The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-01
The ROANOKE TIMES. SUNDAY. oCTORER 100

retreating forward and whiskers on his
handsP With that the president put
the end Of his nose ON new blotter to
hide massive tear.
"Well, Pm here" said Kelley the
black, ito get them S18 or to leave you
looking like Hamburg steak. Eighteen
dollars is not much to you. You give
more than that every little while toward
making the heather u free moral agent,
but have been 90 years paying up my
debts acquired by reason of q rise in the
river which took my logs to Corpus
Christi when had agreed to deliver Same
to parties ut Saltwater. Eighteen dol
lars will relieve this mental strain. 9th
erwise shall paper this room with your
poor, perishing body and very likely as
phyxiate the cat with your soul"
The president hesitated moment, and
then with a sigh took roll from his
bootleg and paid Jim his little old S1s.
"You will not mention this ON the
street, of course" said the president,
with bright, wan smile, slapping Jim
on the shoulder and raising cloud of
dust.
NO." said Jim, giving the president a
hearty slap on the back that shook lung
loose and made it fall the whole length
of the poor mans chest, "not till get
there" And he left the iron hitching
post on the presidents desk and came
away. When the crowd broke in, they
found it there, like mighty paper
weight, lying across q doctored state
ment.
Black Jim has realized twice since on
certificates of deposit. In one case it
took what silver the bank had left to
keep the presidents brains from getting
tanned.
We have changed our meal place from
Beloit, Wis, one Of the northern sub
urbs Of Chicago, and now feed ut q pri-
vate house not far from the grounds. 1t
saves car fare and gives more time to
see the exhibits, which are out of sight
and no mistake.
like the specimens of taxidermy best
of all. can stand by II stuffed bear and
enjoy it for hours.
Ia2idermy originally comes from the
two Greek words, taxus, arrangement"
and denny, meaning to skin. Thus we
have skin arrangement, or skin game,
where game is thus prepared. tell you
this because man can go through col
lege and yet miss few things. knew
college graduate once that could speak
nine languages, but he did not know any
better than to go skunzing at night in a
dress suit.
In this country taxidermy was intro
duced in 1928 by man named Scudds,
who began the establishment of mu-
scum containing rare upholstered beasts.
Sometimes the work of taxidermist
is not successful. 1 knew an army Off
Ger who used to fill up wild animals with
arsenic and autumn leaves, but they
kept getting ripper and opening up like
boil of cotton, SO that the servant had to
keep putting back the autumn leaves.
The officer also poisoned three private
soldiers by keeping his arsenic in solu-
ton in deserted gin bottle.
He stuffed mountain lion, or puma.
once and placed him on exhibition at
headquarters. The commanding officer
used to shy when he passed byit as deli
cate compliment to the taxidermist, but
he almost knew it was not live animal.
No one was fooled by it except man
who had been seeing things for over a
week in the guardhouse while suffering
from alcoholism.
The lion was represented to be in a
crouching attitude, and as time went by
he seemed to crouch more and more,
same as an ice cream elephant does un-
der the steady gaze of the fresh air child.
He had widely distended jaws and fiery
gums Farther back one could discover
the autumn leaves.
Spiders spun their webs across the
roof of his mouth and from fang to fang,
and mice made their nests and reared
their young i'll his abdominal cavity. I
never saw anything that seemed to teach
me as he did the terrestrial nature of
earthly things. Moths gave him n bald
spot on the stomach, and one eye came
out and gave the other one keen, search
ing glance.
That was years before you had taken
your place in the great economy Of ma
ture.
was justice of the peace, marrying
people ever and anon-people who after
ward introduced the half breed into the
aristocracy of the west.
a friend who showed IL good deal of
genius in this matter gave me stuffed
bird which combined the aerial and am
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