Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1881 — Luminous Paint for a Cat’s Tail. [ARTICLE]

Luminous Paint for a Cat’s Tail.

Mr. Monkey’s boy took the family cat and rubbed phosphorus all over him. It was about nightfall when he completed the job and let the cat go. The cat got into a barrel and began to yowl, and that attracted the attention of a bulldog, and he came along and danced about and barked, and got terribly excited, It was a case of ‘ ‘dog in the light, cat in the shadder, dog full of fight, cat growing madder.” Pretty soon the dog upset the barrel and went in after the cat. But it was a surprise party for him. The phosphorus glowed in the darkness and he beheld a cat on fire. He came out of that barrel and went off howling as though a policeman had stepped on him. Then the cat went up on the roofs, where other cats do congregate, and tried to chum round with ’em. But it was no go. They tied from him as if it was a Ixotjack. He didn’t understand it and gave chase, and as there were about forty eats on those roofs, and they were all seared and fled from him, howling dismally, the noise was something fearful, so that folks in the vicinity who heard it were scared and had cold sweats. The cats continued to tear about and yell so that it couldn’t be endured. Mr. Monkey and others got up and went upon the roofs with clubs. And at first the sight of a fiery cat frightened them, and one lady who saw it screamed and fell through a skylight and nearly killed a man sleeping beneath it, and made him think Mother Ship ton was right. Finally, Mr. Monkey and his friends made a desperate charge on the fiery cat, and the poor cat took a flying leap to the street. He hit on a policeman, saving his life, but nearly scaring the officer out of his, as he thought he was struck by lightning. The cat jumped to the ground, and an astronomer came along and took him for an aerolite and tried to pick him up. To his amazement, the aerolite ran. Then he was scared too. Finally the cat got into a stable, and somebody thought it was afire, and they called out the engine, and got seven streams turned on him. He fought well, but they fixed him. And then investigation showed no fire, but only a dead cat. And they told the stableman he was a cross-eyed fool to mistake a cat's eyes for a fire, and so they left him.-* All the neighbors are talking of the mysterious fiery cat, and only young M onkey understands its mystery.—Boston Bost.