The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1895-01-16
A QUEER PROFESSION.
This Woman Makes q Living by
Cunning for M1skrats.

Miss Sarah Tatum, of Trimble, N. j.,
shoots muskrats for living. Miss Ia
tum is a bright young woman, % years
old, and she has coy home that she has
paid for two years ago with the proceeds
of her peculiar vocation. The Tatum cot.
tage is built in little valley mile north
of Lambertville, and is surrounded by 10
acres OF land, on which there is a peach
orchard which yields the young woman a
handsome annual income. Her mother,
with the assistance of hired man, runs
the farm.
Miss Tatum was we'll educated, and
when she was 16 years old she began
teaching school in the Haswell District.
Three years she welded the birch, and
then her health failed and her physician
said she must take long rest. The girl
was not one to enjoy rest. She was ac-
tive and determined to do something.
Her father was captain Of canal boat
that made 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
equestrenne through riding the mules
over the towpath.
From early childhood Miss Tatum had
been passionately fond of shooting with
small Remington rifle, and 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 musk
rats in the canals seriously damaged them
by burrowing in the banks. A happy
| thought struck the girl at once.
"I'll tell yon what I'm going to do"
she said to her father; "rm going to try
and get the canal company TO employ me
| to kill muskrats. II | could get job of
that kind I'd be out of doors nearly all
the time, and know it would agree with
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 letter to the head office Of
the Raritan Canal Company, making a
proposition to employ her to shoot musk
rats in the canal. The company sent an
agent to interview the girl, and the result
was that she was employed at salary of
SO q week to hunt muskrats, and il she
should shoot over 100 OF the animals a
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. This she equipped with camping
outfit, had canvas cover made so that
she could erect IL at night over the boat,
and with rifle and ammunition set out
on her first trip up the canal.
The first month she shot SO muskrats.
| For these pelts she received l 8 cents each.
She was determined to get up to the 100
point, and pass it, if possible. 1t took
her two months to do it. The third month
she killed 122 rats, and there has never
beea month since, excepting 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 she is at home, had the house
rebuilt, and made herself and mother as
cozy little domicile as one need ask for.
There are tricks in all trades, and in the
business of muskrat shooting for a living
there are a good many points to be learn
ed. The girl is sharp enough not to exert
herself to kill more than 100 of the ami
mails a month during the Summer season,
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 to her.
The feeder, up and down which the
woman patrols, is canal about 90 miles
long, taking water from the Delaware
River at Bull Island and carrying it to
the Raritan Canal, intersecting it at Tren-
] ton. When the up trip is made three
days is required, for it is necessary to
move very slow and cautiously to avoid
frightening the little mud diggcrs that for
age on the turf along the banks OF the
canal
Miss Tatum sits in the stern of the craft
that is her home three fiftbs OF the time
and carefully propels it with paddle
Her eyes narrowly watch the water near
the banks and when there is a ripple and
the nose of rat appears on the surface
there is quick raising of the rifle to her
shoulder, sharp crack, and nine times
| in III rat nr Had