The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-05-21
With the Long Bow
Low Trick Played on the White Terrier Jack in a Debas-
ing Doghght-Brindle's Hide Was Filled with Red
Pepper and Jack Was Obliged to Release His Hold
to Sneeze. -H " -v-'
''Eye natzre's walks. shoot Jelly

VERY low trick was played on Jack, a white
n bull terrier who had been made into a fighting
"A machine by his debased master who has some
thing to do daytimes with the city government of New
York. A Tammany politician thought so highly Of
his terrier, Brindle, that he matched him against Jack
for $3.50 a side. Three hundred men gathered at Il
roadhouse outside of the city last week at midnight
to enjoy the intellectual feast provided by the dogs
joint debate.
Brindle, and the white dogs hackers yelled enthusi-
astically "that it was all over" To their intense
disgust Jack, who had never before let go of any.
thing, released his hold and sneezed, Gas if he'd
sneeze his bloody head off, - said a man who saw the
fight.
mously and insisted that his dogs handler should
examine Brindle. He soon discovered that red pepper
had been rubbed into Brindle's hide. When Jack had
secured a fair hold on the other dogs integument the
pepper arose and Jack simply had to sneeze. AS he
could not make a 60 of this, sneeze without breaking
his hold, you see at once the enormlty OF the crime
committed by Brindle's owner.
Of course there was a man fight, for there was
good money up and a great many battered statesmen
are today running the 'it 81 Of New York.
In digging in a sodded part of the garden the other
day a disturbed queen ant flew up and away. The
queen ant is one of the most interesting insects in
the world. She is born in the ant community at the
height of it's annual development when the ant hill
is crowded with queens, workers and males. During
her prenuptial life, she may assist the workers in
carving about, feeding and cleaning the brood. She
eats food brought into the nest by the foraging
workers. She may occasionally join the workers in
eXc&vat1ng chambers ana galleries.. LII IL De1OngS
to a slave-making species she may even accompany
the workers on their accommodating expeditions: =
When fully mature she becomes impatient for her
marriage flight and must often be forcibly detained
in the nest by the workers till the p%ropitious hour
arrives when the males and females from all the nests
in the neighborhood rise high into the air and cele-
brate their ~nuptials.
The queen then descends to earth and pulls off her
wings with her jaws or by rubbing them against stones.
She then starts in on her life work Of creating colonies.
A burrow is prepared in the soil, under a stone or in
rotten wood where the eggs are laid and Matched.
The little fellows know at once what to do. They
enlarge the original chamber and continue the excava-
ton in the form of galleries. They go forth in search
of food and share it with their exhausted mother, who
now exhibits a further and final change in her be-
havior. She becomes timid and utterly Indifferent to
the young while she limits her activities to laying
eggs and imbibing liquid food from the tongues Of
attendants. With circumscribed activity she lives on,
sometimes to an age of fifteen years, as a mere egg
LAYING machine. The current reputation Of the ant
queen is derived from such old, toothless, timorous
queens found in wellestabished colonies. But it is
not chivalrous to dwell exclusively on the limitations
of these decrepit beldames without calling to mind
the charms and selfsacrifces Of their younger days.
The queen Of one genus of American ants called
Alta keeps garden during her retirement. She carries
the germ of this garden from the parental nest in
the form of g pellet Of fungus slowed away in her
buccal pocket, splits it out soon after completing her
chamber, cares for the rapidly growing plants and
carefully weeds them till her brood matches. These
then bring into the nest the pieces of leaves and
the vegetable detritus essential to the maintenance and
growth of the garden.
All these details have been written for the Popu-
lar Science Monthly by a man who has made a pas
sionate study Of an anthll. In addition to what is
told above, he has thrown in such words as "metabo-
lism, - "ethology,' 'catenary rehexes," '%'phototro-
pic,' and tsintraspecifc polymorphism.' b. skipping
these you may learn a great deal about a very inter
esting lady, the queen ant.
o. M
I wrote my name upon the sand
And trusted it would stand for aye;
"Slap," came a high, dod gasted wave
And washed the feeble line away.
I carved my name upon the bark
And after years returned again,
= There was a %chopping sound and, bark!
A smooth barked tree lay on the plain.
To solid marble next my name
% l gave as a perpetual trust,