Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-03-16
THURSDAY, MARCH Is, 1898.

nuts were all hulled, the nuts just al
white and clean, and they were deli
ciOus.
And then 3 squirrel is migratory; i
food becomes scarce, they HE away t6
some other country. / remember some
fifteen or twenty years ago, the squir-
rels' food was very scarce in all this
part of the country, and the squirrels,
as If by common consent, made move
en- masse, for another country; they
could be seen by the hundreds, all
headed north. Across fields and along
the fences, hundreds and hundreds
we're killed. Every boy and man that
had a gun, was banging away at them.
And it lasted for several days, before
they had all gone. In q few weeks we
saw from the papers, thousands and
and thousands Of squirrels had made
their appearance in Wisconsin and
Michigan. Now how did those squir-
rels know where. to gop and how did
they cross all the streams of waterp
Now they had to cross the Missouri
and Mississippi rivers, besides hundreds
of smaller streams. Do squirrels
and other animals have the means
of conveying the news, or does
instinct or whatever you may call it,
give them the knowledge? Do animals
think, reason, I've opinions. laws,
manners and customs?
Among the things we spoke of, do
they have crimes and punishmentsp ]
told him / had number of times, after
being out killing squirrels, when came
to dress them, found one neither male
nor female. ] could not understand
it, until one morning about this time OF
the year, / was out hunting squirrels;
l could not find any in all that part OF
the wood, and knew there ought to
be lots of them. After hunting awhile,
/ heard noise as if all the squirrels
in the country had got together. /
went the way the sound came from,
and as got nearer, the noise increased.
When got in sight of where the noise
came from, l saw up in a large tree
such sight! The tree was fairly GOV
cred with squirrels, and such noisy
set, running up and down all about
among the limbs of the tree, every fell
low trying to see how much noise he
could make. Out on large limb /
saw bunch of about dozen, all in a
pile. I said to myself, what under the
sun are those fellows doingp As /
looked, I saw they had one on his back,
and about half dozen holding him
down, and two or three seemed to be
doing all the talking, but | saw one
very busy at work. All this time the
fellow on his back was squealing to the
best of his abilities, and all the rest In
the tree were keeping up regular fuss.
After a little the crowd began to dis
perse, and those that had been at work.
went off and left one poor, sick looking
chap by himself. After the rest had
all gone, said now / am going to see
what they have been doing to you. So
shot his eyes out, and when l went
and picked up the squirrel found he
had been unsexed or castrated just as
nice as a surgeon could have done it
When told Isaac about it, he said,
II have heard good many old hunters
speak of it, but never noticed it my
SELF"
..Now, do those animals have laws
like humansp We know that most all
animals have families, wives and
children, if may call it so, and hold
social relations. Audubon, the great
naturalist, speaks of seeing crow trial
and crow execution, and of other an
imals, of rogue elephants, of mad buff
falo bulls, all of which have been driv-
EN- out of the society of their own kind.
Are they subjects liable to crimes and
punishments, like the human famiIyp
A man who lives among the wild ami
mails has good opportunity to see and
learn many things of nature, which
people in the common walks of life do
not learn. They see things, that TO the
average man seem unreasonable, and
strange, but for all that, these things
are so, for all the unbelief. Ihave seen
things that If had not seen them, I
might have my doubts if some one else
had told me, and yet might be all true.
T. P. B.
The West End Of Iron County, No.
NUMBER ONE.