The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-09-04
Taste in Wives,

er, being persuaded that lit is not
good for man to be alone" came to
this city to seek d wife. Several of
his neighbors had taken TO themselves
helpmeets from among the plump and
pleasing immigrants, and these match
eS had all turned ont so well that he
was minded to follow suit. But hav-
ing inspected the arrivals of eligible
girls at Castle Garden for two or thee
days, and not having as yet seen any
one to whom his heart went out, this
adventurous agriculturist bethought
himself of another plan, and one for
which, indeed, he had no warrant Of
neighborly example. He had read in
the papers some little time ago an ac-
count-of the arrest OF young woman
named Emma LaTrahee for burglary.
This young woman was described
as professional burglar, and it was
said she had an uucOnquerable passion
for that kind OF illegltimate amuse-
ment. Now it occurred to the young
man from Connecticut that if Miss
Larrabee would marry him he might
he able to reclaim her, and forthwith
he sought her out. AS he promptly
ascertaiued that she had a prior en-
gagement in the penitentiary, it may
be hoped that he will detach his affec
tions from this bright particular star,
and rest content with some less noto-
rious but probably more trustworthy
maiden from OYER the sea, if indeed
the good state of Connecticut cannot
furnish him with homemade Ameri-
can wife.
But though his taste in choosing a
wife may seem odd, it is but the out
cropping of a tendency which is by
no means new. When, formerly, Aus
tralia was penal colony, the settlers
were allowed to marry the female
! conVicts, and it was observed that
those women who had the hardest"
records always were snapped up first
In the same way when young women
have committed startling crimes they
have invariably attracted suitorS If
they escaped the gallows. A remark
| able instance of this was the case of
Madeline Smith, Scotch girl Of good
family and position, who poisoned her
lover in Edinburgh some thirty years
ago. The trial was very sensational.
1t was shown that the prisoner had
had liais0n with the deceased, who
was a Frenchman, and that, desiring
to marry man in her own station,
she del. berately murdered the
lover. The jury brought in
the Scotch verdict, Not
Proven" though her guilt was clear,
and within week size had more than
twenty offers Of marriage, though she
was known to be prisoner. Cases of
this kind go to show that the women
| who gush over murderarS and fill
their cells with flowers, have not a
monopoly of that particular sort of
| folly, but that men, too, are amenable
| to the subtle magnetism of noLuriety,
and are quite as capable of playing the
moth to criminal luminaries, provided
the latter are young and good looking.
| And it is not always that the frit Rdly
walls of d penitentiary interpose be-
| tween these fascinated moths ana the
fatal attraction which would so surely
SINCE their wings.
The Slaughter of Western Game.
| New York Sun.
The recent reports of destitution
among the Indians of the nOrth-wrs-
| tern border, not only on the Canada
side but our own. have been accom-
panied by the statement that this lack
of food supply is almost wholly due
to the difficulty of procuring game.
1t may seem late TO try to check the
wanton destruction of buffalo, deer,
elk and antelope which has been go
ing on for many years; but there are
laws on the statute book for this pur-
pose which ought to be enforced, or
else so amended that they can be ex-
ecuted. 1t should be rem mbered,
also, that some state laws, although
most tardily enacted, have been found
such animals as the deer and the
moose, while not interfering with rea-
sonable and proper hunting.
| Exactly fifty years ago congress
passed a law to prohibit the wasteful
slaughter Of game in the territories,
which for half a century has be5n a
dead letter. Colonel Dodge, of the
army, is authority for the statement
that in the three years 1872, 1873 and
1874 alone. more than 100000 buffa-
Ices were slaughtered for their hides
This reckless and prodigious massacre
of these animals has almost resulted
in their extinction; and now the same
sort of destruction is applied to small
er game. To speak of these butchers
of the buffalo as pot hunters is too
complimentary, since the real object
ion is that they are not even pot hunt
ers, the animal being killed for his
hide alone, although this brings but
few cents to the seller. Two season S
ago Coloner Alexander, of the Second
cavalry, reported that be dy of 1900
or 1900 elk had been corraled in the
snow in Yellowstone park itself, and
were gradually killed for their skins.
But the hide hunters are even more
eXcuSable than the crowd of sports
men, many Of them titled personages
from foreign lands, who kill these ami
mails for amusement, with the sole
idea of firing as many times as posi-
BILE into a herd, without making use
of even hide or horns, leaving the
carcasses of their victims to rot on the
plains.
An enormous source of food supply
has thus for years been most shame
fully wasted, and now hundreds of
thousands of dollars need to be pro-
yided for rationing the Indians, who
would have been glad to furnish
themselves with game or to have gov
eminent hunters supply them.
Small Farms Profitable.
From the Orange County Farmer. l