Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1882 — Kangaroos and Rabbits. [ARTICLE]

Kangaroos and Rabbits.

A rabbit is an object of great interest to children, while the kangaroo is justly regarded as one of the most curious of all the lower species. But in Australia both of these animals are looked upon as unmitigated curses. Their fecundity is’ so great that they fairly overrun the country, and annually put all the crops in peril. There are no lions, tigers, leopards or panthers in Australia, in short, no carnivorous animals to feed upon the kangaroo in case they should get too numerous. In former times there was a species of wild dog who was the enemy of the kangaroo, but he had an unfortunate taste for mutton, and Australia is the greatest grazing country in the world. So the people waged war against the dog, and now they have their reward in such enormous numbers of kangaroos and rabbits that every crop is put in danger by them. They ore slaughtered in vast quantities. Kangaroo hunts are constantly under way, but the animal multiplies more rapidly than it can be killed off. Killing kangaroo is poor sport They cannot fight nor be followed by dogs and horses ; they must be headed off and shot in passing. A gang of kangaroos unobstructed would ruin a large farm in a few hours. Frederick the Great once said that hi never could understand why the Almighty put so much sand in Prussia, and the Australian farmers are quite as much puzzled to account for the kangaroos and rabbits in their country. —Demorest's Monthly.

Effeminate Luxury. “ No,” the old man from Yellowstone Spring replied, shaking his head at tho proffered cigar and with his blunt second finger tapping the damp plug tobacco into a pipe so black you couldn’t tell whether it was cob, porcelain or briar-root “No, thankee, I don’t smoke no cigars. I used to when they made real cigars out of real tobacco, but they’ve got to be so they don’t have any comfort now for me. Jest used to make ’em like cigars, *n’ when you bought a cigar you jest got a cigar ’n’ you didn’t get no assortment of things. Then by ’n’ by they got to puttin’ a red paper collar on to ’em, ’n’ a cigar looked like a cut finger, ’N then some feller began to paste a paper label on the side o’ the cigar, anywhere close to the end, ’n’ the cigar burned crooked ’n’ ye smoked paper ’n’ tobacco together. ’N then when after that they got to makin’ ’em weth a piece of string to save a feller tho trouble of bitin’ the end off. ’N then they made ’em with a kind of a match j like on the other eend, so as’t a cigar *ud light itself when ye pulled it out o* the box. ’N then I quit a smokin’ cigars. It’s got to be too lazy work for me. When things has come to such a pass as’t a man can’t bite the eend ofiTn his cigar, and hain’t got time *n’ patience ’n’ git up in him to light a match, I quit encouragin’ any man in encouragin’ any other man'in such laziness.”—Burlington Hawkeye.