Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1895 — TELEGRAPH POLES DESTROYED. [ARTICLE]

TELEGRAPH POLES DESTROYED.

Woodpeckers Borins to the Centei After the Soft Pith. Linemen of some of the telegrapl and telephone companies centerinj in Reading, Pa., have just made a discovery as to the destructive propensities of woodpeckers thatalmosl surpasses belief. The costly cedai poles brought from Canada, these birds have discovered, are soft through the center to the top. They first hunt for a knot near the bottom, and around this they peck .with their long sharp bills until they ex-, tract it. Tney work all around .it until it is dislodged. They then continue pecking until the center of the pole is reached, after which the softer material is removed. In some cases the interior of the pole at the point attacked is nothing more than a mere shell, and auy sudden gale is apt to snap it off. The birds sometimes build their nests inside the hollow pole, and have been known to have been killed by its breaking. The cedar poles taken out after they are ruined by the birds are generally replaced by chestnut poles, which are seldom attacked. Linemen are instructed to keep an extra sharp lodkout* for -poles damaged in this way, and when they find they have been used~as~ hatcheries to renew them. A_numb_e.ro! poles south of Reading have been condemned, nearly all having been hollowed out by the mischievous little pests. Nearly all the missionaries have remained at their posts in Pekin. All the English ladies and all ladies from the legations have been sent away, but nearly all the American ladies remain with their husbands and carry on their work as usual. The Chinaman has ceased to call the foreigners “devils” and the cjty is said to be unusually quiet.