Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1899-08-12
a WOMAN WHO LOVES MICE.
Them From All Parts OF the
World for Pets.


There is one woman in America
who loves mice She loves them SO
much that she chooses them for pets
and is constantly coddIing hundreds
OF them as most women are wont To
coddle kittens and puppies Mrs.
Edith Kingman Poyer is her name.
She resides in Woodstock, H., where
she maintains mouse farm of large
dimensions and extraordinary inter-
est.
Mrs. Edith Kingman Poyer has
wealth with which TO indulge in lux
tries. Mrs. Poyer is a conoisseur on
mice. She makes distinctions IN her
very cages OF pets There are good
mice and bad mice. wise mice and ig-
norant mice, pretty mice and ugly
mice, costly mice and cheap mice.
She has all kinds, but she is discrimi-
mating in her tastes when she wishes
to chose handful of rodents for an
evening siesta in the front parlor.
When company comes she may bring
out her japanese Waiting mice for
entertainment.
Or if the company be learned and
given to instructive research, rather
than mere idle diversion. she may
usher forth her Egyptian race of
cheese-nibblers, the only one of their
kind brought to this country from
Again, to curiosity-delvers she may
introduce her troupe of Spiny ratlets,
which, until Mrs. Poyer got hold of
them, had never been outside of an
English geological garden. In addit-
ion to the Egyptian mouse, the Eng
lish mouse, the Japanese mouse, the
American mouse and various mice of
other respectable nationalities there
is the Dutch mouse, renowned for his
II
point of forehead and cheek markings.
The Japanese mice take after their
human countrymen in their propen-
sity for athletics. They perform some
amazing feats, chiefly in the dancing
line. A pair of these little animals
will stand on their hind legs and waltz
by the hour, whirling first one way
and then reversing to whirl the other.
Scientists who have seen my little
Japanese performers says Mrs. Poy-
er, "endeavor to explain their dancing
by attributing it to an early malady
iii the mouse family resulting from a
disease of the brain. They declare
that the dizziness of the original
dancing mouse caused him to turn
round and round in akind of delirium,
which was bequeathed to his posterity
and so generated entire species of
giddy mice. If that be true, it must
have been an extremely tenacious ma
lady. for it has become so much a part
of the mice's nature tnat the baby
mice dance as son as they can stand
upon their hind legs. And they don't
seem to be bit crazy either
They do not, indeed-for mice. They
appear to be quite as sapient as the
English mice, or the Dutch mice. or
the American mice, or the Spiny mice
or even the Egyptian mice and every
body who knows anything at all
about mice knows that an Egyptian
mouse is noted for his cunning, as
most Egyptian things are.
The Splny mice-named after the
dlseoYerer of the race-whose chief
distinction is that they have hitherto
never been seen outside of an English
geological garden. are endowed with
tricks of their own. one of which is
to pull off the covering of their tail,
IKE doormouse. This covering is
curiously corrugated skin which
hts the tail like the finger of a glove
They are very aristocratic little
fellows. says Mrs. Poyer when show
ing OFF this collection to visitor.
one takes one up in her hand and
SHOWS you how tiny its paws are and
how well shaped.
See the tapering toes. the fine.
ciean-cut limbs? They are patrician
lineage, tneSe Splnv mice. They
are the mobiles of the rodent race"
And which are the pIebians p''
asks the visitor.
Inc American mice. They are the
common little chaps that get into
your cornbin or flour barrel and tree
the hired girl on the kitchen table. /
suppose L call them my peasant mice
oecause they axe so common here in
tneOhted States Strange ones some
Times get into my own pantry, and I
always know them from nv pets.
VI course L have dozens of American
mice IN my collection, but they're DIFF
1erent animals after they're tanned
and well groomed''
Don't they get out of their cages
anu run all over the place? And don't
tney Dig holes for themselves under
me moor and take up with the wild
mlce and become pests?"
NO, indeed. They pft out of their
cages sometimes. bur they never po
.ar. they creep around il and around
~ always keeping it in sight: and
'ney run back to it when they hear
me approaching They do not wish
does M IL
hlttens are tabooed around here. of
course You must have to keep
sharp watch on your pets when any
cats come into the neighborhsod.
a hard expression crept into the
eyes OF the woman who loves mice
No cat that knows what is GOOD for
II ever comes near here she said.