Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1902 — Mice Ate Valuable Collection. [ARTICLE]

Mice Ate Valuable Collection.

Janitor Charley Sprigg, of the school houses, and the able bug, beetle, bird and butterfly bagger for tbe high school museum, has just met with a serious misfortune. Like the truant boy with laughing dye, he’s chased the winged butterfly in her flight from bud to flower, during many a Sunday" hour, nabbed the shining dragon fly, and tumble-bug as he rolled by, Caught moths and millers, beetles big, and insects queer, from weed and twig. He indeed had a large and valuable collection, including many rare and fine specimens. He had stuck them on pins and put away in an unused garret, to dry. The other day he went to see how they were getting along, and then found that tbe mice had been there before him and eaten tbe whole collection, sparing only the pins they were stuck with, and the boards they were stuck to. Next trip they would have been eaten also. Charley has scoured up his butterfly bag and will do his best to duplicate the vanished collection. Still the loss of what has taken so much time and trouble to collect is a very annoying as well as a gnawing matter.