The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-08

an alligator in default Of a more
agreeable animal. A robin flew on
board the Victory In the heat of the
battle Of the Nile, and took up its
quarters in the admirars stateroom
and accompanied the ship to Naples,
the pet of all on board. Who does not
remember the little dryasdust en-
tomologist whom the Autocrat of the
Breakfast Table called the Scarabee,
and who had nothing in the world to
love but a large gray spider? People
who are compelled to reside for any
length of time abroad usually make
pets of the animals indigenous to the
locality In which they live How
strange was that abode at Damascus
where the late Lady Burton and her
distinguished husband resided. In adj
dition to the ordinary live stock, con-
sisting Of fowls and goats, together
with the horses and camels, there was
Persian cat, lamb, and a leopard
Ihe last named was trapped as a cub
in the desert, and presented by Holo
Pasha to Sir Richard Burton to show
his appreciation of the latter's conduct
In averting what might have been a
dangerous outbreak of fanaticism in
Damascus. Lady Burton was quite
enthusiastic about this, the most re-
markable of her pets. He never did
the household any harm, but fright
ened the other animals especially the
cat; though he was in turn afraid of
the bulldogs, but used to side with
them in their antipathy to a certain
baker: He used to play hide and seek
with his mistress, and, as she naively
remarks: When he bit too hard, I
used to box his ears, when he was in
Stantly good He used to sleep in his
mistress room, and when he fell a
victim of poison administered by the
neighboring peasants who were afraid
OF him, we are not surprised to hear
that his death was the cause Of much
grief.
Another pet In this strange household
was a Kurdish dog, as big as st. Ber-
nard, and which looked like a bear; his
name, 'Kasrawan," was corrupted into
"Cuss." He was an inveterate fighter,
but splendid watchdog. Indeed, the
himself described it, sort of House
that Jack Built, for the pigeons ate the
seeds and destroyed the flowers, the cat
preyed upon the pigeons, and was in
turn worried by the dogs, while the
leopard harried the goats to such an
extent that one of them. in sheer dis
gust, went and committed suicide by
drowning, while the favorite's yells
almost scared the life out of the donkey
and camel. But Lady Burton, intrepid
woman as she was, owns to having felt
frightened on the occasion of her visit
to the wife of a German savant, whose
residence at the time was a mud hut in
the desert, and whose only companions
were hyena and a lynx, which slept
on the lady's bed like two lap-dogs. The
hyena received the visitor at the stage,
shifted at her hands, and then put it's
fore paws on her shoulders and smelt
her face. Lady Burton stood her
ground, and the animal became friend
ly, and led the way into the house,
where the lynx was discovered on the
divan, but was the reverse of amiable
until the arrival of it's mistress. The
most amusing part of it all was, that on
going to what was called the husbands
reception room she found Sir Richard
and the Russian and French consuls, all
sitting on the divan, with their legs
well tucked under them, clubbing their
sticks and uncomfortably regarding the
hyena, which had made it's way into
the room. Surely, the representatives
Of three great powers were never in
such a ridiculous position before.
Lady Burton was by no means alone
in her collection of extraordinary pets,
for Lady Horribly, while at the embassy
at Constantinople, obtained, as she
thought, Turkish street dog, which
turned out to be a wild jackal but his
mistress refused to part with him. An
American lady while residing in Brazil
had an iguana for a pet-a reptile
which it would be hard to beat for re-
pulsiveness. A chameleon was the ia
vorite of a well-known Partisan beauty
scme time ago; and it is said that, on
hearing that Sir John Lubbock had
contrived to win the affection of a Syr-
ian wasp, three maiden sisters of lad
vanced'' views sought to relieve the
tedium Of their lives by accepting the
domeStication of the home-bred wasp
The result was not gratifying. Before
week was out one would-be natur-
alist wore a large blue patch over her
left eye, another carried her right arm
in a sling, while the third was alto
gether lost to the sight of her anxious
friends. There is a story of a young
Swiss girl, who, unmindful of the fate
of Red Riding Hood, made a compan-
ion Of a young wolf, which, on her re-
turn home after a long absence, fell
down dead through excess of JOY at his
mistress return. What an eXtraordi-
nary menagerie was that which Ros-
setti kept in the large garden of his
house in Cheyne walk! Peacocks,
neighborhood that Lord Cadogan had a
clause inserted In all new leases where
by the tenants undertook not to keep
peacocks; a falloW deer, whose princi-
pal delight it was to pull the feathers
out of the peacock'S tail by stamping
on them with it's forefeet; couple Of
kangaroos, mother and son, one of
which killed the other; two armadilloes,
i which used to burrow into the adjoin-
| ing gardens, to the great annoyance of
| the owners; and, to crown all, a rae
| coon, which was continually getting
! lost, and which was on one occasion
| discovered in a cabinet, where it had
gnawed in pieces quantity Of the poet
painters manuscript verse