The National tribune., 1908-04-30

What a background for a weird,
grewsome tale the historic old bat-in-
tested "Montville'' would make, and
the mise en- scene for one of his creepy
stories! "Montville," supposed to have
been the home of the great Patrick
Henry at one time. is among the last
of the Revolutionary homes in Virginia,
and has for many years been in the
possession of the Aylett family, who
are descendants of Elizabeth, the daugh-
ter of Patrick Henry, who married an
Aylett. During the lifetime of the faith
= er of the present heirs the famous house
was noted far and wide for its lavish
hospitality, and many a brilliant party
gathered in its fine, spacious rooms and
broad halls. After his death, some IL
years ago, the place was rented, and
from that time, so the story goes, the
house began to be overrun with bats.
In spite of all efforts to get rid of these
. loathsome creatures, they managed to
get into the house, somehow, squeezing
thru cracks of windows and doors, floors
and walls hardly large enough to admit
a roach. No room could be made suffi-
ciently air tight to keep them out, and
no matter how many thousands were
killed there seemed to be no apprecia-
bic difference in their number. A negro
one afternoon knocked down and killed
1000 with a tennis racket, but the next
day there were just as many of the
repulsiVe animals hanging in the grand
parlors and spacious bedrooms as be-
fore. One bat would attach himself to
piece of furniture, the WALL the win
dow sill or any place where he could
get a footing, and other bats would
hang from him by their hind legs, in
great strings yards long, sometimes al
most entirely covering a window like n
curtain. At night these strings would
separate and the bars fly thru cracks
and crevices to the open, squeezing back
again before dawn. Poison was tried
on them, but they seemed TO thrive on
it, and finally the occupant was forced
to leave the house to the bats and seek
a home elsewhere. Recently they have
begun to be nuisance to other resi-
dents of the vicinity, and the owners
of "Montville" have decided that the
only way to get rid of the pests is to
burn the old mansion down. Mont
ville'' is supposed to have been built
about 1920, and was as fine an example
of handsome colonial home as we
had in the country.
The popular Merry Widow" hat has
been the cause of much innocent merri-
ment on the part of the public, especial
ly the masculine part, and the wonder
as to how it could possibly be managed
in a crowd, etc, grew with the size of
the hats But we are told that nothing
is without its use, and it is even so with
the Merry Widow" The other day a
young girl in Cleveland, who, in spite
of her Merry Widow" covered with
beautiful bright flowers, was not happy,
tried to drown herself, but she couldn't,
for her big hat, like Banquo's ghost,
would not down, but deftly turned itself
Into a life. preserver by keeping her
head above water. Just as she was get
ting out her hatpins in order to free
herself from this unexpected thwarting
of her purpose, she was spied by some
one and rescued. And still again the
apparently soulless, frivolous Merry
Widow" played the noble part of res
cuer A sweet young thing in par
ticularly broad-brimned, rose-covered,
fashionable head covering of this char
acter dropped her pet puppy in the riv-
er. The current carried poor little
doggy downstream to rock, upon
which he had sense enough to crawl.
His devoted and agitated mistress took
her Merry Widow" tore off eli it's
beautiful decorations, and, tying a
strong string to its ample brim, let it
float to the rock. After some coaxing
the puppy was induced TO get into the
hat. when his delighted mistress quickly
pulled him to the shore. So who would
be without Merry Widow in the
family? Who, indeed?
, The Goulds are certainly very much
In the public eye this Spring as far as
their matrimonial affairs are concerned.
With Howard Gould's sensational di-
Torce and Anna Gould's affair with de