The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1882-03-23
Tie Horned Frog.

The horned frog is native of Texa
and lower California, where he is fount
inhabiting the sandy soil of the prairie
and the pockets of the small boy.
The horned frog is really not frol
at all, but lizard travelling incognito
He is shorter and broader than the or
binary lizard, gray in color, with brigh
spots and horny spikes all over hi
back, and on his head two real horn:
about half an inch in length. He is no
as big as bull, but you can take hin
by the horns all the same.
Although the horned frog does moi
live in a restaurant he eats about as
many flies as if he did; in fact, he lives
on flies; that is his principal pursuit
When he eats fly he knows what he is
doing, and that is where he has great
advantage over the regular restaurant
boarder. We have seen horned frogs
used as fy-traps in grccers' windows.
The fly that succeeds in attracting the
attention of horned frog can never be
used afterward.
The horned frog is q d'y, cleauly
little reptile, and seems TO have no
vices. As he never gets drunk, For
eats hot biscuits, nor runs newspaper,
he is hard to kill. He will live six
months without food and be good
natured all the time.
He travels a great deal, but never
brags about it. We knew one that
left Texas, and three weeks afterward
was registered in town in the south
o. England, in the enjoyment of fine
health. He travelled cheaply, too !;
and although he did not go on an edi-
torial excursion, yse his travelling ex-
penscs, including hotel bills, fees to
walters and other incidentals, only
amounted to ten cents, this being the
value of the postage stamps PASTED on
the paper collar box he was mailed in.
Large quantities of him were formerly
exiled to the Northern States and
elsewhere, through the medium Of the
postofice department. The postofiice
authorities did not object much to the
horned frog, but after awhile they found
that terantulas, centipedes AID an oc-
casional rattlesnake were to be found
among the letters and other mail mat
ter. The paper boxes in which these
little playthings were forwarded fre-
quertly got broken, and the founding
ar antula would occasionally bear away
postohice clerk to the silent tomb.
The consequence was that the clerks
took to distributing and asserting mails
with long poles. This occupied too
much time, and when they found any
specimens OF native Texans, instead OF
picking them up, placing them in
the boxes and re-addressing them, they
killed them in their tracks. About
this time life insurance companies
began to put extra clauses in their poll
cies, requiring the policy holders
to abstain from working in powder
mills, from stealing ponies and from
handling the mails from Texas All Of
which caused the postof1ice department
to pass g constitutional amendment re-
ouirinc the se-' Of su&h insects to
kill them before NAMING %s %s%s - VIC
labor of attending to the matter TOOK
m TN much of the time cf the EN-
Moves. The horned frog in -Rl1'eeI
there is no more malice than there is in
>.suliGower-hadto to suffer for the sins
he tarantula, the centipede, the rat
make and other representative char
Leys.
Two out of every possible three
| schoolboys in Texas carry a few horne'
frogs alive in their pockets during th'
sprinc season-for what reason or pur
pose I am unable to state. But Wh'
can give q reason for Ealf the thing
that small boy treasures about III
,,orcon9- -Tcr1, SifiiaHs,