The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-01-20
The Natural HtsfOsv Of Rooms.

measure about the same as those OF
the canard depending on the size of
the canard) whose favOrite food is
carbOnated hydrogen, and whose
habits, ii not grand, are ;gloomy and
peculiar.
The canard has been referred to,
and if the following entertaining
story, which we quote from the so
Der pages of Webster's Dictionary,
can be verified, then the boom must
bear strong family likeness to the
canard. II is alleged that twenty of
the last named birds having been
placed together lone Of them was cut
into small pieces, feathers and all
and thrown to the other nineteen,
who Immediately swallowed it. The
same thing was repeated with the
same result, until at length but one
remained, this one having devoured
the other nineteen in Il very brief
time" This is precisely what the
boonas are al the while doing to one
another. Like the great and the
small pickerel (Of whose exploit we
read in Il recent scientific record still
more animated than that of Gold.
smith, both of which jumped ut the
same moment for the same fly, from
opposite directions, the little one
aking the fly and going straight down
the big ones throat as he seized it.
the booms have Il pleasant way of
devOuring one another This is Il
wise provision of nature; for other.
wise in their voracity they would
speedily consume every green thing.
There has been much dispute
among biologists concerning the
origin of the boom. Hreckel and
Buechner and Blaine would seem to
teach that it is produced by sponta-
neOus generation. But Mr.. Joseph
Cook has cOnclusively proved that
this is Il great mistake. His philOsO.
ply finds its origin somewhere be.
tween Diabolus and Bathybius,
which last word, being interpreted
by him. signifies the deep sea. He
asserts. for substance, that when the
co-ordinating powers of politics land.
ed Oh the bioplasmic shore of the
Presidential year. each one had u
fully organized boom in the cabin Of
its Mayilower. TO this agree Gov
ernor Cornell and Senator Cameron,
both OF whom have given the subject
mucb profound study; while Mr..
Tilden, who is recognized authority
on the whole topic, has been heard
distinctly to whisper that there never
yet was Il boom that was not Matched
in II barrel. 1t is to he hoped there
fore, that this loose, heretical notion
of the spontaneous generation of
booms will he discOuntenanced by all
reputable journalists. They are no
more spontaneous than the woody.
horse of Mr.. Barnum. or the flying
machine of Mr.. Darius Greek.
The boom is the sacred bird of the
political augur. He watches its
fight with the greatest assiduity, and
builds the temple of his fortune on
the spot where it lights.
The lifetime of the boom varies
with the size of the barrel in which
it is incubated, and with the season
of the year in which 1T breaks the
shell. Those that are Matched in the
Winter are liable to die young.
The boom is IL bird of passage.
Like the bObolink, he is not ut all
sectional in his habits but changes
his plumage and his song somewhat
as he passes from the North to the
South. 1t has been observed, how
ever, that many that have ilOurished
at the North have persisted by migra.
ton. The Sherman boom is said to
have fallen Il victim to its own greed
mess on the Carolina rice-fields; but
the Grant boom, finding no rest for
the sole of its foot in the Southern
lands, came booming North again.
The existence and wide distribu.
ton of this species of feathered fowl
in every Presidential year must be
regarded as somewhat OnimOus. The
fact that the opinions of 80 many
voters are determined 10y the flight of
these noisy and not very nice Birds
that their cackling seems to so many
the voice of inspiratiOn,-and that
their movements are watched by
multitudes of newspapers with as
much awe as those Of the ibis were
by the Egyptians, is not an auspic'
ious sign. The ignorance of the PEG.
pie is the condition Of their existence,
and the time will come, we trust. when
the boom will be as extinct as the
dOdo, and when the issues of state
will be determined by the judgment
of the people. and not by tiighty and
reasonless enthusiasm.
A DISTINGUISHED Western politician