The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-03-26
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MR. THOMPSON SETON TELLS OF 1.-THE BEAUTIFUL
MCNOCAMY OF THE BETTER CL ASS FOX
Like Nary His Etts Of The Wild Rtyad Apt be agaCd BY Mere
kaRA Tpe Il CtugaI Fidelity that Exceeded Oy blythe Goose,
Who AsIds Egtrtna Views On Marriage,

- al dIlO6Cll4Cl oASRNN sS~S
animal, that he is lacking in character
ana IS quite immoral-or even more
so-as his neighbors who indulge IN
!ltlle pllfering expeditions among the
parnyards that lure them TO wicked
ness, IS possibly destined to rude
SwaKenlng Judged by the standards
u human society the fox, 1t appears,
according to the testimony OF MS lat
eSt Dlographer, is a very. estimate IN
uiVlidual indeed. He is possessed OF a
considerable degree Of wisdom-but
tnat has been accorded to him by
long line of nature students and folk
lore people-chicken forms very
small portion OF his diet, and as hus-
oand and, to a limited extent, father
ne IS a model of rectitude and proprlety
that 1t might be well for the degenerate
human species to follow.
new view of the fox, or, the fox
ID the role of hero and uncompros1ls-
Ing foe Of polygamy. might be. said to
furnish the motive of series OF pa
pers by Ernest Thompson Seton in The
century Domino Reynard of Colour
Town" is the title given to these pa
pers, which have for their purpose, In
the authors own words, ''to show the
man-world how the fox-world lives
and above all to advertise and empha-
size the beautiful monogamy of the bet
ter-class fox.
In the SinaWas' Camp.
On the one hundred and fifty acres
OF lake and woodland which Mr.. Sc
tons beautiful estate of Wyndygoul,
Cos Cob. Conn, there are no foxes at
present At least a Sunday Times
reporter failed to discover the traces
of any as he searched through field and
thicket the other day in the hope OF
finding, not a fox, but Mr.. Seton-and
an explanation There were plenty OF
primitive things in the wilds of WINDY
goul-deserted Indian tepees,s totem
poles with the totems still on them,
prehistoric birds in wood and stone,
bark canoes, abandoned fireplaces of a
frankly aboriginal pattern-the re-
mains, in fact, of the camp OF the SIN
+aWas, one of the tribes of the Seton
Indians" a race of outdoor devotees
which maintains every summer some
thing like two thousand camps scat
tered throughout the United States and
Canada And then there we're wild
geese, scores of them-at least they
used to be wild before they struck
Wyndygoul-sh shutting and cackling
among the autumn leaves that covered
up the various Indian trails along
which the Sinawa braves are accustom-
ed to course their prey in summer. OF
these wild geese, by the way, there is
much to be said when it comes to an
estimate Of the polyganaous and mono
gamous proclivities Of animals.
Reynard, Hero of Fiction.
"The story OF Domino Reynard,' .
said Mr.. Seton when the reporter final
ly found him among the intricate
mazes Of Wyndygoul, gives the EdO
history of fox in the form of fic-
ton. 1t is fiction founded on fact, on
my own observations, extending over a
period of many years Domino Rey-
nard, the hero of the story, is com
posite Of some twenty or thirty foxes
that have watched as they appeared
either in wild state or tanned in diff
ferent households. Among other moral
qualities which | have thus discovered
in tho fov ic a ctro-, Or ,,oOpooro ,,,1,,., ~,
dency in his family relations, and that
is something which have emphasized
in my forthcoming story"
To thoroughly appreciate Mr.. Seton's
position in regard to this subject of
the marriage relation among animals
one needs to recall a recent paper of
his on the National History of the
Ten Commandments" In. this paper he
advanced the theory, which he support
ed by incidents taken from his own OBJ
servations, that obedience to five at
least of the Ten Commandments is a
law of the lower animals. The prom.
ised Domino Reynard story will thus,
in a way be practical illustration in
fiction form of what Mr.. Seton believes
to be the fox's innate respect for the
Seventh Commandment,
ut is commonly remarked, he says,
''that while the Mosaic law did not ex.
pressly forbid polygamy, it surrounded
marriage with so many restrictions
that by living up to the spirit of them
the Hebrew was ultimately forced into
pure monogamy. 1t is extremely inter
esting to note that the animals in their
blind cropping for an ideal form OF
union have gone through the same
stages and have arrived at exactly the
same conclusion Monogamy is their
hest solution of the marriage question
and is the rule among all the higher
and most successful animals