The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-20
Captured the Enemy.

was DuSlly Ild&ttcdt1B IL
 Captured the Enemy.
 Silently l extended my hand. Then, with a swoop, I captured my enemy. It was the work of a moment to turn up the light and examine my prize. He was at least two inches long, and his little beady eyes followed my every movement with intent interest. Captivated by the richness of his beautiful brown coat and flexible legs, I then and there determined to carry him back home with me. I named him Alonzo and put him in my hat box with the patent leather shoe for patent leather was the only herbage that l really knew he grazed on.
 When 1 got back to college with Alon- 20 all my friends made fun of me, espe- cially when l announced my intention of training him. I knew, however. that fieas had been trained successfully, so there seemed to be no reason why could not train Alonzo in the same manner.
 q built him a comfortable little cage out of wire and at one end of the cage l placed a little wheel, so that Alonzo could get all the exercise he needed. I also placed the shoe In the cage. In a very short time Alonzo conceived an in- ordinate affection for the shoe, and could scarcely bear to be separated from 1t. Before long 1t was eaten up. Then we used to go out and get patent leather shoes belonging to freshmen; so Alonzo was always well fed and grew larger week by week.
 But before long I discovered that Alon- 20 could eat anything, from the enamel on the bath tub to a cigarette butt. so the drain on the patent leather shoes of Holworthy soon stopped
 "All the time, of course, Alonzo was getting more and more used to me; so l decided that the time had come to be- gin his training.
 Responded to the Whistle.
 q began by opening the door of his cage. whistling shrily, and saying: Here, Alonzo' Then I would lay a small piece of moistened sugar near the door of the cage and close the door. In moment Alonzo would approach and devour the sugar It was only a week before Alon- 70 would run to the door as soon as whistled. From this point it was very simple to hold the sugar in my fingers and induce Alonzo to step up on them and take 1t. Soon Alonzo would answer to my whistle without expecting any sugar Generally, however, I gave him a little, just to show him that he was get ting along well. When he was particu- larly pleased he would elevate his two hind legs high in the air and wiggle them. He was certainly intelligent.
 About this time my two roommates be- gan to take d good deal of interest in
 
 friends. The men who did the most for Alonzo and who have been the most broken up by his loss are F. P. FarQuhar '09; T. S. Green, '09. and Captain Cur rier and Manager Cable of the baseball team. They have the entry next to ours and they were constant visitors to Alon- 20. They also took a prominent part in his training.
 Each one of us slected some one par ticular thing that he wished to teach Alonzo and then we proceeded to do 1t Green, for instance, taught him how tc stand on the edge of a pipe-an un- | lighted one, of course-with out falling in. This was a remarkably clever trick and one which always elicited unstintet applause from all beholders Green was very patient with Alonzo-more patien | than any of the other fellows, ant | Alonzo appreciated it. He would never eat any of Greens shoes That was g funny thing about Alonzo; he would never eat any stuff belonging to fel- l lows who were good to him. After he finished with that first shoe of mine ht never touched anything belonging tt me except cigarette butts. That's ons | of the things that makes 1t so hard to lose him.
 Paine taught Alonzo how to rol over and die when anyone said Yale | in a loud, firm voice. Paine accomplished this only after weeks of the most ardu- ous la5or. He would say Yale, ant then tie would pin Alonzo down to the table lafter tripping him up by his hind 1egs. Then he would reward hin witfj small piece of dried lobster claF for which Alonzo exhibited 2 ] ma 3ked fondness. For long time ths