Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1898-04-13
UNCLE SANS MENAGERlE.
Animals Kept at the Department of Ag-
ricuIture For Experimental purposes.

Animals Kept at the Department of Ag-
riculture For Experimental Purposes.
1t is not generally known that the de.
partment of agriculture has menageria
in connection with it, but such is the
case. The menagerie is not a very large
one, nor does it contain any rare or
strange animals. Most of them are of
the domestic variety.
1t is part of the division Of animal
industry, and the animals are used to
develop interesting cases of disease and
to illustrate the effects of an epidemic
of particular kind which the division
may wish to experiment on with view
of stamping it out and to test various
kinds of foods of which trial is thought
to be efficacious.
Comprised in this collection OF ami
mails are rats and mice, guinea pigs,
rabbits, different sorts of fowls, some
cattle and sheep and few others. The
larger of the animals are kept at the
breeding place of the department, on
the Benning road, while others are DOM
iciled in the basement of the division
of animal industry laboratory, near the
bureau of engraving and printing.
Down in the basement, under the lab
oratory, which was visited recently by
reporter, were seen a number of coops
and cages, in which We're grouped gum
ca pigs, rabbits and chickens. The
animals seemed to be perfectly at home
and formed seemingly happy family,
as some guinea pigs were in the cage
with rabbits. One of the little white
and black creatures was nibbling at the
whiskers of a sleepy looking rabbit,
which blinked contentedly, as if it en-
joyed the operation or was too lazy to
resist any trespass ON the part of the
guinea pig.
A dilapidated looking chicken, which
had much the same appearance as has q
tramp who has been forced to saw wood
for a meal at friendly inn, I" rested
on top of cage. The guinea pigs seem
ed to be the life of the place and ran in
and out with apparently little or no
concern whether school kept or not.
On some of the cages where the rab-
bits were confined, printed in large
black letters, was the word rabies.
Upon the cards also were the warnings
to the attendants and others not to put
their hands in the cages. This meant
that the animals had been inoculated
with hydrophobia virus, and it was
therefore dangerous to handle the ami
mails. A further preeaution taken in
such cases, it is said, is not to inoculate
animals carnivorous by nature, as they
become terribly ferocious, or any anil
mails whose chief means of defense is by
biting.
A cat or dog, for instance, will strive
to bite when afflicted with the disease,
while rabbit, which is purely vege-
tartan, will simply NOPE and die with
set making any resistance.
1t was stated that one steer, which
had the "blackleg, - remained at one
of the experiment stations for about
eight years, and tie persons there really
became attached to IT. Washington
Insulted Him.
Eerry-What was the matter with
Johnson last night that he should get
insulted when asked him to drink? Hs
is not total abstainer, is he?
Wallace-It was the way you put the
question. He is subject to attacks of
kleptomania, and when you asked him
| II he wasn't beginning to feel like
taking something he got hurt, very
naturally. --Cincinnat Enquirer.
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