The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-06-05
SAD PRAIRIE DOG STORY.
nar,orable Result OF an Effort to
Tane These Peculiar Animals.
From the Cheap Mail

na,,lorable Result OF an Effort to
Tame These Peculiar Animals.
From the CI.icdQo Mall.
"Djd YOU ever see prairie dogp asked a
conntryman of the Nail
"Only those in the park WhyF'
uWell, l was just thinking of boyhood
,,one in which the cunning little prairie
doc was very prominent figure.
1When | was a little boy my father
u,ovad from HooSierdom over upon a
hroad and blooming prairie in Illinois. That
O.oirie. stretching US far as the eye could
.i zoe TO the north and west, was one vast
Garden of flowers from April to November.
There must have been hundred varieties
Of wild blooming plants, ranging from the
lowly strawberry, with It's white bio SONS,
% The gaudy, famboyant wild marigold,
those oriental splendors gave vivid color
.omiles and miles of undulating plain.
"But this by the way. l started to
,roak of the prairie dogs. The flowers
were scarcely more numerous than they.
ynu might ride for miles along a path
sonted on either side by their villages,
,rhicb were seldom more than few rods
anart. These villages, always on some
iittle knoll, were populous The horSeman
Who approached one of them would see
sentinel sitting gravely motionless at the
door of every burrow. One could scarcely
talI these sentries from bits of WOOD SO
stiI} and straight were they, so much Il
nart in seeming Of the great, silent land
scape.
"But. even if there was case of now
Won see it and now you DON'T those little
:antinel prairie dogs offer the traveller a
,triking example. He sees them there, as
silent and impressive as the sentries of
pompeii, and wonders what they will do
when he gets closer. He keeps his eye
4yad on two or three of them and I'M
CONSCIOUSLY checks his horse, so that the
CHATTER of hoofs may not startle them. He
is within fifty, thirty, twenty PAGES, when
--lol the seltries are gone! He has
moi seen them GO The earth has swal-
Iowed them. He rubs his eyes and rides
on wondering ii it were all an illusion.
He looks back to assure himself, when-lo!
the sentries are there!-as still and Statu
esque as before:
zone time my father trapped four or
five of them | don't know how he man-
aged il: I've forgotten that. | think they
must have been young and foolish, like
haDy rats, which venture where their pa
and ma would never 90. My father brought
Them home and we children Rugged
ourselves in delight as we fancied them
IS pretty pets like squirrels or white rab-
bits, A cage was quickly fitted up; the
captives were placed i'll it and surrounded
ly ali the dainties which we fancy could
tempt them to forget their captivity.
Our parents kept us away from the cage,
as tie little strangers regarded us with
terror which they did not attempt to con-
ceal But we went to place more food be-
fore them the next morning, The food
previously provided had not been touched.
The little prisoners sat YEARLY on their
launches in the dark extremity of their
cell. Childish curiosity was depressed till
the second mornin5, when the cage was
again visited. The captlves sat in the
same position, and no morsel of the varied
bill of fare with which we had deigned to
tempt them bad been touched. 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 a sad and sickening reproof of our
cruelty in depriving the children of the
prairie of their wild, sweet liberty. We
feltit, children as we were, and silently, al
most in tears, we opened the prison doors
and slipped away to give tue captives OPP
portunity to escape But it was too late.
With their feet gnawed off up almost to
their little bodies, they could scarcely
more than drag themselves out and creep
away into the grass, where they soon after
died