Evening star., 1948-02-16
This and That
By Charles E. TraceUezI

"FORTY-FOURTH STREET.
Dear Sir:
Gas reader Of your excellent column,
have to report the following incident.
"It has made squirrel fan of me.
For agility, intelligence, comic antics, and
apparent tact, this little creature is surely the
tops.
This morning, after the rain, snow and
freeze, squirrel was in our feeder outside
the dining room window trying to get some
seed from a flooded and frozen tin jar top
"I threw a towel at the window, and he
jumped is feet into an evergreen, thence
across the snow and up locust tree.
But in his hurry he kept his wits and took
with him the jar top with its frozen contents
"a comcal sight as he disappeared in the
distance with the thing in his mouth.
This, however interesting, is not the point
Of my letter.
This afternoon the jar top-now empty
was back in the feeder
II am dead certain that 1t wouldn't nave
been returned otherwise than by that same
squirrel.
Have you ever heard of such a perform
ance2 I still can't believe 1t!
Respectfully, e. j. G."
Washingtons squirrels are likely to do almost
anything, from eating your tomatoes IN the
summer garden to bringing back jar top.
great deal, and are part, actually, OF q very
busy brain.
There is one part of the eye that is q
direct prolongation of thinking matter.
That is why living things, especially human
beings-and squirrels-are what has been
called "eye minded" All living things with eyes
are so, to certain extent, but the phrase
applies with peculiar force to human beings
and dogs, with the squirrel perhaps third in
rank.
This may seem to some to be giving this
latter animal more credit than it deserves,
but such an outlook would be without under
standing of the family to which the squirrel
belongs.
We humans think pretty well OF ourselves.
We smugly like to believe that we are just
a little lower than the angels, and that the
good God who made us all has a peculiar
spot in His heart for U.S.
In the wide expanSe OF the exploding uni
verse, this is questionable thesis.
It may be that the Almighty has place,
too, for the rodent family, one of the greatest.
For one thing, there are more rodents than
any other mammals
This great group is hardy, progressive, able
to fight Off epidemics, even though some OF
their members are germ carriers.
Rats and squirrels are related, but actually
they are quite different. The squirrels have
traits-such as told by our correspondent
which endear them to the thinking human.
Those bright eyes, that comical spirit, that
acrobatic ability, that busy tail, and those
odd postures-
All these things speak of living creature
with a real place in the world OF human
beings our world, as we like to think of it.
At times the squirrel will seem nuisance
at bird feeding station, but almost always
he manages to become tolerated.
From liberation 1t is usually short step
to liking.
If this were not true, there would be no
friendship anywhere. In the pleasant circle
of friendships, those between the creatures of
different groups are among the best. They
stand out as beacon lights to the circle Of
humans, showing that if friendship can exist
between creatures whose minds seldom meet,
because of lack of common speach, it should
be comparatively easy for humans to learn to
understand, tolerate and finally love each
other.
That it has not been easy, is perhaps an
Indictment of us all Dogs and cats and birds
and squirrels preach us sermons daily, but
somehow the good lesson gets lost in the
welter of the storm and stress of human
actions. Our news Is sad.
The rodent road to peace and happiness
may be better, in the long run, than mans
bomb-strewed path to peace, power and plenty.
It is sad thought, one that ought to make
us stop and reflect before it Is too late.