Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1900 — THE TELEGRAPH. [ARTICLE]

THE TELEGRAPH.

Pot to Strange Ums by Animals—Algerians Steal Poles and Wires. When the telegraph was introduced into Norway the bears, ofi hearingthe wires moaning in the wind, thought that the posts were beehives, and set to work to root them out of the ground; the woodpeckers thought that the poles were filled with insects, and they bored holes in them with their bills. Such illusions disappeared gradually; animals became wiser with time, and took the trouble to turn the telegraph to account for their personal uses. Thus, a small bird in Natal, which had been wont to build its nest shaped like a cradle in the branches of trees, built its nest on the first telegraph wires set up, and the snakes could not get at it The new position was found to be so secure that the bird added a convenient little side-door to the nest, which had hitherto possessed only a small opening on the side farthest removed from the overhanging branch.

A Brazilian bird also builds its heavy nest of earth on the telegraph wires. The artful parrot takes a seeming delight in uniting the currents between different wires, and also in breaking the porcelain cups on which the wires rest. Spiders cover the wires with their webs, and thereby great confusion is often wrought in the telegraph system, as the most unlikely connections are thus brought about. It is a bird which knows how to turn the telegraph to the greatest use: this is the melanerpes, of Mexico. At the foot of the post this bird makes a large hole, in which it rears its family; somewhat higher up the post it makes an observatory, from which bored holes permit it to observe the horizon in every direction; still higher this sagacious bird makes its storehouse, and thus the pole serves as its house, fortress and warehouse. The savages have not, as a rule, shown so much ingenuity in taking advantage of the presence of the telegraph, although they have in certain cases turned it to account. Thus, some of the Algerian tribes steal the porcelain cups and use them as coffee cups; the wire, if of iron, is woven into hedges; if it is of copper, it is made into nose-rings. The wooden poles can easily be made use of in their huts, and the iron hollow telegraphpoles serve as excellent pipes for conducting water.—London Tit-Bits.