The Syracuse Journal, Volume 3, Number 47, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 23 March 1911 — Page 6

Syracuse Journal W. G. CONNOLLY, Publisher. SYRACUSE, - - INDIANA DECLINE TO ACCEPT Many Englishmen of Eminence Have Been Content to Remain Commoners. It was reported that at the opening of the South African parliament Gen eral Botha and Smuts refused titles The late Mr. Gladstone declined on more than : one occasion to become a peer. Twice Queen Victoria asked him to accept an earldom, and twice he refused. Before the famous statesman had turned fifty he was offered a viscounty, but preferred to go down to posterity as plain Mr. Gladstone. Many literary men have refused to be raised above the rank of commoners for one reason or another. Charles Dickens was compelled to refuse a knighthood for lack of means, and the late George Meredith was content with the Order of Merit, though a baronetcy was offered him. It is well > known that when Thomas Carlyle received a letter offering to make him “Sir Thomas,” he threw it contemptuously into the waste paper basket with the remark, “I would much prefer being given a pound of good tobacco.” Sometimes one particular honor is declined in preference for another. A case in point is that of Lord Curzon. When Lord Salisbury offered in 1898 the post of Viceroy of India to him he was plain Mr. George Nathaniel Curzon, under secretary for foreign affairs. He accepted the viceroyalty, but when he was told that it was necessary to become a peer he objected for the reason that he wanted to return to the house of commons after his five years in India were completed. The difficulty was got over by Queen Victoria making him an Irish peer, a title which did not bar him from becoming an M. P. When he returned from India his ambition was centered upon a seat In the house of lords. Later on he was elected an Irish representative peer. • I A Boy Once Himself. The principal of a village school in i Kansas one afternoon detected a boy cutting the letters of his name in the desk in front of him. As the novels would put it the principal rushed to the spot, angrily put forth his hand Intending to grasp the boy by the collar, when 10, and also behold, close by the newly formed letters were the Initials of the principal’s own name written by himself when he was a pupil in the same school. His grasp upon the boy’s collar loosened itself, and he returned to his desk a sadder and a wiser teacher. That principal is today judge of an Important court in one of the greatest cities of the world. We often wondei whether or not in the administration of justice the judge ever thinks of the incident in the village school.—Western School Journal. Too Well Known, r “Is the guv-nor in?” asked the visitor. The office boy, with his chair tilted back and his legs stretched out upon the desk, made no reply. “I asked if the guv-nor was in,” said the visitor. The office boy threw him a disdainful glance, blew a cloud of cigarette smoke down his nostrils, and resumed his reading. “Didn’t you hear me?” snapped the visitor. “O’ course I ’ear you,” answered lhe office boy, scornfully. “Then why the dickens don’t you tell me if the guv-nor’s in?*’ “Now, I ask yer,” retorted the office boy, as he recrossed his legs upon the desk, and prepared to resume his reading, “does it look like it?” —London Answers. Cutting Retorts. The Duke of Connaught has a peculiar dislike of slovenliness in personal attire. To a young officer who apologized for the state of his sword upon Inspection the duke said: “Your excuse is so good that you must be an old offender, sir.” “Sold tea, eh?” he repeated, in his hard voice, when a subaltern’s grandfather’s business was laughed over at an officer’s mess. "Well, that’s not so bad as a grandfather who sold promotions.” The words were spoken in the presence of a general whose grandfather had been notoriously venal. A dispute as to the sobriety of a certain colonel was summarily settled by his highness. “Just able to walk straight, was he?” repeated the duke. “That’s sober enough for a civilian, but it’s very drunk for a soldier." Older Than Henry. Hlstorley—Was Patrick Henry the originator of the sentiment, ‘Give me liberty or give me death?*’ Enspeckler—l should say not! Why, that sentiment has torn the heart of mankind ever since the earliest marriage. < . Maximilian’s Confessor. POre Valero, confessor of the Illfated Emperor Maximilian, died suddenly while he was celebrating mass In the Church of San Luis de Potosi in Mexico. He had survived his imperial master over 43 years. The Spoony Thing. Gerald —I expect to die hard. Geraldine —Then you won’t die as you have lived. Gerald —What do you mean? Geraldine —You have the reputation of being pretty soft

PASSING OF THE PASSENGER PIGEON

RESUMABLY everybody knows by this time that | there is a standing offer of S4OO in cash for the man, woman, boy or girl who finds the nest of a wild pigeon (ectopirites migratorius), otherwise known as the passenger pigeon, and finds with it the nestling birds. In order to get the

reward the person who makes the discovery must leave the nest and the birds unmolested and prove the truth of it by making a report and giving the scientists an opportunity to verify the case. Magazine and newspaper articles literally by the thousands have been written about the disappearance of the wild pigeons which once, as it Is always put, “darkened the sun with their flights." The members of the biological survey in Washington are specially Interested in the subject of the disappearance of this bird of passage from its wild haunts. For years it has been hoped that nesting pairs might be found In some part of the country and that with proper protection the bird might be restored in part at least to its place In nature.

Recently there was a story published to the effect that the birds, wearied of the constant persecution which met them in the United States, had changed the course of their flight and had gone Into Mexico and there were living peacefully and happily. This story proved to be absolutely -without foundation, j Still another tale was to the effect that the pigeons had gone into the heart of South America arid there finding conditions pleasant were leading a non-migratory life. This tale also proved to be entirely fictitious. In all parts of the southern states in the winter seasons there are people watching sharp-eyed fora 7 glimpse of the bird that once was<f common sight. In the summer sharp eyes of the north are constantly on the alert for the| same purpose, but as yet no authentic Report has been received that the bird of} mysterious disappearance has revisited the scenes familiar through the centuries to Its ancestors. One of the scientists most interested in the search for the wild pigeon is Ruthven Deane, fellow of the American Ornithologists’ union and president of the Illinois Audubon Society for the Protection of Wild Birds. Mr. Deane virtually has given up all hope that any living specimen of theZ passenger pigeon ever will be found, but he is as tireless today as ever in tracing reports of the bird’s reappearance to their sources. The offer of S4OO for the discovery of a nesting pair of the pigeons and their undisturbed nest comes from Clifton R. Hodge of Clark university, but SIOO additional will be paid for the discovery of a pair of birds and their nest if found 4 In the state of Illinois. The additional reward is the joint offer of Mr. Deane

and, as I remember it, of Professor Whitman of the University of Chicago. One of the most curious features of the search for the wild pigeon is the mistakes which are ‘made constantly by men who years ago trapped the pigeons and were as familiar with their appearance as they were, and are today for that matter, with the appearance of the common robin of the dooryard. Reports have Come In from all sections of the country of the reappearance of the pigeon, but on investigation it invariably has been found that the discoverers bad seen nothing more nor less than the common wild dove (venaidura macroura), or mourning dove, which is so familiar a bird that it seems almost impossible that any man of the countryside could have failed to overlook it as his constant neighbor and could confuse it with its much larger cousin, the passenger pigeon of other days. To give an example of how the search is conducted for the wild pigeon and how conscientious are the scientists in attempting to verify reports of its reappearance this qne instance, taken from a hundred instances, may be noted. Recently a report from northern Michigan reached the president of the Illinois Audubon society that the passenger pigeon in very truth had reappeared In the vicinity of a club house frequented by fishermen and gunners, many of whom had known the pigeon well In the old days and who were certain that in this case they could not be mistaken as to the identity of the bird visitors. It was a long journey to the northern Michigan club house, but an ornithologist undertook the trip believing in his heart that finally the passenger pigeon had been found, for he knew that the men who had made the report had been familiar with the bird in the old days and supposedly knew the appearance of Its every feather. At the end of the journey he was told, that the pigeons were there and he was led out to see them. They proved to be mourning doves, a bird common in nearly all parts of Michigan and in most of the states of the Union. The disappointment was keen, and keener in this case because this was one report which seemed to have about it every mark of truth. When I was a boy I knew the wild pigeon fairly well. It was nothing like as abundant as it had been in the years gone by, but occasionally small flocks were seen in the vicinity of my birthplace in the foothills of the Adirondack mountains in central New York. I am sorry to say that I shot some of the birds before I fully realized the value of giving protection to a vanishing race. The mourning dove I know as well -as I know the English sparrow, and I think that there is no chance of confusion in my mind respecting the Identity of the dove and its bigger relative, the pigeon. It is possible, though I am not sure that such is a fact, that I saw the last wild pigeon reported in Illinois. Others may have been seen since that tiipe within the borders of the state, but if so I have not seen their appearance ’reported. At five o’clock on the morning of a late April flay, fifteen years ago, I went into Lincoln park,

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Chicago, to look for migrating birds which had dropped down into the pleasure ground from their night flight in order to rest and feed. I had just entered the park when my attention was attracted to a large bird perched on the limb of a maple tree and facing the sun, which was just rising out of Lake Michigan. My heart gave a sort of leap, for I recognized it Instantly as the passenger pigeon, a bird of which I had not seen a living specimen for at least twelve years. Then instantly I began to doubt and thought that my eyes must be mistaken and that the atmosphere was magnifying the bird and that what was before me was really a mourning I drew closer and then I knew there was no possibility of deception. Before me was a beautiful specimen of the male passenger pigeon with the sun striking full on the burnished feathers of his throat. I stood within 15 yards of the bird for fully half an hour and then it left the maple and went in arrowy flight down the lake shore drive toward the heart of the city. I have often wondered since what was its fate. Theodore Roosevelt is deeply interested in the outcome of the search for surviving members, if such there may be, of the passenger pigeon tribe. Mr. Roosevelt knew the bird when he was a boy and in his trips afield he always has kept a watchful eye open for a possible sight of a specimen of the species now feared to be extinct. When Mr. Roosevelt was president of the United States he occasionally went to a wild spot in Virginia where he owned a cabin. He called the place Pine Knot. While there one day he saw what he believed to be nine wild pigeons. It would be perfectly proper today for a man who saw as many pigeons as this together to shoot one of them—one only—in order to prove beyond peradventure that the tribe still has existence. When one simply the appearance of a pigeon or of a flock of pigeons everyone doubts very naturally the truth of the tale, holding that the mourning dove has been again mistaken ,for its cousin bird. President Roosevelt did not have a gun with him on the occasion of his meeting with what he thought were wild pigeons. If he had he probably would have shot one of them. He told no one except a few scientists and a few friends of his discovery. He knew as well as anyone else did that in the absence of the proof furnished by a bird in the flesh it would be said at once that he made the common error. No one knows positively today whether the nine birds which the president saw were or were not passenger pigeons. Every time that Mr. Roosevelt has been to Pine Knot since he has hoped for another sight of the birds which made him glad some years ago. John Burroughs heard from his friend, Theodore Roosevelt, that the nine pigeons had been seen in Virginia. Burroughs believed the story because he knew how accurate an observer of nature his friend the president was and is. The stories of the pigeons in Virginia led Mr. Burroughs to make Inquiries at once in the counties in New York state west of the lower Hudson lying In the old line of flight of the migrating pigeon armies of years ago. There the farmers f • /

most incredible that a bird species which numbered its individuals almost, it would appear, by the million millions could ever disappear from the face of the earth. The account of the great pigeon flocks which is most familiar to the people of the country is that written by John James Audubon, the naturalist. It seems from Mr. Wright’s paper, however, that a century and a half before Audubon was born records were made of the immense numbers of the birds which were seen in America. The earliest writers called them turtle doves. Mr. Wright quotes from the Jesuit father, Le Jeune, who in the year 1637 likened the American Indians to the pigeons. “Our savages are always savage; they resemble the migratory birds of their own country. In one season turtle doves are sometimes found in such abundance that the end of their army cannot be seen when, they are flying in a body.” Mr. Wright found another reference to the imsense numbers of the pigeons in the writings of another Jesuit father in the year 1671 The observation was made at Cayuga lake in New York state. “Four leagues from here I saw by the side of a river within a very limited space eight or nine extremely, fine salt springs. Many snares are set there for catching pigeons, from seven to eight hundred being often taken at once.” Another father of the church in the latter part of the seventeenth century writes of the passenger pigeons of the St Lawrence country: “Among the birds of every variety to be found here it is to be noted that pigeons abound in such numbers that this year one man killed 132 at a single shot.” Within the last five or six years reports have come of the reappearance of the pigeon in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois, W isconsin, Michigan. Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia and perhaps from some other states. In no instance has proof been adduced that the real passenger Iflgeon, the bird of the old time, was the species seen. The disappearance of the flocks which once covered the sky as with a cloud is one of the mysteries of nature. Man’s persecution of course had much, if not everything, to do with the annihilation of the species, but it would seem that someting else, disease perhaps, must be held accountable at least in part for the dying out of a noble race of feathered game. He Was Too Wise Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, the government’s food expert, said at a recent dinner in Washington: “But in our search for pure foods we may go too Thus a lady entered a grocer’s the other day and said: “Have you got any currants?” The clerk, a college graduate, replied: “ ‘Yes, madam, we have very fine Corinths, or small dried grapes from the Greek town of that name—currants, you know, is the corrupted form. How many will you have?” “ ‘None at ail if they are corrupted,’ muttered th® lady. ‘I belong to a pure food league.’ ”

and the country sports men told Mr. Burroughi that they had seen pig eons that spring, at least 1,000 of them, but that none of them had been shot. Mr. Burroughs was inclined to* bell eve the report, for the men who made it were old-time sportsmen and supposedly knew the bird well. However, there is no positive proof today that the New York farmers and gunners were not just as much mistaken as were the old-timers who told the story of the return of the pigeons to the upper Michigan country. In The a quarterly journal of ornithology published by the American Ornithologists’ union, there appeared a paper by Albert Hazen Wright on “Some Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon." In this paper are reported some of the first accounts which ever saw print of the pigeon multitudes of the early days. When one reads them it seems al-

LOCUSROKTHEMffiF To Plague the Farmers of the Country This Summer.' Seventeen-Year Pest, Which Caueed Great Loss on Last Visitatieh, Is Ready for Business—Grubs Found In New York and Kansas. New York. —The seventeen-year locusts, which are due to return to plagu o the American farmer this summer, after being absent since 1894, have made their appearance in the vicinity of New York city. Curator Dltmars of the New York Zoological society has discovered the first grubs, several thousand in number, in an excavation near Nyack, N. Y. By the time the frost is out of the ground these thousands will be millions, he says. Durii% the last previous visitations the locusts literally covered suburban New York, stripping trees, bushes, hedges, lawns and truck farms of everything green and then, moving in vast clouds, which obscured the sun, to fresh fields. Chinatown will welcome the visitation. The Chinese cook makes them into pies, roasts them, eats them as a salad and dresses them in many mysterious ways, and even New Yorkers have found some of these dishes palatable. The seventeen-year locust will also visit Kansas within the next two or three months, according to a prediction of Prof. P. A. Glenn of the department of entomology at the University of Kansas. Seventeen years ago this spring Kansas experienced . the last visitation of the pest known to scientists as cicada. All indications here point to their seventeenyear proverbial visit. The agricultural department in Washington will issue instructions how to cope with these destructive insects. Benzine, gasoline or turpentine mixed, with animal fertilizer, corrosive sublimate and nitrates have been found effective heretofore in checking the ravages of the pest. Seventeen years ago the locusts settled in New Jersey, stripping the trees, bushes, hedges and lawns of The Seventeen-Year Locust. everything green, and then moving in : vast clouds which obscured the sun to fresh fields. The individual locusts lived only a few days, but each female in that time found time to lay about 500 eggs on the branches of the denuded trees. When the larvae hatched they fell to the ground and burrowed straight down for more than a foot. They have rested for seventeen years before the process of hatching was complete, and as soon as the frost leaves the ground they will dig their way to the surface and appear as small, oblong shells. These shells soon burst open, and the winged, musical and ravenous locust appears to devour everything in sight, and lay more eggs to be hatched out about the TOWNS VANISH FROM THE MAP More Than 600 in the State of Nebraska Have Disappeared in Twenty Years. Omaha, Neb. —More than 600 towns have disappeared from the map of Nebraska within the past 20 years. The majority of these were founded in the great boom days of the west and represented more “hopes” than actualities. However, many of them reached goodly proportions before they started down the incline. Railroads and rumors of railroads were responsible for hundreds of these near-towns, but others were founded on good business principles. The Missouri river was the cause of the rise and fall of a number ;.more. In many cases, after the towns became well established on its banks, the old Missouri seemed to resent the encroachment of civilization, and “started after” the houses which had been built close to its muddy waters. And when the Missouri undertook to wash a town away, the town eventually disappeared. There is no fighting the “Mad Missouri.” Omaha, today, is a city of 150,000, with suburbs on all sides. But when Omaha was an Indian village three Nebraska towns were vying with each other for the state capital. One of these towns has disappeared from the face of the earth and the farmers’ plow now passes over the spot where its largest buildings stood. The second has become a mere village, although it once was the rival of Omaha for the terminus of the Union Pacific railroad and the site of the big Missouri river bridge. The third is today a suburb of the city which was an Indian village when that town itself boasted of being the largest place in the state. Barney was the name of a goodsized town which was built on the Missouri about 75 miles below Omaha. But the Missouri got tired of flowing by the town, and Anally ate up all the dirt upon which the houses were constructed. That was the end of Barney. Benton was built in the boom days. It was located on the Platte river and Union Pacific railroad. Time was when Benton had several hundred citizens, but today there is no such town in Nebraska. It has disappeared.

ESCAPES OPERATION WasCuredbyLydiaE.Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound Elwood, Ind.—“ Your remedies have cured me and I have only taken six bottles of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegeta-

?|ble Compound. I was sick three j months and could H not walk. I suf. i; sered all the time, i'i The doctors said I could not get well without an opera- § tion, for I could ; hardly stand the pains m my sides, I especially my right ' one, and down my □ right leg. I began

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to feel better when I had taken only one bottle of Compound, but kept on as I was afraid to stop too soon.” —Mrs. Sadie Mullen, 2728 N. B. St.-, Elwood, Ind. Why will women take chances with an operation or drag out a sickly, half-hearted existence, missing threefourths of the joy of living, when they can find health in Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound? Eor thirty years it has been th® standard remedy for female ills, and has cured thousands of women who have been troubled with such ailments as displacements, inflammation, ulceration, fibroid tumors, irregularities, periodic pains, backache, indigestion, and nervous prostration. If you have the slightest doubt that Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound will help you, write to Mrs. Pinkham at Lynn, Mass., for advice. Your letter will be absolutely confidential, and the advice freer SUNSHINE AND GOOD HEALTH Wherever Sun’s Rays Penetrate Human Life Is Quickened and Health and Happiness Promoted. The sunlight, with its mellowing warmth and radiance, is one of tLo great essentials to good health. Whereever it penetrates, in prudently r«=£rulated moderation, it quickens hinnan life, promotes health and hajfpinesß, and may be truly regarded as one of the best friends of man and beast The common practice of providing blinds, shutters, curtains and other means for shrouding the windows and shutting out the sunshine, is undoubtedly a great mistake, and makes for physical weakness and ill health. Mora •window light, more sunshine, and not less, is what we require. Let all your apartments, kitchen, sitting rooms, parlors and bedrooms, too, be flooded with sunlight as much as possible. Hustlers. “A good turkey dinner and mine® pie,” said Simeon Ford, “always puts us in a lethargic mood —makes us feel, in fact, like the natives of Nola Chucky. “In Nola Chucky one day I said to a man: ‘“What is the principal occupation of this town?’ “ ‘Well, boss,’ the man answered, yawning, ‘in winter they mostly sets on the east side of the house and tollers the sun around to the west, and in summer they sets on the west side and toilers the shade around to the east.’ ” Greatest Little Invention. The greatest little Invention that has been given to the world is the • lucifer match. It was invented in 1827. It is small, but like Portia’s candle, it has shed a great light into the w’orld. It gave man mastery of fire. Before this fire had been a contrary hired man, but now it became an obedient servant One Better. “My daughter has been taking fencing lessons and she feints beautifully.” “Huh! Outfit to see the way my gal kin trow a fit!”

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