The Sweetwater forerunner. [volume] (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1867-1869, 1868-03-13

INfEREsfINo NArURAt PHENosiEkoN--
A FAMILY 5F SINGING MicE.-Many years
ago the public of merry England were
thrown into a state of intense excitement
by the exhibition of a singing mouse, and
before the astOnishment caused by the cam
tillating rodent had subsidized; companion
monstrOsity, in the form Of a whistling oyster,
was announced We are not quite clear as
to whether the sybillatory biyalye kept his
promise to the ear or not, but the singing
mouse Vas a four-leggcd, furry fact Since
then, domestic yermin, as we'll as marine
shell-fsh, have been mute, and it has been
reserved for San Francisco to discover, in
the year 1868, that the race of musical
mice is not extinct, How, the discovery
came to be made we will now relate: For
some days past the family of Mr.. Louis r.
Lull, residing on Post street, has been dis
turbed by very singular and unaccountablo
noises, Y Needing apparently from the cell
ing and the walls. The noises were not
the familiar squeking of rats, or the shrill-
or troblcs Of mice, nor did they resemble
in the least the chirpings of crickets, or tho
uttemnces of any known insects or vermin.
They shifted their position, too, in highly
disturbing and incomprehcnsible way, and
for some time oxciteda good deal of special
wonder. Suggestions as to the possibility
Of spiritual manifestation wcrs made, but
Mr. Lull refused to accept any explanation
Of this kind, and at last determined to set
a mouse trap and see what he could catch.
The next morning, on visiting the trap, he
found mouse in it, but what was his
amazoment when the little creature opened
its mouth, and raising its head, began to
pipe away like young canary. The niys.
terry was solved--and he was the happy pos
sessor of that lusas naiure, singing mouse
But the wonder did not cease here, for
though the strange songstor was Gagged, the
singing was still heard from behind the
walls. Again the trap was set, and another
singing mouse was captured. And still
from behind the wainscot the cheerful
voices of other members of the family gave
satisfactory evidence of the existence of
what promises to be a whole race of sing
ing mieo. Mr.. bull had little cage made
Tor his captives, and yesterday placed them
in tho Pioneers Hall, where they were
visited in the course of the day by hundreds
of citizens. There is no delusion or mys-
tification about this matter, The mice do
sing-they do not squeak. Their notesarc
like the piping of a young canary just try.
ing its voice; and the little creatures throw
up their heads and shake them from side
to side, exactly as bird does when sing
ing. When placed in the dark, they will
chirp and twitter SO loudly that person
standing two rooms away can here them
plainly, and they sing in any position, sit
ting, standing, or hanging head downward
from the wires Of their cage. There is
nothing peculiar in their appearance. They
look Just the same as other mice, but they
have that within that passeth show. We
trust that the California Academy of fNatu-
raj Sciences will lose no time in calling u
special meeting to investigate this extra
ordinary phenomenon, and that the men,
bers will bend the whole force of their
powerful intellect upon its cxplanation.---
San Francisco Times.