The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-04-05
TIE HATTIESBURG NEWS
NEWS NOTES AND GOSSIP
FROM GAY OLD GOTHAM

NEW YORK, April 5.-While Mr..
Taft's 'possum dinner was receiving
the attention of the press and public,
the managers of the Broadway Lobster
palaces seized opportune moment to
encourage New Workers to put up a
higher price for 'possum dinners. And
as there is set here that is always
on the lookout for strange palate tick
/ lers, their advertisement of possum
first met with success.
The opossum fever seems to have
almost passed, for which We have
cause for congratulation, for some Of
the public were making themselves
ridiculous over a gray nasty object,
for the opossum is the most uncleanly
feeder to be found, being as much
scavenger as a turkey buzzard, while
his flesh is almost offensive and his
fat insufferable Very few whites
touch his flesh, and the donkeys lux
uriate in the superintendent fat. The
| opossum is never shot, as it is
thought that a bullet poisons the fat.
Yet such a distinguished Cartoonis1
as Homer Davenport pictured Presi-
dent Taft returning from an opossum
hunt with a gun on his shoulder. q
gun being a weapon that is never al
lowed in an opossum hunt. People
passing through North and South Car
DINA will see signs frequently dis
played in patches of woods near The
railroads, which say in bold letters,
mo hunting with fire and axe" All
opossum hunting party is composed
of white men, negroes, dogs and fat
pine torches, with never a gun. As
the party sweeps through the woods,
the light of the fat pine links L.
turned toward the tops Of the trees
Soon the cleaning eyes of an opossun
are seen peering over the branches.
At once a couple of negroes swing
their axes, and down comes the tree
AS it falls the dogs, who have been in
a frenzy spring for the opossum, and
the negroes spring for the dogs, res
cuing it before the feverish ours have
mangled it. The captor land the an
imal, who is as still as a mouse nib
bling cheese, takes the victim by the
tall carrying him thus while the party
moves on. As they walk and talk,
the opossum is forgotten. But at that
point is when the animal shows hrs
master trick, for up he he climbs on
his tail, nips the thumb and hnger
holding him with a sharp bite, and
away he goes. The opossum toys eX-
hibited in the windows still attract
crowds that block the sidewalks, la
"Teddy Bears" but their sale, never
large, is diminishing.
The mystery regarding Mr.. e. H.
Hartman, the great railroad king, re
cardnig his retiring from or staying
in public life, still continues unsolven,
with the probability that the great
manipulation of rails and money finds
that he has tackled the hardest prob
lem he has ever had to solve. 1t will
take almost as much force to place
Mr.. Hartman in retired position
as it did to build the pinnacle upon
which he stands in the financial world.
If some big slip is made, there might
be a Messina catastrophe in the rail
road and financial work. Yet it has
been a very fatieuing and tiresome
work that Mr.. Hartman has been en-
gagged in, and it is not surprising that
he is slow and cautious about his
movements in a great matter that con
Germs himself his friends, the coun-
try and even the world.