The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-22
SELLS CENT|PEDES
AND HORNED TOAOS
Greenhorn Turns SWindle Into
Profit
RAISES QUEER ANIMALS
Buys Worthless Farm in Southern CAL
ifornIa But Hits Upon Way To
Make That Farm Produce
Living for Family.
RAISES QUEER ANIMALS
From the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

From the st. Louis Post-Dispatch.
IT reckon the chap that sold me this
land thought he had me suicided." said
tall, lank individual in little desert
settlement of Lower California, nearer
the gulf than was comfortable, but he
missed his guess.
You see, he sold me this ranch while
was in the east. Showed me pictures
of the beautiful climate Of California,
palms and roses, and said that's what
would come of the land when you got
water on 1t.
We've lived here goin' on 10 years, and
It's rained once in that time enough to
wet things real damp. You ought to
have seen it. The whole desert was a
garden; but IL that only happens once in
10 years you can't raise much, and I sat
down and figured out how I could get
even We've been holdin' our own on
game an things. but mostly sellin' prod
ucts of the country
Then there are products even where
it doesn't rain?" said the listener.
"You bet your life! Step this way"
The stranger followed the man around
the house out into the sun-dried yard.
whose pavement was as hard as adobe
could be made in climate which knew
1870 degrees In the shade-and no shade.
There was a corral. which might have
been built for chickens. I. was 10 or
so feet long and 100 feet vide. the fence
not over three feet high; too low to keep
in chickens.
The man stepped over the fence and
as he entered a dozen horned toads
started up out of the sand and wiggled
away. The man quickly picked one up;
little fiat, toadlike lizzard of reddish
brown and yellow tints. covered with
menacing spines. It's head was SEEM
ingly triangular and protected by a
spiny collar. It's body was fiat. and
when the animal was on the ground 1t
had way of fattening out and sink
ing beneath the sand. 1t had two very
small eyes, with brows Of spikes, a
short tail and long-clawed legs.
i've turned horned-toad farmer,
said the man. u just nachully devel-
oped the resources of the country, and
that's what they are, at least In this
section-h orned toads and tarantulas.
II got the idea after I'd lived here a
year and durn near starved. I saw a
notice in a paper that tourists wanted
curiosities and especially hankered aft
err horned toads.
well. stranger, IL I'd found gold
mine or an oil we'll it couldn't have hit
me harder and I just knuckled to it.
You couldn't walk ten steps without
raisin' a. horned toad. So I set the
children at work catchin' them. rugged
up the corral, which you see and now
we're in the business farmin' horned
toads. I can supply them by the doz-
en-, carload, too, acre or square mile,
and all sizes, from a 10-cent piece UP
or down. and colors-almost any color
you want.
Paint. Paint nothin'! Suppose you
was a buyer and you kicked on the
color. / go into the shed over yon-
der and bring out two like this" and
suiting the action to the word, the man
held out two toads not black, but very
dark brown. TITS dead easy. I found
that when adorned toad sits on black
sand he grows darker, when he Is on
white sand he crowns lighter. So
keep the ones I want light on white
ground.
How much? Why. I got two bits
apiece for all l can sell in good seasons.
Sometimes only half that. I fix them up