There is something very disturbing about a person who kills and stuffs thousands of animals while proclaiming that he is granting them “Eternal Life”. It sort of reminds me of a fanatically religious serial killer who thinks he’s actually helping his victims when he kills them.
Taxidermist Gives Eternal Life To Birds
ARMED only with a forked stick, a hunter walked warily through the squat bushes of the San Fernando valley in Southern California the other day. Suddenly he froze in his tracks, warned by a series of rattles that hidden danger lay waiting.
He advanced slowly, saw a Pacific rattle snake lying coiled and ready to strike. With the skill acquired from many such hunts, he pressed the stick down over the snake’s neck, stuffed the reptile into a box, and hastened back to his Hollywood studio.
There John Schleisser, famed naturalist-taxidermist—for it was he who captured the deadly reptile—chloroformed the rattler. A few minutes later he could be seen taking exact measurements by making a plaster cast of the body. Then he skinned the rattler, made a mannikin of papier mache duplicating the late deceased, and a few days later fitted the skin, perfectly tanned, back over the artificial body.
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He’s a Rat Farmer
A strange little livestock ranch in the attic gave Norton McKinney a new life and a $10,000 crop.
By William Gilman
“FUNNY kind of a business for a fellow to get into,” the villagers shake their heads as they glance up at the old mansion Norton McKinney bought in quiet little Middletown Springs, Vermont.
And it is a funny setup, all right. The attic in his antiquated home swarms with rats—mice, too. Last time he took a census there were 1500 adult rats and mice, with new litters running up the rodent population practically every day. You’d think his wife Georgia would raise the roof about that ratty situation up in the attic—but, no, she only wants to hear more rats racing around over their heads. She even helps him nurse and coddle new-born rats with germ-free water and purify the air they breathe with ultra-violet lamps. No wonder their place is called Funny Farms!
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Cat’s are still fun to photograph. They’re even more fun with a caption though.
Cats Are Fun to Photograph
An expert reveals tricks that help you get good pictures of Tabby. Patience is the biggest requirement.
By Walter Chandoha
CATS are easy to photograph—if you can tap an unlimited supply of patience. Beyond that, all you need is a camera (I prefer a reflex) with flash attachment. An assistant, portrait lenses, a tripod and a flash extension are helpful, but by no means essential.
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Science Remakes the Dog
How Breeders Are Changing The Appearance and Nature Of Our Canine Population To Bring Out the Qualities That Are Made Desirable By Modern Living Conditions
By Jesse F. Gelders
DOGS are getting smaller. Subject to style trends, the same as clothing, automobiles, and houses, they are adapting themselves— or, rather, being adapted—to the changed conditions of modern life.
People today are demanding dogs that can live in small homes or apartments, and ride in automobiles, without crowding out their human companions; dogs that can keep fit with a minimum of exercise; smart, good-natured dogs, and—an important consideration, sometimes—dogs that will not eat their masters out of house and home.
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This scares me. Besides just being a generally bad idea, am I the only one who immediately thinks of the holocaust when I see this?
It’s not quite as scary as this one though.
BAKING AS CURE FOR DOG ILLS IS TRIED IN GERMANY
Ills of dogs are being treated by baking in Germany. For this purpose, and to aid in scientific research, gas ovens have been installed in the Berlin veterinary university’s clinic. The application of heat to animals is said to act in the same way that a steam bath does to the human body.
He Runs a Hotel for Bats
PLAYING host to 250,000 bats is the queer but profitable hobby of Milton F. Campbell, of San Antonio, Tex. His lakeside bat hotel, a tall wooden tower shaped like the base of a windmill, is the outgrowth of experiments begun years ago by his father, Dr. Charles A. R. Campbell, at that time city bacteriologist of San Antonio. Believing that bats would rid the area of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, Dr. Campbell spent years trying to induce the creatures to settle in a wooden roost which he constructed near the city sewage plant. Finally, by means of ear-splitting phonograph records, which drove the bats from their accustomed haunts, he effected their transfer to his specially constructed tower.
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This is insane. I had no idea that anyone raced pigeons, let alone thousands of people in races that often exceeded 1,000 miles! Apparently people still race them. Check out the American Racing Pigeon Union.
Mile-a-Minute Pigeons Thrill Millions in Races Against Time
By Edwin Teale
STREAKING through the skies with the speed of crack express trains, feathered racing champions, trained by amateur pigeon fanciers, are shuttling across the map on amazing flights. In recent years, the sport of pigeon racing has spread rapidly. In the United States alone, upwards of 10,000 amateurs own lofts, and each year the American Racing Pigeon Union sends out half a million numbered aluminum bands that go on the legs of newly hatched “squeakers.” As this is written, all over the East and Middle West fanciers are grooming their prize birds for the Chattanooga National, the Kentucky Derby of the air. This annual event, held about the middle of June, sometimes attracts as many as 1,700 entries. Last year, a one-year-old male pigeon, which had never won a contest in its life, carried off the prize. It averaged almost fifty miles an hour for the 535 miles from Chattanooga, Term., to its home loft at Washington, D. C.
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Now that’s entertainment!
TEAM OF 30 ANIMALS HAUL HEAVY WHEAT LOAD
Driving single-handed a team of 20 horses and 10 mules, hitched to a wagon train loaded with more than 1,000 bushels of wheat, Ralph Morehouse, of Alberta, has established what is said to be a record in western Canada. The trip was made recently over a 22-mile stretch from his ranch near Buffalo Hills to a grain elevator at Vulcan, Alta., where, without unhitching any of the animals, the entire load was disposed of in 1 hour 17 minutes.
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I would be more worried about someone stealing my cheetah than my car. Of course I’d be much more worried about my cheetah stealing some some curious child’s arm.
CHILDREN’S PICTURE-STORY DEPARTMENT
A Modern Lilliput That Has No Lilliputians, Being an Uninhabited Miniature Village Constructed by the Children of a Denver Man near His Summer Home in the Rocky Mountains: The Church Has Spires Three Feet High. To the Right Is an Electrically Lighted Brick Block in the Village
South Pasadena, California, Is Proud of Possessing What Is Doubtless the Youngest Band in the World. Including the Bandmaster, Seen in the Foreground, Each of the 60 Members of the Band Is Seven Years Young or Younger. All Are First and Second-Grade Pupils of the Local Public Schools, Where They were Trained. Left: Close-Up of Three of the Musicians
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