Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 207, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1915 — RUM AS A BUTTERFLY LURE [ARTICLE]

RUM AS A BUTTERFLY LURE

California Woman Finds Good Profit In Running a Bar for Moths and Millers. Los Angeles. —Mrs. C. S. Elgin of San Benito county, who is visiting in Sawtella with friends, has given her acquaintances an impetus to join the butterfly catching brigade as an occupation that yields a harvest of gold for the little time devoted to it. She says that while wandering on a hillside near her home one morning she succeeded in capturing 20 perfect specimens of the Pergabus Swallowtail and received $7 each for the females and $4 for the males. The excursion proved so profitable that she has gone into the business and is now breeding butterflies, moths and millers of the rare varieties much sought to be added to the collections of colleges and millionaires who are riding the butterfly hobby. Before capturing enough females and eggs to establish her breeding pen Mrs. Elgin discarded the old-time method of catching the elusive winged beauties by means of the net and at the end of a long stick. She says her method was to attract them at night by means of lights and sweetened bait. The nectar used was a combination of stale beer, rum and molasses. One taste of the tempting decoction calls for more. Soon the butterflies are in such a state of intoxication that it is no trick to effect their capture by flicking them into cyanide bottles.