Year: 1878

From the New York Times.


Master Samuel Sloane, Of Clinton,
ILL.,, has made traps without number,
and has caught specimens of every
kind of small game to be found in the
neighborhood of Clinton, including
three babies under two years Of age
and small pigs and dogs without num-
ber. So great is his fondness for traps
that he neglects his studies and fails
to carry in the waA+aa s.r-to go for
the COWS with anything like regular
ity.


1t was with the view of leading his
mind away from the excessive con-
temptation of traps that Master
Sloane's father recently gave him
book of travels in Central Africa, and
directed him to read it carefully
The boy did SO, but unfortunately
the book treated quite extensively OF
the Central African methods of trap
ping game. Master Sloane thus
learned that when native king wishes
to capture young lion or a good
sized antelope he constructs slip
moose of thongs and attaches it 10 the
top of stout sapling, which is bent
down and temporarily fastened TO the
ground. When the antelope, or other
animal to that effect, tanges his foot
in the moose the sarfirS is released,
and, and springing back to its origin
al position, jerks the game into the
air, and keeps it hanging there until
the native King cories along, chops
down the sapling, and knocks the
game on the head. This description
was read by Master Sloane with great
admiration.


OF course, Master Sloane determiu-
ed to try the Central Africa trap
without delay. There was a beauti.
full, shady road near the village, which
was bordered with any quantity of
stout saplings. 1t was just the place
for Central Africa trap, and Master
Sloane had high hopes that he would
succeed in catching COW or horse,
although, of course, he could not ex-
pect anything SO completely satisfac-
tory as lion, tiger, or antelope
Late one afternoo-pe Borrowed 2
hoisting tackle from the nearest gro
Ger, under the pretext that his father
needed it for some intricate and un-
Ineligible purpose, and succeeded
with its aid in bending down a sap
ling of great strength and elasticity.
1t was very simple matter to ar
range the moose and set the trap, after
which the ingenious boy went home
to dream of finding pair of horses
and carriage swinging in the air on
the following morning.


Master Sloane had sister, young
lady of great worth and of very de-
cided character. Other girls, who
were envious of her beauty, said she
was ill-tenpered, red haired thing,
bat this was probably mere calumny
At all events, SO thought the young
minister who vas settled over the
Seventeenth Congregational Church,
and who was generally believed to
be Miss Sloane's accepted lover
That he went to see Miss Sloane on
the very evening when the reckless
boy set his Central Africa trap was
not strange, for he usually spent three
or four evenings every week at the
Sloane mansion, but it was a coinci
dence that on that precise evening he
proposed a walk, and led Miss Sloane
toward the identical lane where the
trap was waiting for victims.


How it happened that neither the
young minister nor Miss Sloane no
ticed the bent sapliug or the rope, nc
one can understand, unless they were
SO deeply engaged in the discussion
of theological questions that they
were oblivious to all earthly things
Still more difficult is it TO compre
hend how they could both have step
ped within the moose, which was
spread out in the form of circle not
more than a foos ID dfafdeter. It ii
possible, however, That the lady was
reading hymn-book and that bel
companion had approached extremely
close to her in order to see if the
hymn was correctly printed. How
f ever this may be, the fact remains
: that Miss Sloane's left foot and tn,
, minister's right foot were just within
the moose when the trap sprung, ant
the elastic sapling suddenly lifted
them 20 feet into the air, where the,
remained hanging like two cherrie


on single stem, and expressing il