The Opelousas courier., 1890-09-13
A FORTUNE IN FELlNEa
A LoNe-HEADMp IowAN's UNIQUE
OCCUPATIONS.
Supplying North Dakota Farmers
With Cats to Destroy II Field
Mice-A Carload OF 1170 Cats.

Mice-A Carload OF 11So N@Gs.
A long,. low rambling frame house
stands on one of the steep bluffs which
girdle the city of Dubuque, IoWa IL
looks as though it had become exhausted
after climbing the steep and had stretched
itself OUT on the rocky side hill to rest.
On a holane made sign which Is mailed to
one of the front door posts, is the IN
scription: "Cash paid for cats" Mr.
Tony sieg, the head of the place, enjoys
the unique distinction of being the only
wholesale dealer and jobbef in cats in the
United States. He has discovered a new
field of industry in the world OF COM
merce.
Mr.. sieg spent two years of his lifs On
a claim in North Dakota. He was frozen
in Billiards and parched in droughts, and
all his crops were ruined by field mice,
and then he quit and came back to Du-
buque. The hordes of field mice seem
to have made the most impression on his
mind, for after due deliberation he deter
mined to undertake q philanthropic
work; which at the same time has proven
a money making scheme. He determined
to supply the farmers of North Dakota
with cats to destroy the mice. He wrote
to John Maggie, one of his old neighbors
in the Territory, who organized a syndi-
cate of claim holders and agreed 70 take
all the cats Mr.. Sieg could furnish.
So Mr.. sieg nailed up his sign and
the nevs soon snread that he had gone
into business as the pioneer jobber IN
Toms and Tables. Every small boy IN
town whose family or whose neighbor's
family had a cat grew rapidly rich.
For the first few weeks after sieg es-
tablished his unique business there was
a constant procession of small boys
| climbing the hillside, with sacks hang
ing over their backs, out of which came
the vocal expression of the concentrated
extract of feline misery. Another line of
small boys came down the hill. They
were minus the sacks, but their pockets
were silver lined.
Sour first season, I" said Mr.. sieg, with
a tinge Of p~ardonable pride, eve did a
business something like four thousand
cats. Our first carload contained 1176
of the animals. They were boxed up,
six in a cage. My man made a trip to
| North Dakota with them. Only a few
died, 1925 reaching their destination in
safety.
"The cats seemed to have gone en-
| tirely out of their heads, however, for
when they reached Dakota nobody
could touch them. The railroad travel
seemed to make them crazy. The last
night on the road they kept up such a
noise that the settlers along the line
thought the Sioux Indians were on the
warpath again. The cages had t, be car
| ried out into the fields and the animals
released, there. We shipped two more
carloads last year, making 1900 in all,
which practically supplied the demand
and exhausted the supply for that year.
have several meE located in North Da-
kota who act as regular retail agents for
my goods and keep a good line constant
ly on hand"
Mr.. Sieg has six or seven hundred
cats in his barn at present. A irst-class
cat fight happened to be going on when
we went into the barn. It was between
two long-1imbed, ~deep-voiced Toms, and
they had over 600 feline spectators to
cheer them on. The noise of the battle
would have delighted the ears of the
lover of Wagnerian opera.
sis there much in the business, Dir.
sieg7"
"Well," responded that gentleman,
with the air OF a man who wants TO keep
a good thing to himself, ''the profits are
very fair. ] pay an average price OF ten
cents apiece for the cats. They retail at
81 a head. That gives the jobber a
+ fair margin. "--New York Herald.