The pioneer-review. [volume] (Philip, Haakon County, S.D.) 1920-current, 1920-12-02
LIVES WITH BIRDS
Caretaker Has Absolutely No
Other Companions.
Job About as Lonesome as One Could
Imagine Is Eagerly Sought by
Hundreds of Men.

"ANIED-A man to live alone on an
island unland lake, eight miles from
shore; transportation, food, clothing. shell
ter, boat, etc. furnished; no work; no
compensation. Summertime, GOO Tribune
Building. New York
Every Easter Sunday for the last
hfteen years this advertisement has
appeared in Help Wanted" columns.
Every year hundreds of men, and oc-
easionally a woman, have made appIi-
cation for the job.
Many of those who have answered
and received no reply have formed the
opinion that the whole thing is prac-
tical joke, played by an individual
who is collecting data of the different
kinds of people who react to the same
mpulse-or something like that. In
Vestigation, however, has proved that
there is in truth a man who offers
precisely the sort of position de.
scribed and that it has been filled sat
isfactorily each summer for 10 years.
The man is the director of a large
weil-known dry goods house in New
York. He has home in the Adiron-
dacks near lake with four little is
lands In the center. Every year a COL
ony of arctic or burgomaster seagulls
al1ghts on these islands and stays
there throughout the summer In Or
uer to protect the eggs and the young,
man Is hired to live on one of the
islands.
He has no duty other than the pa
trolling of the shore and the bird
haunts. He goes early in May when
the birds begin to arrive and leaves
atter they do. In no case is it neces-
sary for him to stay longer than Oc-
tober /.
There is humorous angle to the
situation, an angle that gives truth
TO the trite saying that distance lends
enchantment. When the advisability
of getting man to look after these
birds first formulated itself in the
mind of the man who has made him.
self their friend, he decided he could
hire one Of the men in the neighhur-
Ing community for the task.
He broaohed the subject to some of
them and offered to pay $50 a month
with food and shelter as described in
the advertisement. Thirty dollars a
month at that time meant a good deal
more than it does today. Neverthe-
less, he could find nobody to whom the
idea of living a solitary life on
lake island made any appeal
Knowing human nature Intimately
he employs hundreds of men and wom-
en--he decided to insert an advertise
nent in city papers, tell briefly what
was expected and make no offer Of
compensation other than food cloth
Ing, and shelter. The response was
stupendous. Immediately letters be-
gan pouring In by the score from men
in every walk of life asking that they
be allowed to go off into the solitudes.
The Bowery bum applied and said
that he wanted nothing but the woods
and the waters the youth whose love
had been unrequited made a similar
request; the man whose aim was to
arrive at the topmost rung of the lad
der of literary success was certain that
the advertisement had been inserted
as a godsend from heaven.
Out of the hundreds that applied,
one was finally chosen. Among the
fifteen who have worked there are a
well-known naturalist gn attorney gen.
eral of neighboring state. and
man named Daniel Boone, who is a
direct descendant of the pioneer who
bore that name.
In almost every case the men asked
to be allowed to return the following
year, but the rules laid down by the
man who has interested himself in this
work are against this. He does not
want the keeper Of the birds to grow
acquainted with the people in the
neighboring community, as he might
Ii he returned to the same place year
after year.
1t is not the men that interest him;
1t is the preservation of this species
Of seagulls, which are, he states, the
largest Of their kind, having a spread
Of wings of five feet. Their confri-
button to humanity Is the Scavenger
duty they perform. 1t is estimated
that they eat two pounds of offal
day.