The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-05-20
PICKED A POLE IN TWO.
By an Industrious Redheaded
WOodpecker.

II you have read and doubted the
story of the prisoner centuries ago
who, according to q comic opera
ibretto, cut his way through stone
wall with a penknife. read this story.
tne of fact, and believe. This is an
achievement of the industrious red
beaded woodpecker.
On Hartford avenue, pust south OF
The Belt lire tunnel, there was tall,
well-rounded and apparently sound
telegraph pole. To passers-by it was
,ust telegraph pole, doing its duty
like any other Of the army of timber
stretched along the thoroughfare.
Probably this pole would never have
Leen heard Of had It not been for an
unusual occurrence Sunday morning.
And this IL what happened:
At ten o'clock, without any warning,
like a great, strong man struck down
by some slow but sure disease, the pole
suddenly groaned, and then, with q
mapping. tearing. grinding sound. the
upper portion fell to the street, leav-
ing about rs feet standing.
The people looked on and wondered.
There was no hurricane, not even .
brisk breeze, and surely not enough
TO sever such pole as that which had
weathered SO many storms.
And still they wondered.
Explanations followed thick and
fast, and the argument over the cause
became all the more heated. The old
est inhabitant was sought, and after
much going over the past he remem-
bered that some time ago he had been
disturbed while quietly reading his
paper and smoking his pipe by a
sound as II boys were tapping on the
door. After awhile he noticed bird,
a real live woodpecker. working en-
ergetically with its sharp-pointed bill
against the telegraph pole. This he
said was fully five years ago.
Then somebody else remembered
having seen a bird pecking away at
the pole. But even this they thought
could not have caused such great
timber to fall. Then small boy vol
unteered the testimony that he had
seen bird light on the pole. and was
about to shoot at 1t with a slungshot,
the policeman ON the beat being at din
ner, when the bird disappeared into
hole in the pole.
Then the oldest inhabitant took the
stand again, In reSuttal, as 1t were,
and he corroborated the boys state
ment. In fact, he had seen two birds
60 into the hole. Then a resident who
Lad at one time worked In q sawmill
until certain buzzsaw, while on the
buzz, had changed his occupation to
something suitable for a one-armed
man, openly declared that no wood
pecker In the world could ever have
cut through wood like that If it had
started before horse cars ran out Gay
street.
The oldest inhabitant scratched his
head, and another resident who had
lived in the country fla ly contradicted
the man who had worked in the saw
mill, and while they fought it out"
SO to speak, the small boy Investigated.
Sure enough, there, right where the
pole had broken, was the hollow where
the woodpeckers had cut out their
nest, and, what was more, and nearly |
unanswerable and convincing testi-
mony beyond peradventure, was q
poor little woodpecker, half fright
rned to death. The small boy took pos
session of 1t and the Oldest inhabi-
tant walked back and remarked tri-
II told you So" while
the one-armed man went to his home
Ind the man who had spent his boy
hood days down on the farm gave him
the gleeful gurgle.-Baltimore Herald.