Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1898-08-18

est and see the creature for himself,
and the truth of my statement that
nature defies our description of it will
be painfully apparent.
The last living opossum that saw
in much this way was walking in the
bed of dry ditch and making no eff
fort to keep its presence secret. 1t
shuffled among the dead leaves.
peeped in any number of little holes
in the bank of the one-ti1ne stream
and once stopped and very deliberate
~ yawned. 1t caught one black
cricket, crushed it TO snapeless mass
with quick swapping motion of It's
jaws, and then rejected the mass as if
distasteful. At this moment I sud
denly stepped forward and the opos-
sum merely looked up and, parting lis
jaws widely, made slight sound that
might be described as a CULTURAL hiss
When stopped over the animal il die
not change its position and scarcely
protested when ] lifted it from tie
ground by its tail, but kept its mouth
open, yet made no effort to bite me.
After teasing it for few minutes, but
not in a ride way, i put it down Oh
the ground and stood by without NOV
ing. There was no attempt at 'splaJ-
ing 'possum" or making believe that
it was dead. On the contrary, it
started to walk away as if nothing
had happened. I stepped in front OF
it, and the animal merely stopped and
looked at me. l made many threats
to strike it in the face, but it only
winked and patiently waited until I
was ready to behave myself. Then /
stepped again to one side and the
creature, thinking L was tired OF my
impudence, walked unconcernedly
away.
And so it ever is with the opossums
that I meet They are not disposed
to feign death that they may escape
molestation. If really injured, OF
given severe pain, they coil up and
make the best of bad bargain, and
when left to themselves crawl away,
if able to do so; but question if they
are not really wounded and often be-
yond recovery. It is one thing TO be
frightened to death" or scared out
of ones wits" and to reason out de-
iberately so intricate a problem that
the playing the part of dead opossum
will be the safest plan for the captured
live opossum. To say that it is Gin
stinctive," as [ have heard so often,
is rubbish.
The opossum's tail is more interest
ing to me than its head. 1t plays a
most important part in the animals
arboreal life, and nables it to hold on
to very slender tvigs with safety, even
when the wind is blowing at very
lively rate. Indeed, it is in late Oc-
tober, when the leaves have fallen
and the persimmons are ripe and foy
grapes, though shliveled, are fragrant
and juicy still, that the opossum is at
its best. It is now, when it hangs
by its tail and with its head down,
seeing the world reversed and sniff
ing the morning breeze from an airy
outlook, that the opossum fills large
place in the autumIal landscape. To
thinl, Of it now as mere goblet of
venison' is unaccoultably prosaic. ]
would as soon think of cutting q
steak from the crimson sunset.
It may be very illogical to speak
of an animal that is with Us all tbs
year as peculiarly creature Of sea-
son, but it is so of great nrnbe- that
as matter Of fact are az likely to be
seen in July as n January. Logical
or not has nothing to 90 with it; it
is the within of the rambler that con-
trolls such things, and just as [ expect
to see jumping mice in June and
muskrats in midwinter ] look for the
opossum in October. Its color, its
habits, its deliberate, day-0reamy
ways all accord with autumnal lights
and shadows, and these seem the fit
test background for muchw oapingus,
as our Indians call this rather stupid
animal, and they we're ford of it, if
the campfres of the Lenape can be
accepted as testimony, for the bones
of cpossums ere found abundantly
among the ashes, with much else that
went to the making of many feast
centuries before the white man had
appeared to rob this region of nearly
all its primeval glory and render mis-
cradle the lives Of what little of wild
life still ventures to tarry near u.s.
u IL