Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-12-22
YOUNG LADIES', TAKE WARNING.
Don't Rejoice in a Mouse's Death When
Your Young Mans About.


Don't Rejoice in a Mouse's Death When
Your Young Mans About.
This incident occurred in Washing.
ton not very long ago:
A young man was calling upon the
girl to whom h. was engaged. The
couple were sitting on the front steps
of the girls home, an hour or so be.
fore the fall of darkness, when they
noticed the cat attached to the house
hold of the girls family going down the
steps leading to the basement area with
a tiny field mouse in its mouth. The
cat had caught the mouse in the vacant
lot alongside the house.
Dropping the tiny mouse over in
corner of the area, the cat proceeded
to torture the little animal after the
accepted feline fashion.
She would permit the mouse to run
that she didn't know that there was a
mouse within miles, and then she
would jump out, nail the mouse with
her foot and toss it back to the corner.
Then she would pick the mouse up
in both Of her paws, throw it into the
air, and when it came down and
started to run, nail it again. The tiny
mouse would squeeze itself into a
corner and sit up and look at the cat
pitifully, and then the cat would swipe
1t out of the corner with her paw and
step on it, her eyes blazing ecstatically
and her tail swishing. Some natural
historians say that there is no animal
so atrociously and gloatingly cruel as
the ordinary, purring, domesticated cat.
"That mouse" said the young fellow
to the girl to whom he was engaged,
sis only youngster yet. Strikes me
he ought to have chance for his white
alley"
"Oh, I don't know" said the girl,
who, with her chin in her hands, was
dreamily and fascinatedly regarding
the spectacle of the mouse being tor
tured by the cat.
Don't you think it horrible to see
the poor little beggar getting the worst
of it that way?" he asked the girl, with
a slight note of surprise in his tone.
She made no reply, but still with her
chin resting in her hands, gazed calmly
ut the cat tossing the dimlnutive mouse
into the air, and stepping on it, and
dabbing at it with her paws, and pick
ing it up in her mouth and throwing 1t
down again.
"Mice get into the house." said the
girl, after while.
"But that kind DON'T" said the young
man, bit earnestly. "Thats a field
mouse, and field mice don't bother any
body"
The mouse was sitting up in the
area corner, with its tiny forepaws
folded in front in a very pleading at
titude, while the cat gaZed with eX-
panding eyes at it before beginning to
dab at it again.
"I'm going to give that mouse run
for it's taw MARBLE" said the young
man, getting up from the steps and
starting down the area steps.
Let the cat alone" said the girl,
quietly, but never removing her gaze
from the sight of the tortured mouse.
TIE young man stopped suddenly
and looked up at the girl.
"I want to give the mouse chance
to get away" he said. Surely you
don't find enjoyment in watching n
poor little beast getting handled that
way?"
"You don't have to look at it if you
don't want to-" said the girl, with a
In Il o,I, in bor OF
the cat alone"
The young fellow gazed steadily at
her for half n minute, but she didn't
appear to notice this. She was too in
tent upon the deviltry OF the cat.
After twenty minutes of torturing its
prey, in the course of which it broke
the mouse's legs so that the tiny rodent
could only hobble in its efforts to run
| away, the cat ate the mouse. The girl
never took her eyes from the cat until
the cat had finished it's prey. Then she
| gave q sort of satisfied sigh as she
| emerged from her fascinated trance.
"Well, the cat has had her SUPPER
| she said, in matter -of-fact tone to her
| fiance.
Goodnight" he said to her, and he
| tipped his hat to her and walked down
| the street without looking back.
This happened two months ago. The
| young fellow hasn't called upon her
| since. There is going to be no mar
riage-Washington Star.
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