Hillsboro recorder., 1888-07-05
WOULD NOT LIVE PRISONERS.
A Sad Story OF the Captivity Of
Colony OF Prairie Dogs.

IL III
"When I was little boy my father
moved from Hoosierdom over upon q
broad and blooming prairie in Illinois, !"
said q man to reporter OF a Chicago pa
per. "That prairie, stretching as far as
the eye could reach to the north and
west, was one vast garden Of flowers and
plants from April TO November. There
must have been hundred varieties Of
wild, blooming plants, ranging from the
lowly strawberry, with its white blossom,
to the gaudy, fiamboyant wild marigold,
whose oriental splendors gave vivid color
to miles and miles Of fundulating prairie.
"But this by the way. started in to
speak or the prairie dogs. The flowers
We're scarcely more numerous than they.
You might ride for miles along path
fanked on either side by their villages,
which were seldom more than few rods
apart. These villages, always on some lit
tie knoll or hill, were populous. The
horseman who approached one OF them
would see q sentinel grayely motionless
at the door Of every burrow. One could
scarcely tell these sentries from bits Of
wood, SO still and straight were they, 50
much part Of the great, silent land
scape.
HBut If ever there was case Of nov
you see it and now you don't, those little
sentinel prairie dogs offer the traveller q
striking example. He sees them there,
as silent and impressive as tho sentries
OF Pompeii, and wonders what they will
do when he gets closer. He keeps his
eye fixed on two or three Of them, and
unconciously checks his horse, so that
the clatter Of hoofs may not startle
them. He is within fifty, thirty, twenty
PAGES, when 10! the sentries are gone.
He has not seen them 60 The earth
has swallowed them. He rubs his eyes
and he rides on, wondering II il were
all an illusion. He looks back to assure
himself, when lol the sentries are there
as still and statuesque as before.
Zone time my father trapped four or
five Of them. don't know how he man
aged it; I've forgotten that. / think
they must have been young and foolish,
like baby rats, which venture where
their pa and ma would never 60. My
father brought them home, and We chill
NhcA uuBbCA UuLrclNCo IL dcaiNuk NJ NO
fancied them as pretty pets like sqnir-
rels or white rabbits. A cage was quick
ly fitted up; the captives were placed in
il and surrounded by all the dainties
which we fancied could tempt them 70
forget their captivity. Our parents kept
MS away from the cage. as the little
strangers regarded us with q terror
which they did not attempt 10 conceal.
But We went TO place more food before
them the next morning. The food pre-
yiously provided had not been touched.
The little prisoners sat wearily on their
haunches in the dark extremity OF their
cell Childish curiosity was repressed
till the second morning, when the cage
was again visited. The captiyes sat in
the same position, and no morsel Of tho
varied bill Of fare with which we had
designed 10 tempt them had been touch
ed. The water was undiminished in the
bowl. Another day passed, the third
morning came, and we ran out TO see our
pets. The sight that met our eyes
shall never forget. In their hunger and
despair the poor captives had eaten their
own feet The bloody stumps were
sad and sickening raproof TO oar cruelty
IN depriying the children Of the prairie
Of their wild, sweet liberty. We felt il,
children as we we're, and silently, almost
In tears, We opened the prison door and
slipped away 70 give the captives oppor-
tunity 10 escape. But il was too late.
With their little feet gnawed of M a.
most 10 their little bodies, they could
scarcely more than drag themselves ont
into tho grsss, where they soon after
died.