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Show I Miss. Abbie E. C. Lathrop Derives Profit and Pleasure from H the Raising of Rodents on Her Ten Acres at Granby, Mass. , . : TiOsr . Ji Hi (Cc.trrlcht. 1011. 1r tic Voir Tork IleniM Co. AJI H rlsljti rcrT0.1.) H 1 OMEN lion tamers and womon H m l wno 1,nnfl'c serpents women H m irho H0 a" KOrts oC strni:c nnJ. H V V daring things tli.it even men H -would'quail at are not pneom- H iu on. Yet, if a tiny inonso ncampTs across the floor of the cage H -where a woman of exceptional courage Is H putting n dozen savage beasts through H their tricks she screams with nlarm and rushes for the door. H Tho woman who is not afraid of mice Is H exceptional. Tlic woman who raises mice H and rats for n living and who handles H hundreds of them cvory day is unique. HL There Ik only one sucJi wouinn mouse K farmer in America, if not In the world, H and that is Miss Abbie C. C. Lnthrop. H of Granby. Mass. According to her letter H liend, she is a breeder oi "whitf and Hl fancy colored mice. English and Peruvian H cavlcs, rabbits, rats and a general line of !pet stock." Cavics are guinea pi?'. Miss Lathrop has crown passing wealthy from her strange industry. She pts n larger income from her ten acre mouse t farm than other New England ngricnl- W turists do from farms of n hundred U acres. Tlic entire area o Miss Lnthrop' l field is not covered with rats and mice HL however. Most of the ground is devoted to H raising food for her rodents. Tier crop of H mice and rats alone is about ten thousand H' One wonders what useful .- ornnmental H purpo-e so many of these animals can Hj rerve. As a matter or fact, in every H' cjjy there arc one or more dealers who HP jell rats and mice: not the common gray H Todcnts that scurry about at night In the T v.-nlls nnd ceiling, but pure white ones H with pink or blue eyes. Many of these H mice nnd rats are bought by the medical H research laboratories and arc inoculnted H with the germs of tjic various disenhes H that the scientists arc studying. The arc kept under observation and cared for H , . most carefully. In this way thousands B of them arc sacrificed each year to the H cause of science. B I Still others lead a happier and hc-altn- h' ier life, although, tlicy. too. a used for HT ) experimental purposes. These mice are M , 0f various colore, and in uch places as M Uic Harvard Medical School and the M Rockefeller Institute experiments are bc- H lng conducted in the mixing of the breeds H of these colored mice Just what uscfnl H end is to be attained by tbLs mixing of H -colors is hard to imagine, but some very 1 curious results have been arrived at. H The guinea pigs nnd rabbits are used H in much the ssmo way in the medical H schools as are the mice and rats. Guinea H pigs are also employee by manufacturing M chemists, who experiment on the animals H with antitoxins before putting such rom- j cdics on the market A standard of 1 strength has -to be arrived at and main- H taincd in every antitoxin, eke there would 1 bc variations that would be fatal when H "they were usd on humankind. lr.-bUs m arc alao employed in tne stuuy ul .w.u H Mi . Lathrop is fond of animals and Is, H opposed to any of her pets being tor-, H tired. Therefore she has insisted upon H ' obtaining from each medical school that H hc suppUcs a statement that none o luid spread fo such distant places aa Boston. Bos-ton. New York and J'hiladclphin- From these cities she began to receive inquiries, not only for dancing mice, but forothcr vnricties. So the defatted to go into'Tnouse farming as a business. At first she hr.d oiily a liltl(Uplnce, but as her tra"de grew' her bank account piled up, nnd it .was not long before she w-ns able toUiV the ten ncrof farm 'thnf' she now owns Krom the road I he house, outbuildings out-buildings and Didds look very much like nny olher farm In the house and barns, however, tlmre are innumer.ible cages of mice and rals. Miss Lnthrop's businoRs has grown to such an extent that she has to give her entire attention to it. She employs a housekeeper, but she attends to all of her own correspondence. She also spends much o'f her time jn the fields dunng the Kiminier. " - . M- turnips and other vegebiblcs and green srufT tp feed M5r Lnthrop's m'ice and rats. She enjojs nothing better than to go out in the fields herself and gather a wheelbarrow lond for their meals. They are gluttons nnd never seem to get enough. .Indeed, the ten acre farm does not raise quite-halt the ninount of provender that these rodents require. Mm Lnthrop bujs largely from neighboring neigh-boring farmers. As a matter of fact, her' unique industry has brought unusual pros-peri pros-peri Li to that regioti. The mouse farm is four miles from South Iladlcy. Mass.. which is about forty from the nearest large town. CI ran by is a little New Eug-land Eug-land tillage, so small that, It cannot be found on most maps. Mis3 Lathrop buys Inrgc quantities of crecker.i. grain, bread, cheese nnd corn-meal corn-meal for her "atock." The milk of one cow is devoted entirely to the baby jntss '. ' ?"3(U ' iY1jMk?JHMI "" SSSEE- by Brown Bros. . '" -. b ' 'J SfSlSSR ' Miss Lathrops Farm. Wfc&'L W0m 3 f' n ''"'II Feeding Them. H VTA , ,.( S$$jg& fOjsS.'"'- Photo Ccpyrlcfat by BrowTi Broj. FiS) VA I 'wEBSWRftS "SSC"?. ' her rats, mice or guinea pigs bo used Tor anatomical studies until they are so effectually etherized that they never awaken. Miss Lathrop's going into mouse farming farm-ing was one of the most natural things in the world. Many men and women have their life work cut out for them from the ery beginning if they only follow their nnturnl instinct. It was so with Miy Lathrop. When she waff a little girl she evinced her fondness for Tats and mice. When her small companions would gather their scant skirts about them and run at the sight- of a mouse Abbie Lathrop would stoop down and call the mouse to her. She seemed to have an extraordinary power over these small animals. The first pets hIic had were a pair of dancing mice thnt she saw in a Boston dcnler'6 window. She coveted thetic more than anytlnng else on earth and saved up money until she could buy them, for her folk were plain farmer people and not at all well to do. The dancing mouse, by the wav, Is not at all like the mouse of household house-hold nookh nnd crannies It ir the product of centuries of careful breeding in China and Japan, where it is a household pet Tt can be trained to do all sorts of curious tricks, the most remarkable of which is dancing to miiMC Music serins to intoxicate intox-icate it and make it delirious with joy The dancing mouse dances naturally, but it has to bo trained in order to execute fancy steps. Her Dancing Mice. Mirs Lathrop'- pair of dancing mice raised a large family. At first she gave the mice to youngsters, but she soon found that there ,wis a good market for them nnd that she could get high priccj for those that were trained. Therefore she began adding to the family income by celling cell-ing her pets in the nearby towns. Aa the years went on her father died and she was left with an invalid mother to support. Ilcr fnmc as a mouse ' rmer I She Types Her Own Letters. Pboio Copyright by Brown Bi'os Fresh air is highly essential to the successful suc-cessful growth of Tier crop, nud so, every bright day the cnce3, covered with wire netting, are taken out in the fields nnd left until nightfall,. Then they arc brought back to the barns and stacked up in long rows, looking in the dim light like a lot of rude sectional booljascs. It takes tons and tons of carrots and XVt1.'tVt'l.VVLt.ttAV&VVt'tMj and mice. A great deal of hay and straw-is straw-is used also. These rodents are naturally very cleanly, and fresh beds have to be given them every dny. They enjoy nothing noth-ing so much as bui rowing about in the straw and making nests. When feeding umc comes the mice and rats and guinea pigs all set up a tremendous tremen-dous squeaking. They seem to know ex- I "Vl11M..tA.4.Mt,aiVlVtMlXVVMWtt . ..- .:, , -, 1 ffe mm v WS-kw ji IpjIiKt' NSCmwB2k?C5BHEIHm ' -'tffrfc ,viii fflw - 1 i & Miss Lathrop. x ff Photo Coovrhtbt , i Inctly the hour. When Miss Lathrop's step is heard, the commotion in the cages is extraordinary. It is a crescendo of small sounds that could not bc henrd anywhere else except on n mouse farm. Miss Lathrop still has her own especial favorites among the thousands of rats and mice that pass under her eyes every year. She is fond of taking those into her lap or her hnnd nnd feeding them nnd petting them They seem to respond with every Ininrk of affection. In fnct. Miss Lnthrop is inclined to ascribe- greater intelligence to these small animal3 than to dogs or cnt3 or horses ' Miss Lathrop docs not raie very many dancing mice now. She 6ays that she 'has no time to train them nnd thnt she cannot find nny one who can take her place satisfactorily at this work. She hns developed another branch of her industry, however, which seems likely to prove -xery profitable so long as women wear furs. That Is the raising of rats for their fur. A rat is one of the most prolific of animals, and white rnti are especially productive. Moreover, the fur of white rats will take almost any dc color perfectly. Therefore they arc highly esteemed by manufacturing furriers. fur-riers. No Place for Cats. Most of Miss Lathrop's white rat skins find their way across the Atlantic to Leipsic. In this place there arc several factories that make a business of' taking white rat skins, dyeing the fur and transforming trans-forming them into fur coats and other things for women's wear. They comeback come-back to America under many different names.' Probably no end of women are wearing skins from Miss Lathrop's white raLs in the belief that they arc the product prod-uct of rare and most costly fur bearing animals. The demand for these skins is , so great thnt Miss Lathrop cannot raise white rats fast enough. It is needless to say that there arc no . cats about Miss Lathrop's mouse farm. Miss Lathrop does not like cats. Tho vith Her Pets. j by Brown Brta j farm is so isolntcd that cats never Tisit j' it, although If the news got about among j, the folines of tho countryside there Is no 1 doubt that scores of them would hasten to make a raid upon this mouse farm, j which probably is the np.irest thing on j- earth that corresponds to a cat's idea of 1 henven. j Miss Lathrop is a New Englandcr, bom and bred, nud she has no patience 1 with the fanners in her neighborhood I who talk of hard times. She counsels 1 all of them to go into "freak" farming of I Komc sort, and polnLs to hpr own ex- j perience to prove the raouey that there is in it. She says that every abandoned 11 farm could be made to pay In one way or I another, if the people who lived on it hod j a little energy. She points out that fur f farming, fish farming, feather farming or game farming can bc started on very little capital and bring big rcsultB. She is looking forward to the time when she can embark in one of these side lines as a diversion. But she expects mouse farming farm-ing to bc her true vocation aa long as she In es. . - The "Crazy" Scientist's Escape. OUR Indians have always treated with great kindness the insane and feeble-minded, inasmuch as they believed be-lieved they would be punished for any injury to persona 60 unfortunate. This belief on the part of the Indians once ' enabled a scientist attached to a government gov-ernment expedition in the Southwest to escape from a perilous situatton.- One day after filling his saddlebags and pockets with various pieces of rock, the 'professor found that he had wandered (far from his party. In his search for them he saw 6ome men on horseback, aud supposing that they were his friends he I rode toward them, when to his horror ,hc discovered that they were Indinns. ' Thej proceeded at once to mnke an In-spection In-spection of his possessions. lie hnd nothing noth-ing with which to defend himself, his outfit out-fit being a pocket knife, chisel and watch. These they took, and then began to go through his pockets and saddlebags, I which, of course, they found tilled with the geological specimens. Again and again they did this, until they had reckoned up the entire stock 1 of the professor. As the pile of stones i on the ground became higher and higher the astonishment of the Indians grew. j Finally they opened the scientist's tin 'box, only to find theivin numerous insects. in-sects. They closed it promptly and returned re-turned it to the professor, nt the same time glancing significantly at one another and tapping their foreheads to indicate that tho man wns indeed crazy. i: Then they not only assisted the professor pro-fessor to mount, in order that he might go on his way unmolested, but they even j replaced his specimens in his bags nnd ! pockets and sent him away rejoicing. ; , |