The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-26
A QUEER PROFESSION.
A New Jersey Woman Makes a Living
by Cunning for Muskrats.
From the New York Advertiser.

by Cunning for Muskrats.
From the New York Advertiser.
Miss Sarah Tatum of Trimble. n. J.,
shoots muskrats for a living.
Miss Tatum is a bright young woman %
years old. and she has a coy home that
she paid for two years ago with the pro-
ceeds of her peculiar vocation. The Ia
tum cottage is built in a little valley a
mile north of Lambertville, and ii is sur
rounded by fifteen acres of land, on which
there is a peach orchard which yields
the young woman a handsome income.
Her mother, with the assistance of a
hired man, runs the farm.
Miss Tatum was well educated. and
when she was 10 years OLD she began
teaching school in the Haswel district.
Three years she welded the birch and
then her health failed and her physician
said she must take a long rest Inc girl
was not one to enjoy rest. She was ac-
tive and determined to do something. Her
father was captain of a canalboat making
trips through the feeder and Raritan
canal to Philadelphia, carrying stone and
bricks from the quarries and kilns along
the river. Sarah made two or three
trips with her father, and got so that
she was a pretty good hand at the tiller,
and she became something of an eques-
trienne through riding the mules over the
tOwpath
From early childhood Miss Tatum had
been passionately fond of shooting with a
small Remington rife, ana she practiced
until she became very proficient in the
use Of the weapon. During one of the
trips down the feeder she learned from
her father that the vast number of
muskrats in the canals seriously damaged
them by burrowing in the banks y hap
Ply thought struck the girl at once.
Il tell you what I'm going TO do" she
said to her father; I'm going to try
and get the canal company to employ me
to kill muskrats. If l could get a Job
of that kind I'd be out Of doors nearly an
10 In 4
my health"
Her father was inclined to laugh at his
daughters idea, but she promptly set
about carrying out her plan. The next
day she sent a letter to the head office
Of the Rartan Canal Company making
proposition to employ her TO shoot musk
rats in the canal. The company sent an
agent to interview the girl, and the re-
suit was that she was employed at a
salary Of $40 a week to hunt muskrats,
and If she could shoot over 100 of the ami
mails month she was to receive 10 cents
apiece for the excess. The pelts were to
be hers.
That was little more than three years
ago. Miss Tatum had a small craft built
which she could easily propel with pad
die. Then she equipped with a camping
OUTFIT, had canvas cover made so that
she could erect it at night over the boat,
and with a rifle and ammunition, set
out on her first trip up the canal.
The first month she shot eightysix
muskrats, For these pelts she received
10 cents each. She was determined to
get up to the 100 point and pass it, if pos
sible. 1t took her two months to do il.
| The third month she killed 10 rats, and
there has never been a month since eX-
cepting the winter season, in which she
has failed to kill more than 100 animals.
Eighteen months ago Miss Tatum's father
died, and the work of supporting her
mother devolved upon her. She bought
the little farm where she now lives, when
and made herself and mother as coy
a little domicile as one need ask for.
There are tricks in all trades, and in
the business of muskrat shooting for
living there are a good many points to be
learned. The girl is sharp enough to not
exert herself to kill more than 100 of the
animals month during the summer sea-
son. for then the pelts have no market
value and she allows many good shot
to pass, knowing that in the fall hunting
will be better and more profitable for
her.
The feeder, up and down which the
woman patrols. is a canal about twenty
miles long taking water from the Del
aware river at Bull Island, and carrying
It to the Raritan canal, intersecting it
at Trenton. When the up-trip is made
three days are required, for 1t is neces-
sarV to move very slow and cautiously
to avoid frightening the little mud diggers
that forage on the turf along the banks
of the canal.
Miss Tatum sits in the stern of the craft
that is her home three-fifths of the time
and carefully propels it with paddle. Her
rifle always lies within easy reach. Her
eyes narrowly watch the water near the
banks, and when there is ripple ana the
nose of a rat appears on the surface there
is a quick rising of the rifle to her should
err a sharp crack, and nine times in ten the
rat turns over dead.
This kind of work the young woman
keeps up all through the spring, summer
and fan. There are several localities in
the course of the canal where the musk
rats have gathered in colonies, and near
these points the woman moors her craft
to the bank of the canal, erects the canvas
over it and camps for the night
After dark the rats begin to move about,
| and they are shot in large numbers Moon
light nights yield the largest profits. When
the head of the canal is reached the woman
starts on the return trip rms requires
about a day, for the water flows toward
! the Raritan and no padding is required.
| The feeder follows the railroads and it
! traverses some lonely sections me
| woman has never been molested but once
| That was two years ago. One night she
! had moored her boat to the bank and was
| preparing supper when couple OF tramps
! wandered down to where her boat lay and
| insisted on having something to eat. Miss
! Tatum gave them hearty supper and
the trarnps, instead of leaving, began treat
ing her in way that she dldn IKE. She
| told them to leave. They didn't move
! and picking up her rifle, the woman told
! them once more to make themselves
| scarce. The tramps laughed at her; there
| was a sharp ping, and the end of the nose
! of the more insolent of the two men was
! clipped off by a ball from the woman
| rifle. The astonished men beat a hasty
| retreat and that was the last experience
| of the kind the woman ever had.
| The out-of-door life led by the woman
! has restored her to perfect health, and
though Drowned and robust III appearance
1 she is extremely attractive Among the
! bargemen and the residents along the ca
! nal she is known as the Belle OF the
Feeder" Miss Tatum's earnings average
about S1,GO0 year.
noctor p. was riding in the suburbs of