The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-13
ROYAL BAKING POWDER co. NEW YORK.

nearest me opened gradually, the dead
animal slowly raised itself from the
ground, and after standing for a mo-
ment like a hairy statue, trotted off,
and disappeared inside the overturned
barrel
The fact that the opossum will feign
death when he fancies himself in dan
ger, is known to every HID, yet the
trick is so cleverly performed as to
make one fancy that this time" the
animal really is dead.
L kept this specimen for some time
to observe its habits in captivity but 1
confess that the habits which it dis
closed were very few. 1t slept all day
long, and when I entered the room at
night 1t was always in one particular
spot, the top of the tree in the center Of
the room, always with that mirthless,
uncanny smile upon its parted lips 1t
never ate a mouthful in my presence,
but food of any kind left in the room at
night was usually gone in the morning.
He seemed partial to poultry and 9TH
err birds, but he would eat fresh meat,
fish or fruit. He never gnaWed or
scratched the woodwork as a raccoOn
or squirrel would do. and never at
tempted to escape. When we took him
into the garden, as we often did, he
would rather clumsily climb the trees,
and Sometimes hang from the branches
by his hind feet or even by his prehen-
sile tail alone. He always had the ap-
pearance of one resigned to his fate,
and, in spite of his sinister grin, he
submitted to all experiments with pa
thence.
In September I decided to give him
his liberty, well knowing that with his
ingenuity and ability to adapt himself
to circumstances, he would thrive
where many of" the native animals
would starve. I carried him off to a
wild spot, where there was an album
dance of food, and turned him loose,
leaving him big basket of miscellane-
Gus provisions, which would last until
he had a chance to turn round" so to
speak and investigate the resources of
the neighborhood. He disappeared in
tangle Of underground and [ have not
seen him since. But I have heard of
him and by all accounts he is holding
his own. The first report came from g.
farmer, who had a cornfield within half
a mile of the place where / freed the
possum. This man was walking along
the edge of the field at dusk, and no.
ticed that some of the cornStalks were
broken down. He was going nearer to
investigate, when queer gray animal,
such as he had never seen before,
nj iY1
woodchuck burrow. Some time later a
rural postman reported that one after
noon he had seen funny gray skunk
with no hair on it's tail, running along
the border of a wood, and that when
he followed to get better look, to his
surprise the skunk ran up tree and
into a hole near the top. Then col
ored man. returning from his work,
caught glimpse of some strange crea-
ture, which brought recollections of the
times "befo' de wa','' EFF avid been
in Virginny sted er Massachusetts"
said he, I'D swore dat critter was
'possum; yes aw would, OATS shore"
The last time I heard of the opussum
was the day after the first snoW-storm.
A gunner was walking through the
woods, when he came upon a strange
track in the snow. 1t looked, he said,
as though it had been made by the de-
formed hand of small child He fol-
lowed it to the foot of big tree where
the snow was much trampled and
bloody, and there he found a part of
what had once been a red squirrel.
When an opossum cannot get square
meal, there is not much food to be had.
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.