El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1920-04-16
Boy Shgp-Eyes.


A y HOURS talk with a live. Is year
a old boy who has slept and hunted,
and hunEered and thirsted. and
tramped, tinlizzied. bicycled, and bur-
roed around and up and down Mount
F'ranklin-and there's q whole new
world for you He knows, Intimately
crowds Of little folk OF the mountain
Furry coats. feathered backs. spot
ted skins. bridging, building, tunnel
ing. raising big families up there in
and quiet and silent and withdrawn
so Buddha like
The boy. he has matched wits with
the life OF the mountain He has
trailed wild bees up the canyons and
found their honey, and wisely knows
why u is not so fine as honey bees
store He has hidden his bacon under
his pillow, and the coyote slyer STILL
a coyote can smell six miles when the
wind blows his way, and sing almost
as far whichever way the wind blows
He has traileds photographed. shol,
skinned sold and raised the young
OF wildcats, beavers, cnipmunksr
ground squirrels, rock squirrels,
skunks, gray foxes, rabbits jack
and cottontals weasels, prairie
dogs, musllrats. diamond head rattle
snakes. bullheads. coachWhips, guard
snakes, water snakes hog snakes,
and king snakes He has raised quail,
along with the ducks he bought out OF
his spending money, and he has Pho
tographed (says he) "rattlesnakes and
every teacher ana every girl IN
school without their knowing It.
The prairiedoE, he says, has fleas
so you can't eat him. and when ne
barks, whistles like a bird And you
never find him when you shoot him
He always tumbles back in his hole
The only way you can catch prairie
dog Is TO pour sand In his hole he
VIII tunnel out so as not 70 die, and
you wait and catch him You cannot
dig him out he viii dig II faster
than you can. and disappear.
The horned toad is worth 10 cents
he eats flies and ants You cannot
see him catch he is too quick with
his tongue He has very long
tongue But you never can see Il,
unless you pull it OUT but when he
eats-no, he Is too quick, you only see
an ant and then do not see the ant,
there is disappearance, that Is all
Only the big kind are worth 10 cents.
They grow back in the mountains.
They are used 20 eat those fleas that
cause the dangerous disease You
know those fleas that school children
were inspected for? Well, the horned
toad, he VIII eat every one mat IS
why he IS worth 10 cents"
The sl-unks up about Mount Frank
lin are smarter than most folks who
never see one when they motor or
tramp and never know their holes and
hiding places. but a boy Is smarter.
He can find them and their young I
have raised skunks." he says, when.
ny mother did not know They do
not make that smell unless they are
leased"
There are three squirrels he knows
up in Mount Franklin, that Is tha
chipmunk. the ground squirrel. and
the rock squlrrel-the rock squirrel a
long fellow IS inches 10 the tip OF his
he has marketed coyote skins, and
got the bounty besidess skunk 1urs,
beavers from Las Cruces, rabbits
ears, and the horned toads- He does
not like TO XIII. He prefers 70 pnoto-
graph, but he kodaks, kills, eats,
skins, and markets these mountain
folk and In his few years has accu-
INFLATED an intimate acquaintance that
would do credit TO a naturalist who
has studied them both in books and in
their own homes
He has enjoyed raising snakes.
when mother did not know and
avows he has been whipped by the
black coachwhip. which wraps its
head and neck about some stick or
plant and lashes out with the rest Of
his black whip length This snake
beats its prey TO death, he says The
largest RATHER he ever killed had u
rattles. and the king snake has pretty
colors, he does not know what they
ere, but they are pretty
Quail. he says never leave the place
NanHEE LMEL were nNLAa AlA IS they
will not 90 very far II they can help
it He has lifted the grass and
branches and found their nests and
carried the eggs home in his hat and
placed them under a hen and they
hatch, sometimes in a short time,
sometimes IL takes q very long time,
but they come out. At first you take
them away from the hen, or she will
step on them and kin them, but you
put them in with baby chicks and
they learn to scratch and eat in the
barnyard and they stay on the farm,
but the game warden does not allow
you to kill thems so they get to be
very many
The hour was filled with live. IN
teresting talk Rarely does one get
so close 70 the little folk Of the noun
tain and river banks. One cannot get
It out Of books Books viii give you
names and habits and pictures and
all but this Is the very life Of our
mountain, the little LIE the wild citi-
zenship OF Fl PasO. a world most Of
US are entirely blind 70, never see II,
never heard OF II before, but a whole
world OF diligent civil engineers, busy
sugar makers. clever artisans, INTEL
ligent governments, ardent lovers,
sacrificing parents, fine feathered So
pranos, winged varieties OF drudges,
drones, queens. tyrants, anarchists,
and plain business folk