The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-02-10

That therell be row,
And they'll wish they never had!
For I'll pack them all In my trunk, you see,
And lock it and throw away the key!'
Cincinnati Enquirer.
Mark Twain's Pet Cats.
Pictures of Mark Twain, of his former
country home in New York, of the Pr
lot house there, and of his four pet cats,
illustrate Edwin Wildman's papers Oh
mark Twain's Pets i'll the St. Nicho-
las. You might not suspect the great
,humorist Mark Twain of being fond of
cats and dogs, says Mr.. Wildman.
Though it would seem that his mind
must be thronged with queer fancies and
imaginary characters, always getting
into laughable and difficult situations.
Mark Twain yet has room for thoughts
of friends belonging to the animal king
dom. He once owned four of the pref
test and daihtiest mousers that ever
basked In an atmosphere Of fame.
When Mark Twain lived at Quarry
farm, a picturesque home high up on a
southern New York mountain, overlook
ing ma1ly miles of landscape, he did most
of his writing in little eight-sided sum
mer house, which he called his pilot
house, in memory of the days long ago
when he was pilot on the Mississippi
river. Cozily nesting in
great chair or Struggled comfortably upon
an old lounge in this literary workshop,
at almost any time of the day, could be
found Mark Twain's pets They were
allowed there because they had the good
manners to keep quiet while he worked.
If they had presumed to jump upon the
desk and put their little feet upon the
manuscript or tip over the ink, the!
would not have been allowed to remain
The coy little Pilot house was very
popular with these cats. 1t may have
been because it was such nice, sunny
place, having windows upon all of it's
sides. Being upon the very tiptop of the
great hill it received the warmth of the
hrst and last rays of the sun, of which
these pets were quite as fond as was the
humorist himself Mark Twain knew
that although cats are said to have nine
lives, the time must come when even
his pets and he would have to part, so
one day he summoned Mr.: Van AIKEN.
the photographer A Jealous
dog did his best to prevent photograph
being taken, but i'll vain; and two good
views of them were obtained, Mark
Twain thus sings the requiem of his
pets:
Hartford, Conn.
II don't know as there is ANYTHING of
continental or international interest to
communicate about those cats. They
have no history. They did not distin-
guish themselves in any way They died
eariy-on account of being overweighted
with their names, it was thought-Sour
Mash, Apollinaris, Zoroaster, Blather
skite-names given them not in an un-
friendly spirit, but merely to practice
the children in large and difficult STYLES
of pronunciation.
1T was a very happy ideal mean
for. the children. !" -. Mark Twain
Queer Animals.
Eyes, in all probability there are sew
cral different species of animals existing
at the present time on this earths sur.
face which have never been killed
caught or classified by any naturalist
Some Of these. indeed, it is not unlikely
on
So spoke London doctor we'll known
for his wide knowledge of zoology.
"What do you mean?' 1 asked. in as
constituent IF no one has seen the
creatures how can we tell they exist?'
well, chiefly from the reports of ma
tives,' was the reply. ''For instance
among the Indians of the Alaskan wild>
there is an almost universal tradition Of
a huge hairy beast. with tail at both
ends and great teeth This is an exact
description Of the mammoth, that great
Arctic. elephant, which we know by
geological evidence to have really exist.
ed within comparatively recent times
1t is far from unlikely that Il few speci.
mems still remain in the flesh.
"Ihere is lemur-a curious monkey.
like beast, which lives in the dense for.
csts of Madagascar-which has beer,
seen Ivy Euroneans, but never captured
in spite of big prices offered for a skin.
The natives dread it. saying that it con
tains the spirits of their dead ancestors
Only the other day an absolutely new
specimen Of armadillo was reported from,
Patagonia, but no specimen has yet been
brought to this country. The moa-a
giant, ostrich-like bird-may possibly
still exist in New Zealand; it has GER
tainly not been extinct as yet 100 years
And III New Guinea the natives give
| most circumstantial accounts Of another
similar bird. of which fossil eggs and
skeletons have long been known, and
which may very we'll exist in the flesh
in the vast solitudes of that great and
still almost unexplored island" -Cincin-
natl Enquirer.