Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-31
IT'S TO BE A HARD WINTER.
At Least So Indicates the Prairie Dogs
and the Big Bear at Providence.

From the Providence Journal.
The coming winter will be a hard one.
This is not the idle statement of an alarm
list, nor Is it a political canard. 1t has its
foundations deep in the realm of science,
for the prairie dogs at Roger Williams
Park have made the prophecy and their
arguments are irrefutable.
Having given all the testimony they
deemed necessary on this point, the prairie
dogs retired from public view on Sunday
to the warm bottoms of the holes they have
dug in their pen at the park and refused to
be interviewed Not so much as nose
was seen above the ground or a pair of
beady eyes cast heavenward for further
pros oStlcation, for these lmportatlonS from
the west make up their minds and are as
immovable by any argument mere human
can present as the operator of coal mine.
Their prophesy as to the severity of the
winter now at hand is found, accord
ing to Max Sloman head keeper of the
city's menagerie at the park, in the huge
mounds of earth they have thrown up in
front of their burrows. The higher the
mound the colder the winter, Is the way
Max reads the omens, the height of the
mound depending, of course, on the depth
of the burrow, and those who believe with
him, that prairie dog can forecast more
accurately than the best government sharp,
with barometers, anometers and other in
tricate paraphernalia, will do well to make
up their minds without further delay for
chilly days to come. Included in this class
will be all who have studied the ways of
the far-sighted prairie dog. The little ami
mails get down in their burrows and stay
there until the good summer time comes
round again. Then they climb up, throw
back the blinds, and ask II the coal strike
is over.
If the word of the prairie dog is not suffi-
Client on this subject, with which they claim
to be conversant as any member of the
animal kingdom, Jack, the black bear, has
something to offer. Since Jack made an
attack several months ago on a little girl
at the park he has been confined to one of
the barred cages Of the main animal house.
Jack unquestionably looks prepared.
Whereas a few months back he resembled
a furriers sign which has seen several hard
seasons, he has now provided himself
glossy, thick. black fur, and this covers
two or three inches of solid fat which Jack
has taken on lest the bread supply falls
short 1t Is well known that when bears
are at large they select In the fall hollow
tree or secluded nook OF rocks and there go
to sleep for the winter. If they awaken
and hear the blizzard bowling outside their
retreat they suck their paws and doze off
again. When they turn in for their winter
sleep they are as fat as roll Of butter and
by spring they look as much like junk
Dealers horse as anything in the animal
line. During their long sleep without food
the fat with which their carcasses are In
crusted is completely consumed. and the
more severe the winter, according to their
take on. Jack certainly looks just at pres
ent like a hard winter. II any one wants
to back up a counter prediction to those of
Jack and the prairie dogs with good coin
of the realm, takers are to be found at the
park.