The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-17

the chuck in the geological gardens,
but it is we'll worth your time to so
out into the woods and sit on a log
for a week to Studyzhis ha bits and post
yourself on his characteristics.
The 'possum, which, for good many
years, had an 80" in front of his name
(O'Possum), and was, therefore. sup
posed to have wandered over here from
France or Ireland, is not found in those
countries at all. While one is to be
met with in South America now and
then, the true home of the creature is
in North America, and here he flourish
es and lives to a fat old age. The first
writers on natural history made him
out a cross between the wolf and the
bear, and gave him a mouth full of
terrible teeth and claws strong enough
to rip the bark off a grindstone, but
we have come to know him for what he
is and to color up his fur and try to
pass it off for a wolf robe.
The 'pOssum is also in the habit of
running out nights, but naturalists
have not held it up against him. Night
is his best time for picking up a din
ner and hearing the news from the
rabbit and the fox, and he is not apt to
meet SO many dogs. Nature did not
give the animal the right sort Of legs
to run on, nor the right sort of teeth
to bite with, and therefore, when over
taken by three or four brindled dogs OF
two or three farmers sons, he drops
down and pretends to have suddenly
expired of fatty degeneration of the
heart.
only an alderman. who is getting a
fifteen per cent rake off from a city
contract can play 'possum equal to the
possum himself. While seeming to be
dead he can be kicked and thumped
and slammed around in the most cheer
full manner and will give no sign of
life 1t is only after he has been lug
ged up to the house and nailed to the
woodshed by his ears and left to hin-
self for three OF four hours that ne
carefully opens one eye to see If Uncle
Reuben or any of the boys are loafing
around. If they are not he opens the
other eye and begins to twist and
Wriggle, aud a few minutes later he is
cantering off to his forest home and
feeling that it is good to be alive. 1t
may interest the student of natural his
tory to learn that q colored man six
feet high can eat the whole of baked
'possum four feet long and have enough
appetite left to get away with three Dig
vans in addition. For this reason GER
tain people have sought to classify the
yam as an animal, but up to date nave
made a failure of it.
Very early in his life the coon decided
that North America was good enough Tor
him. and he has since put in most of his
time right here If it hadn't been Tor MS
meat which tastes something like Mary
land chicken with the Mary left out and
most of the feathers left in, the patrlot
army could never have got through tnaI
winter at valley EOASS- winch fJSA
beef and quail on toast gave out all the
'coons who had a spark of PATRIOTISM IN
their hearts came forward and asked 10
be killed and eaten. Their meat nearten-
ed up the starving revolutionlsts, anu
their tails Hopping around the necks OF
the men who had sworn to conquer or
die struck such terror to the hearts OF
the British that they decided to go rlghl
home and finish up their corn planting,
In one respect the coon is like an OLD
tramp-he1l eat most anything Inat
comes handy and wait until the next day
for fried oysters. He'll pick chicken on
the roost, dig half buShel of CLANS OF
oysters, deVour a dozen sweet apples, get
away with a peck of parsnips or empty
five pound jar of lard or butter. Nature
made him a runner and fighter. Ills
first move, when farmers dog gets at
ter him, is to take to his heels the cog
thinks he's got the softest snap of the
year and works up his gait and his en-
thusiasn but about the time he is ready
to snap at the long tail floating out be-
hind, the coon turns and remembers
Bunker HILL and two minutes later there
is a licked dog The dog may live for ten
will he forget how twenty buzz saws We're
working away at him at the same time
The fur of a coon in its natural state, IS
often sold for that of the wolf to inno-
cent old ladies or tenderhearted sSchool
ma'ams and when run through corn
shelter and mixed with carpet rags It has
been worked off one on-eyed men as ST.
berian squirrel.
1t is not strictly true that all 'coons
look alike" There are coons and .coons;
the same as there are dogs and dogs and
the points of difference are so marked
that a special article may be written on
that subject some day.