The Louisiana populist., 1897-07-16
A FAMOUS BAT CATCHER.
Old Matterhorn Makes a Living in Paris
by Hunting Queer Animals.

| One of the queereSt characters in
| Paris is Matterhorn, the famous toad
hunter and bat catcher. His favorite
hunting ground is the great Arcueuil
| aqueduct, which brings the waters of
the Dhuys to thirsty Parisians. This
Is a regular place of refuge for bats,
which hang by thousands to the long
tunnel, digging their sharp claws into
It's rough outings and looking for all
the world in the shadows like festoons
OF cobWebs. There the are, in colonies
OF forty or fifty, cold and still, waiting
for Matterhorn to come along with his
lantern and iron box and catch them
between his ready thumb and forefn-
ger. The bats make slight resistance,
being drowsy with sleep, and in a night
Matterhorn often captures a hundred
of them or more, and he sells the bats
to people who eat them, some from nec-
essity, some from choice, for those who
have tried it avow that the flesh of the
bat is delicious. 1t is red and some
what fat, and, fried and served with
chopped parsley, it is said to equal the
finest venison in flavor.
why should one not eat bats?" ex-
claimed Matterhorn, in reply to my
question. "The little animal is scrup-
ul0usly clean and feeds on nothing but
insects, which is more than can be
said of many animals that are eaten
with a relish. | tell you that the bat
is much illuminated creature, al
though the number of people who real
lie that is limited"
Then | suppose you sell your bats
mostly to those who are very poor?"
Eyes, mostly; although there are
gourmets who have got beyond pop
ular prejudice and pay me good price
per Dozen"
But you don't live entirely by catch
Ing bats, do you?"
20, no; | catch all kinds of animals
that other people do not want You'd
be surprised to know how many kinds
of animals there are to catch right
here in Paris. Why, the city is full Of
rabbits, for instance"
"What-wid rabbits?"
"Why, certainly: they burrow all
over the cemeteries. Only last year
two poachers were caught in the Pere
la Chaise cemetery, where they were
working with guns, if you please, theirs
was SO much game. They should have
stuck to snares and the keepers woulo
never have got them. In some of tn.
cemeteries there are so many rabbit
holes chat the city authorities have had
to take measures to get rid of the little
animals Wed save them that trouble
If they'd give us a free hand. Some peo-
pie don't like the idea of eating ceme-
terry rabbits, but pshaw! what's the
difference when they're made into
savory stew? Besides, who knows what
a rabbit eats, anyway!
"I'll tell you another thing you will
wonder at. I've shot ducks in Paris
wild ducks-on winter nights, just as
day was breaking. When a pinch
of bitter weather comes on they're
driven up the Seine as far as the city,
but are frightened away by the people
in the daytime. And gulls come up the
river, too-focks of them-but it's
queer they never go further than the
bridge at the Place de la Concorde, and
l have always thought it was because
they were afraid of the owls in the
ruins of the Cour des Complies. Yes,
there are plenty of owls there all through
the year, and starlings and falcons, and
also out near the abbattoirs. And there
are owls in some of the old, uninhabit-
ed hotels in the Faubourg Sainte Ger
main. There is one of them that I
have tried to catch many a time, that
Is sole tenant of an abandoned estate
No. 20 Rue de Verneuil. That owl has
been there for years, and its cries haunt
the neighborhood, so that children are
terrified and old women make signs of
the cross as they hear them"
After this Matterhorn went on to talk
about the green lizards, which abound
in Paris, and the slow worms, to be
found at MCntsouris Park and the
Buttes-C -Chaumont, and he told how he
hunts toads for scientists and occa-
sionally hunts rats for sport, but he
does not think much of rat hunting.
All in all, bat catching is his favorite
sport, and he said l must come with
him out to the aqueduct some night
after the first frost and watch him fill
bis iron box.
Where We Got corks.
The cork oak is said to grow and
even thrive in America, but the ma
terial obtained is such an inferior
quality that all attempts to raise it
here have been abandoned in favor of
the product from Southern Europe.
Spain and Portugal produce the best
corks. The finest cork oak forests
are found in the interior of these
countries, those near the coast being
liable to the attacks of parasite