The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-12
FESTIVE ADIRONDACK OWLS
Hold a Symposium That Greatly En-
tertains Their Human Auditors.

NEEAhAnN AAElE n an EAANAANAAAa
From the New York sun.
Scranton. sept. WHAT amused our
party most us in the Adirondack said
a Scranton man. was an entertainment
given TO up BY d flock of storytelling
/ owls. Our camp was away back in the
wilderness Of Herkimer county, aud we
had hardly turned in for the night when
q flock Of owls alghted on tree over us
[ and began 10 tells tories and laugh. Every
. owl listened in silence TO the one that was
/ talking and when the tale was
/ finished the whole flock laughed as
though they were ticklod half to
/ death They reminded us "a lot of drum
mers in a smoking car and they
( had such Jolly fun that il became COuta-
Cious We all rolled aud laughed over
I the fun the big-eyed birds were having up
/ in the tree, and before long the sIde-split-
/ ting cOntaglOn attacked some looms out ON
/ the lake, which fairly yelled with delight
/ whenever the fun-lOviug owls guifawed
/ and shrielled and shouted over a right
good yarn told by one of their number.
! Once in a while story was so funny before
the knob was reached that we could hear
two or three of the feathered listeners
chuckle under their breath and when the
end came the entire flock made the woods
ring. The joval birds had met expressly
| TO swap experiences of the night before,
/ and they talked so plainly that we could
easily keep run Of their anecdotes as we
lay on our beds of spruce boughs.
lone of the owls told about how a big
rat that he had caught by the back
yanked itself loose and showed fight. The
owl described how he had let the rat
tlatter itself that it was going 10 lick
him, how he finally bit its tail of at the
root, and how the rat then went squeal-
ing and zigzagging around with no rudder
TO guide its movements. The picture 50
amused the eager auditors that they fell
into the most violent fits of laughter
some of them tumbling from their perch,
they were so tickled. Another owl de
scribed the tussel he had had with a
tough old jack hare in a swamp. He said
that the hare had carried him along
through the rushes and over logs for
some distance after he mad got his ella VS.
in It's back, and that he at last brought
the hare up standing by keeping
one claw in its hide and catching
hold of a bush with his other
claw The hare rolled over and over as
soon as the owl let go of the bush and
the owl said that his feathers point
ed in all directions when he finally got
the best of the hare. Peal after peal of
laughter followed the narrative. An
other owl told about biting snakes
head off and trying TO swallow it. The
head stuck in his throat and he would
surely have choked to death, he said, If
his mate hadn't come along just then and
pulled ii out with her claw. The story
teller's predicament was such a funny
picture to the imagination of the listening
owls that they responded with yells of
wild delight.
But the story that fairly upset the
whole party of nocturnal roisterers, and
= L.
all over the tree for at least five minutes,
was told by an owl with an alto voice
He said that he felt like kicking up some
mischief the night before, so he sailed
out TO the settlement, settled down
on the window sill Of a house in
which there was no light, and began
TO tap on the panes with his bill The
folks were asleep, so he fitted TO
the opposite side Of the house aud
tapped there. Nobody stirred, and he
kept going from one side of the house TO
the other till woman got up, struck
light, and began TO Jry the windows to
see if they were fast. When she came
to his window he peered in at her, and
she started to scream so hard that in
moment her husband sprang out of bed
aud four children in their nightclothes
came running down stairs and shouting,
Mamma, what's the matterH The
was, although her husband aud Young
ones kept coaxing her to, but at length
she caught her breath long enough to say
that she had seen a spook at the window
AT that the man dashed out and be-
gan to search around the house, and the
owl said he few to the top of a balsam
tree, where he sat till the man went
back The man was mad with Ibis wife
for making such a rumpus about moth
ing, so he drove the children back
10 bed and went to jawing her like sixty.
She lawed back, and they had it hot and
heavy till the man got up and culfed her.
Then she threw dipper Of water on him
in the bed, and in jumping out at her he
knocked the lamp of the stand and put
out the light. The owl said he listened
to their Quarreling and fighting in the
dark till he could stand it no longer,
when he few back to the woods. His re-
cital filed his listeners with meriment,
and it was several minutes before they
Gained down for ano ther anecdOte.
well, sir, those jovial owls continued
to tell stories till ? o clock. when we all
became so sleepy that we lost all interest
in their amusing tales The looms out on
the lake laughed like all possessed VIII en-
ever the owls did, and the two gangs of
midnight merrymakers kept up their
racket till we had TO so out and drive the
owls away by firing our revolvers"