Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1895-01-28

price, selling as they were choice selected
skins, for eighty cents apiece.
Me and 10y wife was mighty pleased
when we got draft on the bank In Coop
erstown for the money, and when ! had
cashed It l went home and poured a
/ couple OF quarts Of new silver dollars into
said:
" zeko tell you. we've got a silver mino
inside Of that there fence. Well, l caleu-
lated that was true because wasn't there
the evidence IN the very coin?
That winter We lived better than we
| ever did before. My little fellows had new
clothes and rubber boots, and We spent half
the time planning what we would do with
the money from next seasons ketch. The
| next season l saw the wisdom Of not killing
on the females. That season l trapped over
ak hundred rats, stili wedding out a few
females. did not got 80 much for my
| pelts that season, yet they Melted mo over
three hundred dollars. Since then l have
looked upon that swamp inside that fence
as a bank that never falls. Besides my
capital in rats / have got good nest egg
laid away to provide against rainy days"
Have you always got good prices for
your pelts?"
Yes / have never boll dried skin for
less than thirty-iye cents which Is a fair
price. ! have seen the buying price Of
| 'mush' rat skins down 10 fifteen cents but
1
on the gate and don't trap a rat. | wait
until the next year, when the price Is bound
to go up, and in that way get a hundred
| per cent. interest on the peits that l did
not sell in the cheap year.
Il want to tell you he remarked. 81
was badly frightened once for folr that
! | was going to lose my whole colony. It
| was In the spring Of 1889. and had been
very wet One OF the boys came running
| to me one day and said; Daddy, daddy
the west meadow Is full Of 'mush' rats.
They're all coming up out Of the brook and
| going one way, toward the woods. old ones
and young ones
Il had heard Of rats leaving ship
which was waterogged and of beaver coll
onles migrating, so ! said to myself We'll,
| they're on the move and nothing Will stop
them / went out into the west meadow
and sure enough you couldn't step hardly
| without stepping on 'mush rat. They
were all going one way like young toals
after q rain, and I made up my mind that
| ] was going to lose my rats and that my
/ silver mine was played out 1t wouldn't
/ have done any good to have Killed them at
/ that season Of the year, as the Iur was
/ worthless.
For a few days after that although !
/ went into the swamp every morning. /
| didn't see a rat. Then there came heavy
| rain and the swamp and the meadows
around were flooded. Then I knew the
| rats knew what they were about because
| the water stood way up over the tops Of
/ their nests and every young one would have
been drowned. Funny. wasn't II, thlt they
/ shOuld know this days before the rain fell2'
| "Dld the muskrats come back after the
water subsidized
| ing. and there was a great commotion' !
| believe every rat that left before the rain,
/ which was about three weeks before that,
! Il ata4H strUa oil
and repairing the nests. The place was
1ne mass Of mush' rats. ! never had any
| idea whore they stayed when the swamp
| was flooded"
"Do YOU have to feed them?"
'Feed theml No; ! reckon not. They
feed themselves on the tender roots thal
| grow in the swamps and meadows, and
| thoy Will eat Ash, 100, when roots are
Van E,len said that he had Just brought
! bis polts TO the city, and that they mad
nettcd him over $500. In speaking OF me
uset of muslrat fur, he said that In these
| days OF FUR oyercoats much which Is called
| T,ini, is really nothing but musIrat The
1 mr. is also cut up into trimmings. and II
used TO line ladies circulars and to make
boas and muiilors. =,
When | left farmer zske, he said: 81
will send you some photographs wheh ge'
home. young man came from Coopers,
/ town ana llNAt tNlAlN fAANtN'a-s'A''+r
NV Mace. and / think / have some lylnl
around loose aomewhere' He tsen oa =,
ma goodby, and the last saw Of him he
Vac strealtlng for the West Shore Ferry
IN weehawlsen, where he had to take
train for home It.. net,
n is believed that there Is no other musk
raj preserve In tho United States. IN tn'
woods OF N nnesota and Wisconsin ana u
canada there are known to be beaver dam
owned by Individual trappers, when nave
been carefully preserved ana trapped tol
Years. but no other place, aside from EEK
Van Etten's is known where the pfopasA
don Of muskrats is carried on as mean,
~ earning a living, Zeke has found oul
tba secret that all that is necessary 70 MAKE
market colony paying iny vest, S1sy g '5
80 ond dogs and predatory trappers, and
tbst il pays better not TO catch his rats
~, years when the skins bring small prices
IN, 10 lot Inc animals live over the season
uptn the price Of pelts rises to hsuTs
to SUIT Nun HENRY BALcH INGRAM
A Man of Tongues.