The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-24
PLEA FOR SQUIRRELS.
THE SQUIRRELS ALI KSEW
 HER.
Park Management Neglectful and Her

Park Management Negleetful and Her
 Proteges VIII starve. Lying in bed. horribly burned from the explosion of a kerosene lamp, is Mrs. J. M. Spiers of No. 25 West Nine ty-ninth street, the woman who has given up her life to feeding the squir. rels and small animals in Central Park. An over-weighted lamp shade upset the lamp exploding the kerosene. Mrs. Spiers was alone reading at the time and was instantly enVeloped in flames She had no carpet or blanket to smoth- CT the fire, but with great presence of mind, while the flames ate through the skin, she literally hugged out the blaze. Tt was miraculous escape" said visitor.
 Yes" said her old attendant; T told her she was just too lucky for any thing"
 But Mrs. spiers is not thinking of her own misfortune. She wants to tell the public through the Globe to take care of the squirrels until she can get out again. The doctor says this may be many weeks.
 Mrs. Spiers, who spends nearly eight hours every day with the Central Park squirrels, every one of whom knows her soft whistle says that Park Com missioner Pallas does not take parti- cle of interest in the birds, rabbits and squirrels in the park, and unless some one takes up her work for few weeks the poor little things" will starve.
 lowing to official neglect" said she. i4e Nf al Jr. IoIa fot of rabbits have disappeared and birds by the score, as well as their nests, have been destroyed"
 Mrs. Spiers is reputed to know more about animal life in the park than any one else. She began her work four years ago. The second year she spent twenty-nine dollars for nuts, not yet knowing the haunts of the squirrels last year her expenditure increased ninety-six dollars, and this year already she has spent over two hundred dollars.
 "The menageries officials tell visitors that friends of the park squirrels give them all the feed they need. This is partly true. but God help the squirrels if 1t were not. During the deep snows officials claim to feed them twice a week, but all last winter don't sup pose this feeding happened six times.
 "The cruelty to the park squirrels is sometimes excessive. Some of the boys in the park are simply thoughtless and take away the squirrels nuts while others are thieves; there are so many of the latter kind that I am beginning to believe in the theory of original cussedness. Boys with bean shots break or rnaim the legs of birds; those with sling shots go step further and kill the birds and squirrels; but the most cruel of all are the autoists. Some of these seem to consider 1t sport to run down the creatures as they hop across the road; and just the other day, a squirrel caught in the wheels of an automobile, emerged from the spokes minus his tail Unconsciously the in discriminats feeding of squirrels from carriages is partly responsible for such tragedies, for the small gray things are aliured on the drives to get run over while eating their nuts after the car riages are gone I can rout the boys with the slung shots, and already do better patrol work than the police, but have no influence over the automobil- ists that run down squirrels.
 Approximately feed from eighty to one hundred squirrels a dey. When there is snow the squirrels and I have hiding places for nuts, and they come to them from long distances. The nuts used are peanuts, chestnuts. hickory nuts, and few delicacies occasionally such as oceans and filberts which are too expensive for an everyday diet. think the squirrels in the park are in creasirlg, but 1t may be that they sim ply come to me in greater numbers.
 ,sThere are all kinds, too. Like peo- sple they have differegt dispositions and one squirrel, Old Mamma, is nine wears old. and having lost her teeth, must have the nuts cracked. She Is in the grove north of the Circle and One Hundred and Sixth street, and l hope some one will feed her until l get we'll. 4IJnless some one does feed the squir-. rels there is no telling how much they may suffer.
 Most of the squirrels are m the grove Just above the east drive, at the Grand Circle, near One HHundred and Sixth street and the West Drive, across this drive towards the block house, and in the grove southeast of the fort. I hope the people who now feed the squir- rels at Ninety-sixth street will remem-. Der these groves and go there. Brook lyn Times.