SOUTHERN OREGON MINER
PAGE OF READING FOR THE FAMILY
It la now possible, within n two-
hour run of Melbourne, with Its
more than a million Inhabitants, to
see the Koala In his native gum
trees, and It Is hoped, through the
exercise of strict protective mens
urea. to preserve this Interesting
little animal for posterity.
"Josy" Reared In Pouch.
The Koala Is a marsupial, hav­
ing a pouch In which the single
cub—“Joey," In the Icnguage of the
bush—after birth In a very Imma­
ture state. Is sheltered and fed for
some months.
When about six
Inches In length. It gradually
leaves the pouch and spends Its
time In Its mother’s arms, not
clasped by the mother, because she
needs all her toes for hnnglng onto
the trees, but clinging to her thick
fur by means of Its own sharp little
claws. This Is the usual position
of the young until It Is big enough
to look after Itself; but If danger
threatens.
necessitating
active
climbing on the part of the mother,
the youngster quickly clambers
around upon her back, so as not to
hamper her movements. There It
hangs on securely while she climbs
to safety.
A
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Koalas are. as a rule, silent, but
when frightened or annoyed will
cry very much like a child. In some
of their habits they closely resemble
human beings. A mother hear has
been seen to cuff her little one.
probably for some transgression of
from which they appear to enjoy hush law. until It cried as If broken­
their survey of the surrounding hearted.
landscape.
Contrary to what one might think,
They have five toes on each foot, the bears are very unsociable
and each toe is armed with a among themselves. It Is extremely
curved, needle-sharp claw. The rare to find more than one In a
toes are In groups of twos and tree, unless It be a very Inrge tree.
threes, the two claws being In the Even where they are fairly abttn
form of a double thumb. They are dant they seem to prefer a solitary
thus enabled to climb enslly and life.
also to grasp the branches of a
A few years ago a number were
tree and pull them down for the placed on an Island for their bet­
purpose of feeding on the leaves.
ter protection, and when visited
Even an Iron telegraph post offers later had scattered over the whole
no obstacle to their climbing pow­ extent of the place, none being
ers. and they have been seen sit­ closer than 200 or 800 yards to
ting among the wires on top of another.
one. although it is difficult to say
what motive took them Into such a
Sparrow Hawk's Diet
position. A tall flagstaff seems to
The sparrow hawk's diet consists
present an Irresistible temptation, of less than one-fifth of 1 per cent
and even In the windiest of days of game birds and no ponltry. More
they climb such posts to perch on than 50 per cent of Its diet Is com­
the top.
posed of Insects and 25.4 per cent
The leaves of certain kinds of of mice and other small mnmmnls.
the Australian eucalyptus (gum
trees) form their staple diet, al
though occasionally they feed on
the barks of certain trees and on
sphagnum moss, perhaps as a tonic
or medicine. They never drink wa
ter In a state of nature, but are
apparently able to obtain enough
moisture from feeding on the Juicy
gum shoots from which the com­
mercial eucalyptus oil Is extracted.
While the secret service, charged
Maks Dsflflhtful Pets.
with protection of the currency of
Koalas are such quaint and at­ the United States, Is always alert In
tractive little creatures that they the war against counterfeiters, pres­
are much In demand as household ent conditions have necessitated even
pets. They are very easily tamed, greater vigilance.
but as they grow older they are
Two factors have led to a substan­
careless of the fact that their claws tial Increase in counterfeiting. First,
have needle-like sharpness, which there was the repeal of prohibition,
will easily penetrate the thickest with a resultant seeking of other
and strongest cloth.
fields by bootleggers. Second, the de­
Although when living In the bush pression has caused the reduction of
they take no liquid, In captivity the "market" for "suckers" In con­
they quickly acquire a taste for fidence-game manipulations, and
weak sweetened tea and starchy therefore the necessity for the so-
foods. This depravity Is the cause called "slickers" to turn to other
of their undoing, for If given such methods of Income. Acting Chief
things In mistaken kindness they Joseph E. Murphy, of the United
soon begin to lose condition and In States secret service, says that be­
a few months die from indigestion. cause of the peculiar economic con­
Even when fed only on eucalyptus ditions, counterfeiting Is today on the
leaves, they are difficult to keep high tide.
alive In captivity.
Great success, however, has at­
Because of their unique Interest tended the efforts of the secret serv­
and the difficulty of keeping them ice against the bogus-money entre­
alive In confinement, and because preneurs. The recent arrest In New
of their now decreased numbers, York of Victor Lustig, alias "the
the Victorian government strictly Count" Illustrates the thoroughness
forbids their capture. But, In or­ of the methods used.
Secret service records show that
der that they may be seen under
normal conditions, they are gradu­ In April, 1927, the Count who has a
ally being established In suitable long police record In this and Euro­
places where there Is an abundance pean countries, escaped from the
and variety of their natural foods. Crown Point Ind., JalL He turned to
^Thornton W Burgess
•
c
WHAT DANNY MOUSE WAS
DOING
I.I. the time Nanny Meadow
Mouse nt home on the Green
Meadows was worrying herself
moat sick because Danny Meadow
Mouse didn't come home. Danny
hlniselt was too busy with bls own
troubles to even think of Nanny,
lie hnd been trapped in n hollow
log by Billy Mink ami then Blllv
hnd been frightened awny by Mrs
A
BEAR
Prepared bv National Georraphlc Roclaty.
Washington. D. C.-WNU Barvica.
F AN imaginative child could
be transported from a visit to
an American toy shop to the
midst of an Australian eucalyptus
forest, and there shown for the first
time the Australian native bear, or
Koala, climbing among the branches
and nibbling the leaves, be would
be bard to convince that the teddy
bears he bad been Inspecting had
not been brought magically to life;
for tbe Koala, with his round roly-
poly body, short arms and pointed
nose, is the living prototype of the
jolly toy bear that helps make
Christmas morning merry In many
an American nursery.
Koalas are found In eastern and
southeastern Australia, but do not
occur on any of the neighboring Is­
lands or In the western half of the
continent
They were probably
once the most common animals In
the Australian bush, but about 40
years ago a widespread epidemic
overtook them and they died by
thousands.
They also were hunted extensive­
ly for the sake of their warm, thick
fur, and as a result are now ex­
tinct in New South Wales. A few
hundred are still to be found in
Victoria, In carefully protected lo­
calities, and a fair number remain
In Queensland. Little Is known of
tbe nature of the disease that so
nearly exterminated
them,
but
study Is being given the subject,
now, with a view to preserving the
remains of this formerly numerous
species.
The koala Is one of the most In­
teresting of Australian animals. He
has a thick, grayish-colored fur, a
prominent biack nose, and stands
about two feet high. A good speci­
men weighs about ?0 pounds. He
is one of the most Inoffensive ani­
mals imaginable, doing no hnrm or
damage to anyone or anything.
I
He Lives In Trees.
Essentially an arboreal and main
ly nocturnal animal, he spends his
time In tbe branches of certain
species of eucalyptus trees, where
he feeds at night upon the tender
young leaves.
If approached, he
will sit and stare at the Intruder
with a surprised expression, and
only if danger threatens he will
climb to the topmost branches. He
la rather Inactive, especially in
summer, and often alts In the fork
of a tree, sleeping the daylight
hours away. The adult males are
fond of perching themselves on a
dead limb at the top of a tall tree,
Buster Stopped
Some Leaves
Paws.
and Raked Over
With Hie Great
Booty the Owl, who hnd then flown
away to hunt for a meal In anoth­
er part of the Green Forest. This
had been Danny's chance to get out
of tlint hollow log and he hnd made
the most of It
He hnd run his fastest until he
Just hnd to stop for breath nnd to
rest a little.
You know Dnnny's
legs are short, and though he can
run fast for a short distance, he
cannot run fnr without resting. He
crept under a pile of leaven to re­
cover his breath nnd think what to
do next It Is hard work to think
when you are out of breath. Dim
ny found It so. When nt hist he
had stopjied (Minting lie began to
consider what to do next. Never
Sleuths of Uncle Sam
War on Counterfeiters
counterfeiting when he found other
operations lacking In profits.
In December. 1933 Investigation re­
vealed that Lustig was Interested In
the output of counterfeit notes, some
of which were found tn the home of
a Chicago printer nnmed Davis. The
search for the count extended Into
several states, and ended In ills ar­
rest In New York city, where he was
picked up.
The trail terminated In a Times
Squnre subway station locker. There
(Milica and federal agents discovered
a collection of steel, copper nnd glass
plates representing many types of
government paper money.
Sometimes unusual methods are
used In passing counterfeits. Itecent-
ly, when a woman In New York, who
owed a >2,500 mortgage, advertised
In a newspaper to sell a bracelet nnd
some diamonds, she was answered
by facile-tongued crooks. They bought
her Jewelry for 22 >100 bills, which
were bogus.
-*. <« « « '• C-' Ù.V
hnd he been In that part of the
Green Forest. He didn't know a
single hhllng place.
Tills guvs
Danny a most uncomfortable feel-
Ing.
al "I will have to trust to luck."
thought Danny. •‘Yes, sir, I will
have to trust to lu< k. There Isn't
anything else I can do."
.lust then he heard heavy, shuf­
fling footsteps. Now, who was com­
ing? Dnnny's heart began to go
pit a pat. as he peeped out from
under the leaves.
What he saw
made his bright little eyes almost
|M>p out of Ids head nnd his head
and Ids heart almost stopped beat­
ing
Shuffling along straight to­
ward him was a huge black form.
Never In Ids life had Danny felt
quite so little ami helpless. Ho
knew who It was. There was no
mistaking that grent black fellow.
It was Buster Bear.
What to do Danny didn't know, so
he
did
nothing.
lie
simply
crouched right where he was un­
der that little |dle of leaves and
wished that he could shrink Into
nothing at all.
Yes. sir. that Is
what
Danny
wished.
Bunter
»topped and raked over some leaves
with his great paws, nt the «nine
time sniffing among them with Ids
nose. Every sniff sent a shiver over
Danny.
Buster picked up some­
thing ami ate It. What It was Dan­
ny didn't know, but he did know
that If Buster should find a certain
little Meadow Mouse under the
leaves he would treat It In Just the
sumo way.
Danny wanted to run. Never In
all his life hnd Danny wanted to
run as lie did right thnt minute.
But there was nowhere to run to.
lie didn't know of a single hiding
place.
Buster Ih-nr hmln't found
him yet and didn't know that he
was anywhere about. If he should
run, Buster would be likely to s<-e
or hear him, while, If he sat still,
Buster might not rake over that
pile of leaves. So Danny sat still.
©. T W llurtsM— WNU Harvlos.
The First Sewing Machine
The first sewing machine was
probably made by an Englishman
named Thomas Saint, who received
a patent on July 17. 1790. Thomas
Saint's patent was discovered with­
in recent yenrs by a searcher
among the (intent archives of the
British patent office, where It had
lain unnoticed for almost a century.
Isaac M. Singer, In 1851, patented
a sewing machine having a fixed
overhanding arm and a vertical
needle, but his most Important con­
tribution was the presser foot with
n yielding spring.
THAT’S SOMETHING
Highway to the Arctics
There are some very earnest ad­
vocates of the proposed highway
from the state of Washington to
Alaska. It will be 2,225 miles long
and will open tip 370,000,000 acres of
land along Its length.
Frosh—Do you think a classical
education helps a mini?
Soph—Surely. It helps him to
forget his own troubles by think­
ing about those of the Greeks and
Homans.