Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 207, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1910 — WOMAN RUNS A MOUSE FARM [ARTICLE]

WOMAN RUNS A MOUSE FARM

Why is the average woman more afraid of a mouse than of her husband’s wrath over her milliner’s bill? Why at the sight of a wee, inpffensive rodent, will she fly screaming to a table or chair to the accompaniment of a reckless display of hosiery? And can anybody under the sun explain why the nervy young woman who will grapple with and Capture a burglat and turn him over to the police, will pull off a lovely fainting fit If anybody shouts, “Look at the mouse!” Absolutely for the first time In befrllled womandom, a real, live and normal woman has advanced to the firing linp with answers to the foregoing question. This daring woman Is Miss Abbie E. C. Lathrop, the owner of a successful mouse farm at Granby, Mass. She raises yearly from 8,000 to 10,000 rats and mice for medical laboratories. "Woman’s fear of the mouse," says Miss Lathrop, "I believe dates back to the Garden of Eden. There can be no possible doubt about It, for as far back as I have been able to go In the history of the world, women have hopped, skipped and jumped at the sight of a mouse." In her rodent family, Miss Lathrop has mice of ten different colors and 20 combinations of color. White Is ordinary and black is not startling, but when it comes to cream-colored mice or orange mice, one Is surprised. She also has silver, blue and agouti mice. The red mice are much the color of the bay of a horse and the blue mouse Is about the color of a maltese cat. The agouti mice have dark brown hair with yellow tips which gives- a golden brown effect. Her silver mice with ruby eyes are the rarest combinations. One of the most remarkable things about Miss Lathrop’s farm 1b her angora cat "Tab." This feline will not allow a strange cat on the farm and she protects Miss Lathrop’s rats and mice.