Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1908-07-09
In Japan railroad train is sent from


while every guard, inspector and train
attendant is good-natured youth.
Boys of fourteen handle the mail bags
of the steamboats, with the gravity of
the elders. The soldiers are all be-
tween twenty and thirty years of age,
and the officers are for the most part
under forty. though occasionally one
sees a gray-haired fellow, covered with
| medals, a hero perhaps of the Satsuma
revolution of 1868. They have admirals
IN the navy thirty-tive years of age.
The important business Of the country
Is directed by young men who are still
| .tudents
HUNTING THE JACkRABBiT.
| story of y Famous Days Sport In u Col
| orado Town.
When the special train bringing the
| visiting hunters reached Lamar there
| was brass band at the station, and
the brass band was there when they
left. The merchants closed their
Stores and the people threw open theil
| houses for the entertainment of their
guests. After the hunt began the ir
regular discharge of the rifles in the
sand hills around Lamar reminded one
of picket firing. When large party of
gunners found stretch of prairie
where the rabbits were thick the re-
port of the guns sounded like general
engagement. Though the rabbit hunt
is fixed annual event in Lamar, and
rabbits are killed by thousands, there
seems to be no decrease in the number.
They multiply SO rapidly during the
summer months that ii becomes neces-
sary to make some such organized at
tack on them, for they are becoming as
great nuisance as they are in Aus
tralia. The rabbits breed on the grassy
plains above the canals, where they
stay until their forage fails them Then
they gather in the alfalfa fields, which
accounts for their being so numerous at
this season of the year, says Harper's
Weekly.
At the beginning of the hunt the
wagons began coming In at four o'clock
and continued until nine at night, with
heaping loads of the slain furry enc
mics of the farmer. The cleaners be-
gan their work with the first wagon
load, and worked bravcly, but the odds
were against them, and they were soon
half buried in the mass of rabbits await
ing preparation for shipment. At the
: first days hunt fully two Thousand
were killed. No wagon brought in
fewer than one hundred rabbits, and
one went as high as four hundred and
! fifty, about three Thousand pounds. A
great number of rabbits were slain
which were not brought in. All rec
: ords were broken at this hunt, and not
a single accident occurred to mar the
: pleasure of the participants.
When the spring comes and the fresh
green grass comes up the jackrabbits
$ appear i'm large numbers and begin TO
4 nibble on the bark Of the young fruit
e trees and the vines. Whole orchards
e are destroyed by them. II you were to
walk through large vineyard you
might not see one rabbit, although
: hundreds might be around you. They
secrcte themselves very cleverly in the
: grass, and, being SO nearly the color of
= the ground, are hard to detect. They
I lie close, with their large ears fiat upon
S their backs, until disturbed, and one
!, can almost walk over them before they
J will move
- Sealed In the Walls Of Parliament and
Opened Every Twenty Years.
The originals of our yard measure
and pound weight otherwise the
:, British standard weights and meas
ures-are sealed or walled up in the
u sides of the house Of parliament at Lon
u don. The cavity IN the wall in whicl
9 these precious standards are preserved
somewhat resembles tomb and can b,
= opened only by tearing away the wall
?, The two articles which are therein S,
! | SafnIx, % at,1
yard measure is of bronze, in the shap
"a of bar, thirty eight inches in length
le thirty-six sections, or one yard, havinl
N been marked off upon it with som
N finely scaled instrument. The weigh
To standard is a cube of platinum, weigh
~ ing exactly sixteen ounces. Weight
Il. as it is it is scarcely more than an inc
M in extent on either side, and, il sold fo
IN the metal there is in it, would brin
Or nearly two hundred dollars.
er Once every twenty years the wall
d. inclosing these standards are tor
he away for the purpose of removing tn
Oh two pieces of metal and comaring the
length and weight with the ofiicis
e. standards in use by the bureaus
n weights and measures. These con
IN PARSONS are made under the superv
~ sion Of the president of the Londo
" board of trade and several other official
Is appointed by the different bra nches
ut the queens government.
IL Extremely delicate and elaborate al
"a paratus for making these comparison
ID are used, and il the units in use by tn
r bureau referred to have been change,
or deyiate the least from the STANDARD
ty with which they were compared twent
tn years before, they are immediatel
Of changed, SO as to conform with I'll
to original bronze and platinum type
RS The ceremony Of comparing IL
n standards" was last made in April, 1s9
to After the comparisons had been mac
ne and no variations detected, they wei
OF again walled up with the nnderstan
y, ing that they would not be again di
ne turbed until April, 1912.