St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-11
MRS. CHARITY HATHAWAY
She Supports Her Family by Trap
ing Fur Animals.

ing Fur Animals.
New York Sun
SCRANTON, Pa, Dec. 26.-Mrs S. Char
ity Hathaway is the only woman trap
per and raw fur dealer in Sullivan
county. She is the widow of the late
Charles j. Hathaway, and she lives on
Beemer Hill. in Forks township, where
she was born in the woods forty-odd
years ago. Her only son, Hiram, is fif-
teen years old, and she has two daugh-
tiers younger than he. Each fall and
winter the Widow Hathaway is the
busiest woman in the township. Last
season she cleared nearly $3.50 from the
sale OF furS and ginseng root. The ami
mails from which the greater portion of
the furs was obtained were trapped and
skinned by Mrs. Hathaway. The rest
were bought and shipped to market with
those that she had gathered, and the
ginseng root was dug by the children.
AS soon as the trapping season opens
in the fall, Mrs. Hathaway begins to set
traps for skunks. minks and muskratS.
1t costs her nothing for skunk traps. be.
cause she uses fiat stones for that kind
of fur. She lifts one end of the stone
upright where she finds it. props 1t up
with some slender sticks that look like
a figure q. places bit OF any kind of
meat on the trigger. and the trap is all
ready for the stupid skunk to walk
under and get the life crushed out of
him. If stranger asks native of
Beemer Hill, of Elk Creek, OF Wildcat
Hill, or of SparrowhaWk Brook why so
many fiat stones are tipped up here and
there the native will look surprised for
a second and then tell him that the
stones are the Widow Hathaway'S
skunk traps.
Mrs. Hathaway says that nowadays
she makes more money out of skunk
skins than from all the other kinds OF
fur put together. For catching minks
and muskrats she has to have steel
traps, and the traps cost money in the
first place, require oiling and care later
on, and are heavy to lug around. Be.
Sides. skunk skin is now worth more
in the market than mink or muSkrat
hide. And she would sooner skin a
skunk, she says, than a muskrat or a
mink, because she can do it great deal
quicker, and the odor is not at all often
sive when you know how to handle the
animal and get used to the smell.
After Mrs. Hathaway has set all her
traps she starts out the next morning to
see if anything has been caught during
the night. She goes over the route in
the same order that she did when she
set the traps, and she takes bait along
and two sharp knives. If she finds a
skunk under one of the fiat stones she
pulls it out, resets the trap, ties the
skunk to pole, throws the pole over
her shoulder and goes to the next trap
Whenever she has unusual luck, the
burden of Skunks soon becomes heavy,
and in that case she stops at some
brook, skins the animals, and has moth,
ing but the hides to carry over the rest
of her route. To make complete cir
cult of her traps sometimes takes the
best part of day, she says. Up to the
middle of December Mrs. Hathaway
had this season trapped 294 skupks, ~
minkS. 43 muskrats and marten.
When the first sleighing comes the in
dustrious widow lets Hiram look after
the traps. because he can wade through
the snow better than she can. Twice
each week she drives all around the.
countryside and buys up foXskins and
other furs that the Woodsmen have
gathered. paying fair cash price for
them. She is an excellent judge OF furs,
and no ole can fool her on the quality
OF SKlnS tlat she examines. MIS-. HATH
away is governed in the prices she pays
for furs by printed list of quotations
which a Philadelphia dealer sends her
once month. All the furs she traps
herself or buys of other trappers she
ships to the PHILADELPHIA dealer every
three or four weeks. The skins are
stretched. tackled up against the barn.
and dried thoroughly, and that is all
she does to them.
Ginseng root is also quoted in the fur
dealers list. During the fall, before the
ground became frozen, Mrs. HathaWay's
children Dug several basketfuls of GIN
seng root in the woods on Wildcat hill.
The roots were dried in the oven and
around the stove until they were as dry
as they could be, and then Mrs. Hatha-
way found that she had thirty-two
pounds. A few days ago she sent the
root to the city with batch of furs and
got $3.50 pound tor it. Last year. Mrs.
Hathaway said the other day, she saved
1920 over and above all expenses of
keeping herself and little family, and
that she expected to do still better this