Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1895 — OLDIERS’ QUEER PETS. [ARTICLE]

OLDIERS’ QUEER PETS.

A Lion, Several Goats and a Snake Among Them. In Algeria, North Africa, the officers of the Third Chasseurs d’ Afrique have a pet Hon which they took, when very young, from the African desert. It is a great pet and very

gentle. As a rule it lays outside tne officers’ mess on the veranda, and looks just like an artificial one. Many have been the visitors who took to flight on beholding his majesty rise to meet his guests. The lion by way of assuring them that he was harmless, or perhaps as a sign of his disapproval of their impolite actions, would generally send a gentle roar after them, which, instead of having the desired effect of recalling them, would make them increase their pace if it were possible to do so. In the the British Army several regiments have pets. For instance, the Twenty-third Welsh Fusileers have a pet goat that marches in front of the regiment. The Seventy-fourth Highland Light Infantry, the Sev-enty-eighth Seaport Highlanders and other corps have pet deer that also march in front. In India the soldiers make many pets, such as monkeys, parrots, owls, crows, hawks and squirrels; but their greatest pet is the minot, a bird like the starling, but larger. This bird, after having his tongue split, will talk quite well, and will follow his master about constantly. Often it will follow a dragoon regiment for four or five miles on a field day, and will fly round and round the regiment until he finds his master, on whose shoulder he will settle, even though the horses are going almost at full gallop. A trooper in the Cape Mounted Rifles in South Africa, had a geeen water snake for a pet, which would follow his master through the grass to the river and go in bathing with him. The trooper, who was an expert swimmer, would worry the snake by diving under water and coming up a dozen yards away. He fed it on frogs, raw meat and little fish. It slept in his jack boot at night. He, however, was not doomed to have it long, as before he had it quite five months a hawk carried it off before anybody could rescue the poor little thing. Ladies also have their peculiar tastes for pets. A gentleman farmer’s wife in Norfolk, England, made a pet of a pig. The animal lost its mother early, and the lady, taking pity on the poor little orphan, succeeded, with the aid of a feedingbottle, in rearing it. It became a great pet, and would follow her about like a little dog . Its good qualities quite repaid her for her kindness. The pig certainly has many good points, and, according to Eugene Bodichon, the great French traveler, who, after a careful study of the porcine species, described it as an animal “qui a beaucoup d’esprit.” Another singular pet was a frog, which was tamed by a young girl from the Dublin Mountains. It would come out from its bed of leaves at her approach to be fed with a strawberry or blackberry.