Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-10-11

motive or bad conscience which
amounts To the same thing; on thee
hand, those who say animals are think
ing creatures have no Interior MOTIVE
whatever may be the condition of their
conseieneas.
y man of finer feelings would not care
to go cunning for a small baby, or an
IDIOT, or even for an ordinary darned
fool, the excuse being that they are
reasoning beings" however mistaken
they may be on account of their weak
minds, Now IT 1t We're admitted that a
mammal had reasoning faculty the
shooting of a deer or bear or rabbit or
other creature would be ineXcusable-it
would be murder OF a thinking creature,
usually Of an innocent creature at that.
4 hunter would be reluctant to slaugh-
ter and STAY if he admitted that his vic
Tins were minor poets, say or iokers and
! mathematicians. 1t would spoil the JOY
he has in blood ON the leaves and the
frantic attempts Of the creatures to es-
cape.
| Mankind thinks-ir il really does in the
aggregate think-that it IS very dreadful
now tigers and csocodlles and elephants
! and snakes KIN folks but doubtless the
! diit-IIHuttt tAt0At NF-fF-ttAtA - - ottN
sport 10 XIII 4 nice Juicy 0-year-old girl
or some sly old leading citizen of viii
laee. Ii all depsnGs on point of view.
| Now foxes are very good ANIMALS Tor
the discussion Of the mental equipment
of creatures other than man TO roar
around; moreover, the men who claim
creatures do not think when compelled
to admit that animals do reason, are able
| TO claim with reason that they are Justl-
| fed in killing foxes, 1t least for the rea-
son that the fox Is Il q thinker, an unre-
generate sinner, whose kiltns with gun
| ahead of hounds is net murder but a
simple act of justice. too long deferred
in the cases OF some foxes.
! Believer or unbeliever in animal reason
ine, there is only a difference in terms
and definition--in mere names-when 1t
comes to telling about the doings o. the
woods foxes and clearing foxes.
! There are two kinds of red foxes in the
Adirondack plateau region. One OF thes
| is the little fellows which live in holes IN
the ground and roam the fields up to tn
edges Of the big woods These are the
foxes which make tracks in the snoe
around the towns of Central New York
and make the chicken owners talk o
bounties whenever they lose a 40-cen
chicken in the jaws OF a neighbours pc
COW dog.
In the deep woods the foxes are lar
ger, handsomer. harder breed. They
never go into holes In the ground proba
bly, for fear of the fisher They rang
the wilderness far and wide. and sleep
where night oYertakes them. IN brus.
heaps. on rocky side hills. under logs, II
thicket clumps.
They are sophisticated creatures. and
few trappers are able to take one in stee
Jaws. they even despise a trapper's POI
son pills. All trappers know how some
the foxes will carry a poison pill Ion
ways, and the trapper, following eagerl}
finds the pill in some conspicuous pIac
and equally conspicuous evidence of tn
foX's contempt for the same.
| one of thesa foxes even took away
pill and replaced it with bluejay; an
again, with half rabbit, for all tn
world as though the animal believed i
the doctrine of even exchange is no rob
berry. This was in the Moose River coun
| TRY.
| No two foxes are alike. and all foxe
have kinds of cunning and tricks Of thei
own. Son1e> seem to be beyond the skill
trappers to catch. Whine others, mostl
young ones. are sometimes taken.
People who think they are mighty hunt
| ers find still-huting foxes beyond thsi
| Skill ard yet a fow men on the sno'
are able to hunt and KIN foxes wilnou
dogs or bait-and OF all hunters. probapl
these are the quicsest-eyed, ablest an
hardest. One who could kill hundre
ideer, six bears and two Others still-hunt
| ing. might in the same time fail to HI
a single fox, most alert of Adirondae
lcreaturcs.-The Utica Observer