Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1889-07-19
ODD OCCUPATION.
RIDDING PARKS AND CEMETER-
les OF PESTS.
An Expert Who Destroys Small AMI
mails by Thousands-His Methods 8
and the Results OF His Work
"A Unique Employment.

|
should be man who has monopoly OF
a particular occupation, yet Frederick
Wegner is such person. His business
is the trapping of moles and other out-of-
door enemies to beautiful lawns and gar
dens. He was until two years ago en-
| ployed in Greenwood Cemetery at his
speciality, but having rid the place of
pests now does work for any one who is
willing to pay for his services. He has
within the last two years been employed
to clear Woodlawn Cemetery, part of
Central Park, the estate of William Rock
feller, near Tarrytown, and those of A.
Fl. King and Fl. L. Hoyt, of the Victoria
Hotel, at Great Neck. L. l., and a ceme-
terry near Troy, of moles and other obnox-
ious burrowers, and in every case he has
been completely successful.
In Central Park he was hired to work
from Fifty-ninth to Eighty-second streets,
and while not a mole can be found below
the latter street, above it4they are numer-
Gus. A Tribune reporter called on this
nineteenth century Pied Piper of Hame-
lin recently at his home, and learned
something about his history and methods
of work. He is German by birth rather
small in stature, somewhat bent from age
and much STOPPING at his work, and his
face is deeply bronzed from the out-of-
door life that he has led. Apparently he
is not over forty-five years old, although
he is really nearer sixty than forty-fve.
When asked when he first went into
the business of trapping, he said: "Why,
began when boy. When was about
ten years old the country around Roed-
land, Bavaria, where l lived, was so
overrun with field mice that it was al
most impossible to raise any crops. Every
remedy was tried, but the little pests
seemed to increase until the farmers were
at their wits ends. Finally the board of
aldermen, as you would call it here, of
Roedland, and several surrounding vii
lagos, passed laws compelling every farmer
to bring the bodies of forty dead mice
to the council chamber every day, under
penalty of a gulden, or forty cents, for
each failure to do so. The number was
afterward increased to 100 and the fine
to dollar. Many did not know how to
catch them, and to escape paying the
penalties were glad to buy the mice. l
got number of old-fashioned traps and
set to work, catching forty or fifty of the
creatures at first and gradually increasing
the number to nearly 1000 a day.
made good deal of money for little
fellow like myself, and pretty soon the
neighborhood was cleared. of the pests. :"
Wegner came to this country some
thirty y-nine years ago, but did not en-
gage in trapping. In 1876 he was made
a watchman in Greenwood Cemetery.
The place was then simply overrun with
chipmunks, moles, field-mice, snakes,
muskrats and skunks The ground was
furrowed in every direction by the in
dustrious creatures, and the roots of the
plants were eaten, so that it was difficult
to keep any flowers or shrubs growing
about the graves. Efforts were made to
trap the beasts, but so few were caught
that there was no abatement in the nriis-
ance.
Recalling his youthful feats as trap
per, Wegner set to work to exterminate
the harmful breeds. 1t took two years
of hard work, but at the end of that
time few moles or field mice troubled the
sward of Greenwood. In this time
1882 moles fell victims to his trap, and
nearly 1000 garden snakes were cut into
by his spade. Not until %, 900 chip
hunks had been killed was the place
clear of these pests, and in the first sum-
mer, Wegner trapped $3.50 field mice.
For each kind of prey different kind
of trap is used. The mole trap is the in
vention of the trapper himself. 1t is a
hollow block of wood with two wire
loops attached to spring on the inside.
In the centre of the block is plug, which
is tied to the spring in such way that
when the plug is disturbed the spring
flies up, and the animal is caught in
the wire moose. The trap is buried ex-
actly in the course left by the mole,
which invariably travels through its old
hole again and is lassoed. Field mice,
the trapper said, require quicker trap
than moles. They breed so rapidly,
however, that it seems impossible to ex-
terminate them with traps, so Wegner
experimental with various poisons until
he learned one that was largely eaten by