The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-10-31
How to Catch and Cook Muskrats.

|
referred to Capt. Eldridge w. Gallup, of Har.
ford county, whom he describes as his friends
here well know him to be, "a fine specimen Of
the old-fashioned hospitable Underwater
Marylander, a great duck shooter and sports.
man. as well acquainted with the waters and
marshes of the Upper Chesapeake Bay as the
Oldest of the innumerable muskrats who dwell
in that sportsman's paradise"
The editor says:
We have before usas we write, two letters
| from Mr.. Gallup, from which we quote yer.
batim, as follows: an regard to the muskrat
| will give you all the necessary requirements
to make him one of the incest dishes, in my
opinion, and also our old friend Dr. Troops
as you recollcct when we made him eat it on
Spesutia Island for terrapin, he concluded that
| any one that said that muskrat was not good
was prejudiced fool, which fully endorse
There are various ways of catching them
The way the negroes kill the most of them is
to go in the marshes in the winter, and after
stopping up their leads to their houses, they
then tear the house down and leave one hole
open, so that when they must have air and
come to the surface, they either have dog at
| the hole or a man with club or gig, and
| in this way from one house. Then they some
| times catch them in box traps with wire doors,
| and also in dead falls set with figure A. Ihaye
shot hundreds of them moonlight nights by
| tying white rag on the muzZle of my gun
| for a sight, and poor old "Trip used to dig
| them out of the banks in the marsh.
In regard to the cooking you must first
| skin them, and be careful to take the musk off
| with the hide; then after washing clean, put
| him in pot and parboil until DONE Then
cut him up and put him in q saucepan with
water sufficient to make stew, and to two
| rats add one onion cut up fine; also lump of
butter the size of q walnut with hull Off
Then take some flour and brown it in pan
the color of roast coffee, and add as much as
| is necessary to the stew; do not make it too
thick; it should not be thicker than duck
gravy made in the same way. 1t makes me
| hungry to think about it."
In reply to second letter calling for more
| explicit directions for the removal of the
musk, friend Gallup replies as follows:
"Your friend SIS letter is at hand and
l will try to explain the musk and where to
find it. In the first place, in taking the hide
OFT you do it so as to prepare it for market,
and it is done as follows: You take it by one
of the hind feet and let some one hold the
| other foot, then with your knife slit it from
the hook joint to the centre of the tail then
up the tail four inches; then you take the
other foot and split open in the same way
you then cut around the tail, and skin the
| tail down; then cut round the legs at the
commencement of the fur. You can then
pull down the skin, some one holding the hind
legs. The musk is fatty substance between
the hind legs 5tst to tile Slfaa, and will come off
| with the skin if you pull it off instead of u.s.
ing the knife, and by keeping the skin or flesh
side out it prevents the musk from touching
| any part of the body and leaving the odor.-
After cutting, should there be any thing be-
tween the hind legs that looks like fat, remove
it; then put the rest in salt water for three or
four hours; then parboil and cook as direct
ed. The season for eating them is from No
vember until April"
Though not in the highest style of culin-
| airy art, we can confidently recommend MIR.
| Gallup's method of cooking the musquash
Mr.. s., to whom we are indebted for Mr. Gal
| lup's letters, being culinary artist of the
| highest grade-a regular "cordon bleu," in
cooking the muslrat discards the saucepan
| as too primitive, and uses the chatting dish and
Madeira or sherry wine.
The musquash is held to be great delicacy
| at Port tobacco, the county scat of Charles
county, in Maryland, where they attribute its
excellence to the fact that it feeds on bulbs of
the wild celery (valisneria,) the same plant
which imparts such exquisite flavor to the
canvas back. In the western part of Maryland
they prefer frosting the animal after it is
cleaned, to soaking in salt water
For THE LAST TIME-There is a touch of
pathos about doing even the simplest thing
" for the last time" 1t is not alone kissing
the dead that gives us this strange PAIN
You feel it when you have looked your last
time upon some scene you have loved-when
you stand in some quiet city street where you
know that you will never stand again. The
| actor, playing his part for the last time the
singer, whose voice is cracked hopelessly and
who after this once will never stand before
the sea of upturned faces, disputing the
plaudits with the tresher voices and fairer
fOrms the minister who has preached his
last sermon-these all know the hidden bit
terncss of the two words, "never again.
How they come to us on our birthdays as we
grow older. Never again ong-always
| nearer and nearer to the very last, the end
| which is universal "the last thing which
shall follow all last things, and turn them let
us hope, from pains to joys" We put away
| our boyish toys with an odd heartache; we
arc too old to walk any longer on our stills,
too tall to play marbles on the Sidewalks
| Yet there was a pang when we thought we
had played with our merry thoughts for the
| last time and life's serious grown-up work
| was waiting for us. Now we do not want
the lost toys back life has other and larger
playthings for us. May it not be these too,
shall seem in the light of some far off days as
| the boysh games seem to our manhood, and
| we shall learn that death is but the opening of
the gate into the new land of promise?
-.s.>-
IT TAKES Two.-In the depths of forest
there lived two foxes who never had cross
word with each other One of them said one
day, in the politest fox language
| "Let's quarrel"
every WELL said the other, "as you please,
dear friend; but how shall we set about it ?"
ooh, it cannot be difficult" said fox num-
Der one "Two-legged people fall out, why
should not we?'
| So they tried all sorts of ways, but it could
not be done, because each would give way
At last number one brought two stones
"There," said he "you say they're yours,
and I'll say they're mine and we will quarrel,
and fight, and scratch. Now I'll begin
| These stones are mine"
Every WE'LL" answered the other, gently,
"you are welcome to them"
| but we shall never quarrel at this rate
cried the other, jumping up and licking his
face.
"You old simpleton, don't you know that
it takes two to make quarrel any day."
Once in travelling, the Rev. DR.. Bledsoe
was exceedingly annoyed by a pedantic bore
who forced himselfupon him, and madea great
parade of his shallow learning The Doctor
bore it as long as he could, and at length, look
ing at him gravely, said: "NIy friend, you
and know all that is to be known" "IIow
is that ?' said the man, pleased with what he
thought very complimentary association
"You know everything except that you are a
fool, and know that"
"A Yankee, who had just lost his wife was
found by neighbor emptying a bowl of soup