im
pending outrages of an improvement
mad new time. Will ye meekly stand
still and suffer this privilege of your
manhood to be wrest from your grasp?
M. Desrats, dean of the Paris academy
of choregraphy for such is his Impos
ing title hear his lamentations on tha
disappearance of all grace from man
kindalong with the evanishment of
his bread and Jjutter.
"One dances no more," sadly -says
M. Desrats, who, though getting on
for seventy-seven, still, like young Sir
Willoughby Patterne, "has a leg," and
one of which many a junior might be
Justifiably proud. Dancing, which he
has practiced and taught for fifty
seven years, has kept his limbs lithe,
his cheeks rosy and his mind fresh.
His enthusiasm for his art is as warm
as it was when he was twenty, and
when, after a liberal education, he
gave up thoughts of the legal or medi
cal profession and preferred "to con
secrate himself to the cult of Terpsi
chore" in his own language, which is
as flowery as his manners. Though ha
has always had and still has plenty of
pupils, he has come to the tragic con
clusion that dancing is dying out.
"Oh, monsieur!" says he, "under the
empire how beautifnllv th
danced, and what beautiful women
tney were:" m a year' 122 official balls
were eiven that is.
nights. He dates the downfall of danc
ing from the introduction into France
of the , "Boston."
have come from. America. What a ca
lamity was mere, for the slipshod two-
Kt C'Ti Yna L-!1lkl Un 1 . t 1
" mircu me wa.nz, wnne out-of-door
sports iiave buried it. "The
aristocracy dances no more. Only the
small boursreols now and then
flees to Terpsichore." When the cake
walk, the mattchiche, the kraquette
and liguette were mentioned to M. Des
rats he swooned, and had to be re
vived with scented salts, such as early
"Victorian ladies inhaled when emotions
overcame them.
Only a visit from On
and her consort, Prince Henry, who
played so notable a part in the rescue
of the Berlin survivors, Is necessary
to give the finishing touch to the
"boom" in all thinsrs riitrh inv.ii i
growing in London. -- --
A. visit from the young Dutch queen,
who has never paid a state visit to
London, is within the bounds of prob
ability this year, and London seems to
be unconsciously preparing itself for
such an event.
Dutch art. Dutch snti - cnnM
about Holland jmri rn.i
becoming more and more popular. A
feAv years ago Mr. Nico Jungman's
Dutch pictures began to take the pub-
A year or two ner ihn nvini.oi,n'
windows heean to hiwi ,iiv. r..tw
- v IV 1 1 1 1 I'LIICH
tigure sketches row nf nm t-iu
boys in baggy trousers and sabots and
Dutch girls in little round bonnets
pigtails and sabots, and old Dutcli
nsnermen and fishwives in ti,r. r,,;n
costume of the low country ineludin"
sabots. a
The nictures of
and especially the sabots, struck the
popular taste, -and now the real sabot
has invaded London. It hangs in the
shop windows in the West End and
the suburbs, tied up with ribbons and
feet '' 1JUIC" saoots for English
A pair of snhnts hno . u .
latest lancy with the girl with a trim
pair of ankles, and "sabot tea-parties"
with Dutch costume and Dutch song's
are beginning to enliven tho suburban
Ths theater and tho inL.L.i,nn i
taken UD thO rilllell hAnm HII.. n ..!.
of Holland' is enjoying success at the
Appollo. and at half a dozen halls In
London and dozens throughout the
country "Dutch" songs are the order
of the day.
Mm Alinle Puree! I
Lea jig were both Pinging them at the
. , l;1,s,t k' nd the Oxford
inulc-hall has "the eight stars of HoU
land, who ninir nnd
drey, ainia iutch neenery.
The latrat feature of the Dutch
boom' h In nil-tun nnui....i-.i.
newspaper lldVcttUt mi nt t..f.i
the pattern i-f the old Dutch tile
The C mum init i i r l .
once mm,, hi. S,i,K antipathy to' the
e .M ,,Mriit d on many previous oc-
