Arizona republican., 1901-10-01

crab. The judges interest in the crab was not at first scientific. but it grew until it became so. and he studied 1t so closely that the world is favored with more intricate knowledge of the crab than is possessed even by those who have been brought near it's hab- fiat along the Jersey coast.
 He relates the following story of his acquaintance and growing familiarity with the crab. some of whose charac- teristics reminded him of people whom he had met in Arizona: q was , at Atlantic City. where I spent COZ siderable part of ne summer. I was invited one day to become one of T party of ten CT twelve going on a grabbing expedition To add zest to the sport Q pot was formed, each meni- Der contributing twenty-five cents. The one who caught the greatest number of crabs was to get the pot. the one catching the first one to get his quar- ter back. We caught 167, of which q were personal trophies of mine and ! won the pot
 ''I was then informed of another rule of the game. which had not been co,i- identially disclosed to me before. The winner of the pot was required to pay for the beer and lunch for the entire [ party. The pot did not go a great way { i-i tiidl ulIeCliOn ana l Was cOInpcilcu | to draw upon my own private purse. l did not greatly mind the expense Of winning. for I had acquired vast store of information about a strange creature of which lad hitherto known almost nothing. I will first describe the manner in which the crab is in volved in entangllrg alliances. The crab hunter is provided with a boat. a pole and long line to the end Of which is attached a piece of raw meat about two and one-quarter inches in diameter. The line is dropped into the water. The presence of the crab is made known by a slight twitching 1 The line is withdrawn and the meat and crab are held over a bucket or other convenient receptacle The hunt CT irritates the crab. and when he lets go the meat to get a hold of the irri- tant he falls into the receptacle The crab is a most beautiful creature The color scheme Is a dark blue, variegated by rainbow tints. The gayety of his disposition, however, Is not In keep ing with the brightness and beauty of his exterior He is dyspeptic in tenn perament, and may be t-uthfully de- < scribed as cumulative and revengeful and truculent. I undertook to>dispos- sess one of his shell with my pocket knife. when he siezed the blade and broke it squarely in two.
 ! From my careful observation Of several characteristics of the crab. should pronounce him a democrat in politics. He has multiplicity of legs and direction. He moves either forward CT backward according to the condi- tions which confront him, but his pre- 1 dominating movement is backward and very infrequently forward. I ob- served also that when several of them are thrown into juxtapostion, instead of harmonizing and considering plans for the common good. every crab s hand, fgurativeiy speaking, is turned against every other crab, and there is a general and wholesale deprivation of legs and tails, ~s truly dem ocFatic characteristic. Then again, when inc crab is drawn up on the meat ball, il full enjoyment of the position for which he has been work ing he is still desirous of something 1 beyond-he does not know what. He gets rattled, reaches out indefinitely
 with all his legs and nippers and grap-
 pies only with empty air and finds
 lodgment in the bucket.
 "I am a democrat and I am fearful
 that my observation upon i.le political
 habits of the crab will result in my
 being kicked out of the party. In that
 disastrous event I will establish the
 likeness of democrats and crabs b5
 crawling backward into the party
 again.