Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1892 — Some Dangerous Pets. [ARTICLE]

Some Dangerous Pets.

Lieutenant Becker of the Austrian Polar expedition, tells a story of q sailor who tried to tame two young white bears, not much bigger than lap dogs, and got so fond of them that he even took them to bed in cold weather, till one night his comrades were awakened by loud shrieks and the complaint that one of hia E‘ i had bitten two of his toes off. An uimau pilot, in commenting on the dent, remarked that the little brutes can never be trusted after they have grown stout enough to bite through a man’s clothes. But with that single exception, specimens of every kind of carnivorous mammals have been tamed sufficiently to recognize the authority of their master, and to be domesticated, if not handled with impunity. Seleucus Nicator, the King of Syria, used to drive a four-in-hand team of tame tigers, and the Nabob of Oude had a pet she tiger that often was taken along on hia journeys and had been taught to mount an elephant without making use of her formidable claws. Lions have frequently been tamed by showmen, and sometimes even for military purposes. During the reign of the Emperor Trajan, a Roman general, on an expedition against a revolted province

on the north shore or the Adriatic, tried the plan of scaring the natives with • brigade of trained lions, but found that in warfare the ignorance of plucky barbarians is not always a disadvantage. “They mistook them for large dogs,” says the historian, “and knocked their brains out.” —[San Francisco Chronicle.

LOSS OF LIFE AT SEA. There Has Been a Great Falling Off in Recent Years. Much is written on the question Oi lives lost at sea, and though we do not wish to check the zenl of men who have done noble service in safeguarding our sailors from the practices resorted to in the past by rapacious ship owners, we think the great improvement of recent years is too often ignored and the tendency to over-lcgislate very great. In ten years the number of lives lost has decreased by nearly one-half, and when it is noted that the British fleet has in that period increased from 81-2 to 9.08 million tons this result is even more favorable. Our sailing ships are being improved in design, so as the better to withstand great storms, and the adoption of steel minimizes the danger of stranding. The small old wooden vessels are disappearing at the rate of about 1,000 a year. These facts indicate a cause why the proportion of lives lost to the total tonnage entering and clearing our ports has decreased from 4.17 per 100,000 tons in 1881 to 200 iu 1890. This represents a decrease according to tonnage of ouehftlf. In tho case of steamers the increase iu traffic is equal to 43.0 per cent., and yet there is a decrease iu the number of lives lost of 28 per cent. In other woids, the lives lost were equal to 0.57 per 100,000 tons of i tcamers frequenting our ports in 1881, und in 1890 0.41 per 100,000 tons. In 1882 the ratio was 1.05, aud in 1880 0.10 per 100,000 tons. These were the highest and lowest in tho decade, and indicate the possibilties of great flucuations duo to extraordinary disasters. The tendency, however, is toward a substantial decrease. In ten years the deaths among masters and seamen from all enuses decreased from 28.2 per 1,000 employed to 18.1 per 1,000. —[Engineering.

The Rattlesnake’s Tall The structure from which the rattlesnake takes his name—the rattle—consists mainly of three or more solid, horny rings, placed around the end of the tail. Those rings themselves are merely dense Eortians of the general outer skin of tho ody, but the rattle has also a solid foundation of bone. For the three last bones of the tail become united together in one • solid hole or core, grooved where tho bones join, while they Increase in size toward tho hinder end of tho complex bone thus formed. This bony core is invested by skin also marked by grooves, which correspond with those at tho junctions of tho throe bones, and this skin becomes much thickened and so forms an incipient., imperfect rattle of such young snakes as have not yet cast their skin. When it is east the skfn investing tho tail close to its termination is not oust off, but is held fast by tho enlarged end of tho bony core before mentioned. Tins price of skin thus retained becomes a loose ring in front of the incipient rattle, and thus forms a first joint or of the future perfect rattle. The same process is repeated at each molt, a fresh loose ring or additional joint to tho perfect rattle being thus formed every time the skin is shed, Thus the perfect rattle comes ultimately to consist of a number of dry, hard, more or less loose, horny rings and in this way a rattle may consist of as inuny as twenty-one coexisting rattling rings. It is the shaking of theso rings by a violent and rapid wugging of the end of the snake’s tail which produces the celebrated rattling sound—a sound which may be compared to the rattling of a number of peas in a rapidly shaken paper bag.—[Quarterly Review. How Hone Flesh Taste*. “You never ate horse flesh,l suppose,” said Lieutenant Russell of the Seventh United States Cavalry at the Southern. “I have seen the time when I ate it with genuine relish, and that, too, without any salt. It was in 1877, during Genera! Miles’ NczPercescampaign, vVe had followed the renegades up the Missouri to its confluence with the Yellowstone, and tho chase was so exciting that we didn’t realize how low ous larder was getting until it was drained, and we were getting too far away from the base of supplies to replenish it. The game had all been driven out of the country ahead of us by the fleeing Indians, and when we finally caught up witli the redskins, and forced them to nght, we had almost nothing to eat for several days. We captured about seven hundred ponies from the Indians, some of them so round, and sleek and fat as to appear to us the finest meat in the world. Our butchers killed the youngest and fattest of the ponies that night after the battle, and as soon as they were skinned and dressed, we had a feast that would have made Lucullus turn green with envy. We lived on this pony meat several days. It was cooked without salt, and roasted over a spit, like a barbecued beef. The meat had a peculiar sweet taste, not at all nalateable, when I think of it now, and it was so fibrous that we could pull it apart in great strings. But it kept us from starving, and I, therefore, can heartily recommend pony meat to people in dire strait*. ” [St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Six Chinese Feast Days. The first day of the Chinese New Yeaj’a feasts is called “Bird’s Day” (Kay Yat), and is supposed to bring to mind't.he utility of the feathered tribes as food. On this day all orthodox Chinese abstain from eating flesh, and they sometimes observe it as a day of fasting. The second day is “Dog’s Day” (Ku-Yat). This day is especially held sacred to the canine hosts of the ‘Flowery Kingdom. The Chinese, notwithstanding the fact that they eat the flesh of the dog and esteem it a great delicacy, honor their dog* more highly and take better care of them than any other race of people. In every large Chinese city there is a workman whose sole trade is that of making coffins for departed canines. The third day, Hog’s Day (Chen-Yat), is celebrated in honor of a hog that once drew a valuable manuscript out of a bonfire of trash. The fourth feast, Sheep’s Day (Yaong-Yat), is honored in memory of Pun-Koon-Venga, a shepherd who clothed himself in leaves, grass and bark of trees, refusing to make use of any part of the sheep, either for food or clothing. The fifth day is Cow’s Day (New Yat). This day is consecrated to the cow that suckled the orphan who afterward* be- 1 came rich and built the celebrated “Temple of Cows.” The sixth day is Ma-Yat, > or Horse Day, and is set apart to call ta _ mind the usefulness of that noble animal. v ‘ Milwaukee’s grain trade has increased wo» derfully.