Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-06-20
'sTHE SMITER OF FIELD MICE"
An Expert Who DestrOyes Small Ami.
mails by Thousands.
New York Tribune.1

He was, until two years ago, employed in
Greenwood Cemetery at his speciality, but
having rid the place of the pests, now does
work for any one who is willing to pay fol
his services. He has within the last two
years been employed to clear Woodlawr
Cemetery, part of Central Park, the estate
of VIM. Rockefeller, near Tarrytown, and
those of A. Fl. King and II. L. Hoyt of the
Victoria Hotel at Great Neck, L l., and q
cemetery near Troy, of moles and other oh
noxious burrowers, and in every case he
has been completely successful.
In Central Park he was hired to work
from Flfty-ninth to eighty seventh streets
and while not q mole can be found below
the latter street, above it they are numer.
Ous A Tribune reporter called on this
nineteenth century Pied Piper of Hamilin
recently at his home, No. 38..East Second
street, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, neal
Greenwood cemetery, and learned some
thing about his history and methods oi
work. He Is German by birth, "a heI
small In statue, somewhat bent from age
and much STOPPING at his work, and his
face is deeply bronzed from the out-of door
life that be has led. Appare tly he
is not over forty five years old although
he is really nearer sixty than forty five
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 ROedland,
Bavaria, where l lived, was SO overrun
with field mice that it was almost impossi-
BILE to raise any crops. Every remedy was
tried, but the little pests sc emed to in crease
until the farmers were at their wits end
| Finally, the board of aldermen, as you
would call it here of Roe dland and several
surrounding villages, passed laws compel
ling every farmer to bring the bodies of
forty dead mice to the council
chamber every day, under pen
atty of gulden, or forty cents, for each
failure to do so. The number was after
ward increased to 100 and the fine to one
dollar. Many did not know how to catch
them, and to escape paying the penalties
were glad to buy the mice. got a num-
Der OF old fashioned traps and set to work,
catching forty or fifty of the creatures a
day at first and gradually increasing the
number to nearly 1000 day. l made a
good deal of money for little fellow
like myself. and pretty soon the
neighborhO0d was cleared of the pests
Wegner came 10 this country some
thirty-nine years ago, but did not engage
in trapping During the war he served
four years In the 14th Infantry Regiment
of New York, and after that went into the
United States revenue service. In 1870 he
was made watchman in Greenwood GEM
etery. The place was then simply overrun
with chipmunks, moles, field mice, snakes
muskrats and skunks. The ground was
furrOwed in every direction by the indus
trious creatures, and the roots of the
plants were eaten, so 1t 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 abatemen mt in the nuisance
At this time the hero appears. Recalling
his youth feats as a trapper, Wegner set
to work to exterminate the harmful
breeds. 1t took two years of hard work,
but the end of that time few moles or
field mice troubled the sward of Green
wood In this time 2 802 moles fell victims
to his trap, and nearly 900 garden snakes
were cut into by his spade. Not until 2S,-
600 chipmunks had been killed was the
place clear of these pests, and in the first
summer Wegner trapped $3.50 field mice.
For each kind of prey different kind of
trap is used. The mole trap is the inven-
ton of th g trapper himself 1t is hollow
block Of wood with two wire loops at
tached 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 exactly in the course left
by the mole, which invariably travels to
its old hole again and is lassoed. Field
mice, the trapper said, require a quicker
hov ever, that it seems impossible to exter-
inmate them with traps, so Wegner ex.
psrimented with various poisons until he
learned one that was largely eaten by field
mice and snakes, but let alone by all other
animals. This poison he strewed with
liberal hand, and in a few months every
zouse was gone.
Chipmunks were even more numerous
than field mice and equally destructive to
the work of the landscape gardeners These
little striped creatures not only destroy the
roots of plants but honeycomb the soil
with their holes. Unlike the moles, which
burrow just beneath the surface, chip
munks dig straight down for a distance of
five or six feet and have a number of their |
holes connected. In one year Wegner |
trapped Ia, 900 of these rodents, but they |
to multiply, 80 he tried
various kinds of p ison until he discovered
one which they relished, and in not many
few of them were. left to disport
The banks of the lakes of
Greenwood also contain the subterranean
castles of few muskrats, twenty four of
which were captured in the steel claws of
traps; seven skunks met a simi-
lar fate. The snakes were dispatched
either by poison or spade with a blade as
sharp as knife Wegner has killed any
1umber of snakes in this way, including
some dangerous big black snakes, but he
1as never been bitten yet.
After he had cleared Greenwood of its
colonies OF "varmints," Wegner was EN-
,loyed as a watchmaD, but two years ago
ne gave this up to become a professional
rapper. His new calling has been a pay
Dg one, as his services are in great demand
Ind, as is always the case with man who
las no rivals, he has only to ask his price
md it Is cbeerfully paid. There are,
If course, men employed in every
'emetery and large park to trap moles al
'ther obnoxious animals, but none of them
makes business of it and all of them are
10 much less successful than Wegner that
,e does not even regard them as trappers.
Call them trappers," he said, sneeringly,
why, caught more mOles at Woodlawn