The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1908-04-14
ALLIs. CUSTER COUNTY, IDAHO.
CATS AND CAT-LORE.

HWerlnB hlgh soprano wall, and the night
duet was on
Loveson Anita, the poet, put down hi
p''n, pushed his hands through his abur
dant hair, drew a little harder at his pipe
and went to the window to gaze out int
the moonlight that bathed in its effulgenc
the pretty village of Dingle in the Myrtles
Il hate cats, he said "Confound EN-
Oonfound all cats alway-cats of all col
ors, black, white, gray; by night nui
sanee, and by day-contound the cats! Here
l come to this bowery Eden bubbling ovel
with JOY at the thought OF escaping from
the ceaseless roar and rattle OF the city
to be disturbed by cats! Why, their noise
Is more destructive to inspirations more
trying to the nerves than the Changing of a
hundred trolley cars. No the comparison
won't do There is a certain fascination. a
strange, wild, stirring harmony in the diapa.
son OF the city's hum, and in the singing
OF the rushing trolleys Whereas cats"
lie ceased with gesture indicating that
words faiied him in which to express his
opinion Of the offending felines.
Mrs. Loveson Alta, who, while making
a pretense of working at some embroidery,
had been rocking herself in eonttnted indo-
lence and watching the changing express
sion on her husbands handsome lace as he
wrestlcd with the muse, laughed the little
ripping laugh that was one OF her many
charms, and that from the very first time
he had heard it had always been the sweet
est music 10 his ears.
We'll, it can't be helped" she said. LET
Hercules himself do what he may. the cat
will new"
There are such things as gins, and air
a haf IA At -
III get one. They say you can kill cat
with an airgun at don't know how many
yards"
"Fie! you wouldn't hurt poor harmless,
necessary pussy Besides, you forget, dear,
that eat has nine lives"
Oh, no, won't do thing to poor pussy
ID you ever hear anything like it in your
life?"
Loveson Anita put his fingers in his ears
and gazed desperately around for mis-
sile.
And then" continued his wife, eff YOU
were to shoot cat you would be filed
with remorse and haunted by a ghostly
tabby for the rest Of your days Didn't /
see you release struggling fly from that
sticky paper Nora keeps in the Kitchen"
They are no good, anyway" persisted
The poet, with growing wrath. They ought
as pubic nuisance to be exterminated."
They catch mice"
Not as well as mousetrap.. And they
are cruel and treacherous. Tney don't kill
their prey rigat off, as other and self-re-
specting animals do, but needs must make
sport OF it and subject it to the refinement
OF torture. And they are that deceitfu
and capricious you never know how to take
hnY tttat
somewhere that if cat has nine lives, a
woman has nine cats lives"
"0nl"
THAT is, Of course, other women. You
are not like other women"
What do you know about other women,
pray!' demanded Mrs. Loveson Anita with
a suspicion Of asperity and flushing slightly.
Notning, nothing, Of course from per-
sonal experience, my dear But they have
the reputation. It's a well-known fact"
"Oh, is it? Indesd!"
Yes, and as | am saying" went on the
poet, evasively, they are no good, they are
utterly worthless, they are fit for nothing
on earth-the cats, mean"
We'll, manufacturers make mufs and
boas and all kinds Of things with the skins"
DO theyy Then I'm glad to know the
brutes serve some useful purpose--when
they are dead. Now dog"
Never mind about dogs We are talk
ing about cats, and my purpose is to prove
that they are good for something"
Yes, I've heard of it raining cats and
dogs
I'm some parts Of France they eat catsl''
"Peuhl'
you needn't look incredulous- they do.
They call them gibier de la rue'-street
Rame-and IN a stew you wouldn't know
the difference between a cat and a rab-
bit"
you have tasted it?"
"0h. no, denied Mrs. Loveson Anita,
hastily. Sat least not to my knowledge:
but I've read about it,
Then they are principally useful as a
dainty to tickle the palates of some French
epicures, / take it. / can't imagine any
more ways than those you have enumerated
in which they can render service to man
kind"
They are useful as timepieces."
What"
81 am perfectly serious. In China they
serve as very handy clocks. It's this way;
The eyeball of cat contracts constantly
from dawn until noon, at which hour it is
merely a thin horizontal line. From noon
the eyeball gradually dilates until it reaches
full expansion at shutdown. So that in |
places where there are no clocks or dials
or where there are dials and the day is
cloudy Chinaman just picks up a cat and |
learns the hour by looking at its eyes"
Il had no idea that you had made
special study of cat lore but there's no
use talking, you Ysssar graduates known
everything under the sun"
Cats have still another virtue. Rheu-
matism can be cured by rubbing the af-
fected part with ginger-colored pussy"
'You area yeritable encyclopaedia, dear"
THAT is nothing. l have lots of talents |
you haven't yet discovered. However, that
will do for the present, and it now behooves
duet having terminated-to sit
right down and indite an ode to the Cat of
Cats"
"Stropses to a at--eatastrophes / can't I
do IT. but / will dash off rhapsodie stan
zas ad libitum to the most adorable little
champion who ever defended the cause of