The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-05-30
WASHINGTON
From our REGULAR Correspondent.


ing at Mrs. X oosevelts lodge at
Pine Knot, Va. He was away
from the city about a week, shot a
little and walked and rode a great
deal. Tie is looking much better
for the outing and will put III the
time working till the start is made
for the long outing of the whole
family at Oyster Bay where they
will spend .he summer. Secretary
Loeb has already shipped most of
the office furniture for the tempo
rary executive office that the pfes'-
dent occupies over one of the stores
in Oyster Bay, and the home of
family at Sycamore Hill will be
kept as free as possible from visit
ors in the rather vain hope of Civ
ing the President a real rest. His
way of resting is rather joke and
amounts to what would be a good
DAYS work for most men. There is
about as much business carried on
in the summer at Oyster Bay as
there is at the White House in the
winter, but the President has told
some of his friends !aughingly that
he intends to be good this summer
and will merely get off some reams
of literary work as recreation.
1t is understood that this will in
clude some more reviews of Irish
folk lore. This was comparative
ly recent line of research by Mr..
Roosevelt. He is said to have been
introduced to it last winter by DR..
Maurice Francis Egan, the pro-
fessor of the Catholic University
who has Just been offered his
choice between the mission to Den
mark and that to Portugal. DR..
Egan is himself all Irishman as
might be suspected from his name
and is authority on Gaelic litera-
ture. He got the President inter
ested i'll the subject which he
promptly devoured, and when
Douglas Hyde, the President of
the Gaelic League was here in the
winter he was surprised TO find
that the President apparently had
no recreation except studying the
Irish classics. Then when the row
came on with Tillman, Chandler
and Bailey over the rate bill, the
President decided that he would
divert himself a little and forget
what the papers were saying about
him. He started work on his
magazine article The Irish Sag
as, promptly forgot all about
politics outside of Office hours, and
by the time the partizan papers
had gotten through dissecting the
rate bill row, the magazine article
was finished and the President had
missed the bulk of the newspaper
criticism.
XXX
1t will be bad news to sportsmen
all over the country but according
to the Department of Agriculture
there has an epidemic broken out
among the quail and grouse that
promises to be as severe as the
English shooting coverts and the
Scotch moors. 1t was almost a
year ago that the first indications
of the disease were found by the
Department in some birds that had
died of mysterious malady in the
hands of a Washington dealer,
More birds died in the same way
.f
his healthy stock was infected on
the premises. 1t was found that
the disease came in shipments of
birds from point in Alabama.
Then there were similar reports
from Kansas and up to date areas
of infections have been determined
in Kansas, Alabama, Indian Terri
tory, Massachusetts and Nova
Scotia. The disease attacks quail
and grouse and is something like
infectious pneumonia, The germ
of the disease has been isolated and
it appears closely allied to if not
identical with the dreadful English
grouse disease. The spread is SER
ious enough to cause alarm, and
the Department has sent out circu-
lars asking for reports wherever
there seems TO be an outbreak of
infectious disease among the quail
and grouse. 1t is to be hoped that
the infected areas can be defined
and quarantined and the spread of
the disease checked. The Depart
ment will be grateful for any speci-