New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 7, 1927, Page 19

e Thrilling Adventures OF Californ N order to rid the mountains of Cali- I fornia of the largest predatory ani- mal known to the western United States, Jay C. Bruce, official lion hunter of that state and the only public officer of his sort in the nation, has tracked lions for 26,000 miles during his eight- year term in office, and has shot, out of trees and off bluffs, 293 lions. California mountain lions—also known as pumas, panthers and cougars—live largely on deer and kill, not for food but for the lust of blood. They also kill cows and horses for the love of murder. Mountain sheep frequently fall before their attack. So serious did the situation become that sportsmen brought about Bruce's appointment eight years ago, and in that time he has worked out a scientific method of hunting, which has brought about the death of lions which are be- lieved to have cost California nearly $300,000 a year in deer alone. Soon after Bruce began his work as an official hunter of lions he became con- vinced that a proper study of lion kills would tell him where to expect the lions in greatest numbers and accordingly simplify his work. He soon learned that over a period of twenty years 4,600 mountain lions had been killed, reported to the California Fish and Game Com- mission and paid for with bounties. By charting the kills, the exact locations of which were recorded, he determined the areas where the beasts are most numerous. - With few exceptions, all the lions had been taken between the elevations of 3,000 and 5,000 feet. Not only do the mountain lions confine their predatory activities to that general altitude, but they also remain in a temperature belt which, like the altitude belt, is the same throughout the state. How does this man hunt and kill as many as four lions in a single day in localities where the permanent residents have not laid eyes on one of the crea- tures in scores of years? In answering the question, Bruce de- clares that, contrary to the opinion of many naturalists and hunters, the Cali- fornia mountain lion is gamer than the state’s black bear, and always dies fight- ing and snarling, never ccmplaining. “The lions I kill sneak up on their prey,” he explains, “and for tkat reason s are called cowardly. In fact, in all my long experience, I have never seen one walking around the woods, with the single exception of a 80-pound kitten 800 yards away. Later I killed him, my fourteenth bag. “California’s moun- tain lions, being short- winded, must capture their prey by surprise. They cannot chase deer very far and cannot escape from good dogs by a long run. With those facts in mind, one can easily realize why, Nature has o endowed the lion that he can keep under cover. “The lion, in attacking, dashes the last fifty feet in a second and kills by disem- bowelment ,but he does not run several miles, crashing through the brush, after deer or stock. I have never known one to climb a tree except when cornered. “The lion is game, and neither dogs mor man can keep a lion treed longer than Mr. Lion wants to remain there. At times he will jump, fighting, into the midst of dogs or men. He goes into the tree to rest and not be- cause of fear. “I learned many of these facts while killing forty-one lions with my first silent-trailing hound. All my other dogs have been descended from this first one. I have never had a lion kill one of my dogs, though they have frequently come together in furious combat. Bruce has learned by years of experi- ence that it takes the combined efforts of dogs and hunter to kill lions. The ani- mals possess so much cunning that they will seldom attack an adult human being, apparently realizing the odds are likely to be against them, but that they will take a child if opportunity offers. Mountain lions can kill a good hunting dog with one bite. For that reason Cali- fornia’s official hunter takes every pre- Mrs. Coolidge's Living gio, one of the most popular mem- bers of the American colony in Rome, Italy, are sure that she is the living image of Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. Not only do they find the most strik- ing physical resemblance between the two women but they say that they show almost identically the same tastesd in dress. Many of Donna Raggio’s costumes are practically duplicates of ones that are favorites with the President’s wife. Like Mrs. Coolidge, Donna Raggio is a New England woman. Her maiden name was Katherine Osborn, and she was born and passed her early life in Salem, Massachusetts. Her husband, Carlo Raggio, holds a high government position in Rome. The statement that one person is the College For ARIS has the unenviable distinction P of being the only city in the world having a regularly organized col- lege in which girls and young women are trained for careers of crime. The police admit the existence of such an institution in spite of their long- continued efforts to put an end to it So wary are the teachers and students that it has thus far been impossible to bring them to punishment, even though their activities are well known. On the eve of a police raid the college mysteri- ously vanishes, only to reappear soon again in an entirely different place. At the head of the college is a woman who, for forty years, has been a notori- ous criminal. The police know her as a skillful pickpocket, sneak thief, decoy for confidence men and jewel thieves, and a leader of a desperate gang of Apaches. She was at one time the most adept pickpocket in Paris, being able to relieve a man of his pocketbook while giving him a kiss, Now that she is too old for active crime, she is devoting herself to train- ing others for the devious ways she has followed. She never lacks for pupils, and they range in age from girls as young as fourteen to women of thirty. The curriculum of this extraordinary and shameless college includes courses in most of the varieties of crime in which women usually engage. The ones most in demand are those which prepare for FBIENDS of Donna Katherine Rag- “living image” of another is one that is frequently heard, but it often loses its force when the two are put side by side. What are known as ‘‘identical twins” are, as a rule, the only human beings so much alike that it is hard to tell them apart. But there are many people who look enough alike at first glance to cause some very embarrassing mistakes. A prominent New York banker bore such a striking resemblance to a notorious burglar for whom the police were searching a few years ago, that he was actually arrested tbrze times during a trip to Chicago. Sophie Lyons, the celebrated Amer- ican criminal, looked astonishingly like a lady of the British nobility and she more than once made use of this resemblance. bmen (roo careers in burglary, sneak thievery and picking pockets. In every course great attention is given to the best ways of evading the police and also of escaping punishment when arrested. There is in- struction in jiu jitsu, so that the woman crook may be able to fight off a gen- darme or overcome the resistance of some obstreperous victim. Jay Bruce, California’s official mountain lion hunter, returning from a two-days’ hunt in the mountains near San Diego with the car- casses of four lions and the pelt of a fifth. He holds in his hand the pistol with which caution to protect his dogs. He goes to extreme lengths to save his dumb com- panions from unwelcome ends. Once, 80 he relates, there was reported to him from the Big Bend country the loss of abou. one hundred sheep in, thirty days from a single flock. The owner thought that black bears had taken them, because lions had not been seen in' that vicinity in five years, and two or three bears had been caught eat- ing the carcasses of the sheep in question. Bruce, however, declares that he has never known a black bear to kill an animal. They are scavengers by na- ture and not killers. On this occasion he carried his dogs to the scene of the wholesale sheep kill he made all five kills and set them loose. After a time they started off on a scent and soon had treed a big male lion. He was thirty feet up on the dead limb of a cedar tree which recently had been swept by fire. Bruce tied the dogs, except one which he was beginning to train for the hunts, to a nearby tree and prepared to shoot. While taking aim, the limb broke and down came the lion, claws outstretched. As the lion hurtled downward, the ze> dog jumped toward him and imme- diately they became a single ball, the lion hugging the dog closely to him. Bruce jumped toward them, his revolver cocked—and made an effort to get the weapon between dog and lion and kill the latter. As he stooped to accomplish this pur- pose the lion saw him and immediately forgot the dog. He jumped on the lion hunter with such force that Bruce, as he fired, fell headlong in a pool of water. With his head under water, his pistol hand beneath his body and the lion on top, Bruce did not know whether the lion momentarily would take a bite from his neck or claw him, or both. He struggled for what seemed an interminably long time and finally succeeded in freeing lion cubs cap- tured alive by Bruce himself from the beast’s grasp. And the lion at that precise instant dropped dead from the single shot. This, Bruce terms, his “worst scare.” He says this lion had “paws that looked like tennis rackets equipped with grappling hooks.” One of the remarkable features of Bruce’s lion hunting is the fact that he ever uses a rifie, depending entirely upon a revolver and a German auto- matic. He has the utmost faith in his marksmanship, as is evidenced by the fact that he seldom carries a pistol loaded! Self-preservation is his only object in carrying an empty pistol. Often the hammer is struck by some overhanging branch and he fears that he might shoot himself if the weapon were loaded. Bruce does not have the idea of ex- terminating the lions from California. Ruther, he wants to keep them down to some reasonable proportion with refer- ence to defenseless deer. He would need at least three additional men, trained in lion lore, to exterminate them, he says. The average length of a California mountain lion’s life is fifteen years. Bruce figures he has walked an average of eighty miles for every lion killed. At present the “anti-lion-law” en- forcement agent estimates there are 450 movntain lions in California, all eager for the taste of animal blood. The ma- jority of these he hopes soon to kill. i ish Shun the Sunlight HE fact that in semi-darkness T there is less danger of their being caught by fishermen and other enemies is not the only reason why fish prefer shady sections of water. Science has discovered that the sun’s ultra violet rays, which do so much for the health and vigor of human beings and many other creatures, are positively harmful to fish, and this is believed to explain their preference for dark, shady places. Experiments recently reported to the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries by the Ver- mont State Fish Hatchery seem to estab- lish very definitely that sunlight is harm- ful, rather than helpful, to fish. At the Vermont hatchery there were almost twice as many deaths among young fish placed in troughs of water exposed to the direct sunlight as among those in troughs left in the shade. The sun seems to be a harmful influence. The experiments showed precisely the same results with fish of different ages and different species. There was always a much greater mortality in the un- shaded pools of water. As far as is known, fish are the only creatures that fail to show a favorable response to what have been called the ‘“health and food rays” of the sun. Sunlight, either real or artificial, is now an important aid to the physician in cur- ing many varieties of human disease, and recent experiments in several zoo- logical gardens have shown that mon- keys, snakes ard other animals thrive best when they get the most ultra violet rays. Nefertis Bewiiching Head Donna Katherine Raggia, known as Mrs. Coolidge’s double that some supernatural influence hovers around the beautiful art objects which the ancient Egyptians bur- ied with the mummies of their dead, find what they think strong support for their belief in the recent history of the sculp- tured head of Queen Neferti. More than one student of the occult SUPERSTIT[OL‘S people who believe Using All Of a Shark Except lts Bite HE shark can no longer be re- garded as a worse than worthless creature, one that does a lot of harm and no good. It is being found of great value to mankizd in & surprisingly wide variety of ways. In fact, it can now be truthfully said that every part of a shara is turned to some good account except its bite. And perhaps science will some day find a way of using the powerful jaws and dagger-like teeth that make this *“pirate” of the seas so menacing to human life and the lives of other fish. The shark’s flesh, long deemed unfit for human consumption, is now 'consid- ered something of a delicacy and can be found ir fish markets all over the world: The Chinese make a rich and satisfying soup of the zelatine sealed within the large and knife-like fins of the shark. Until recently the shark’s rough skin was thought to be practically worthless, except to cabinet makers, who use it for polishing the finest grained woods. But the thick hide is now tanned so that it makes a very satisfactory substitute for leather and is even better than leather in certain respects. It is possible to-day to buy shoes, luggage and many other things fashioned of this material. Science has taken the shark into the laboratory and found things of great value in its interior. The liver, for ex- ample, contains much oil of unusual purity. Previously, this was thought to be worthless, except for tanning leather, but recent experiments have shown that the oil is admirably sumited for use in soap making and as an ingredient of paint. One investigator has even pre- dicted that shark oil will soon be refined to a point where it will have as great a medicinal value as is now attributed to cod-liver oil. The possibilities in this direction can be better appreciated when one realizes that the shark is about one-quarter liver and that thc crgan is 2' »ut 96 pcr cent oil. The shark’s pancreatic gland is hailed by medical scientists as ona of the real “finds” of recent years, because it is a source of insulin of excellent quality. The man-eater, they predict, will thus be the means of saving the lives of thou- sands of sufferers from diabetes. The fearsome head of the shark, cut up and boiled, gives up almost pure glue, Copyright, 1927, by Johnson Features. Inc. and it is believed that a sizable industry will develop ‘rom this discovery alone. The backbone of the fish is being made into numerous useful things, including walking sticks and buttons. Sharks are found in all seas, and most of them are “illers. There are, however, harmless varieties that live on marine growth and get along peaceably with their neighbors of the deep. They lay eggs that are sometimes square, some- time oblong, and covered with a horny coat having streamers that fasten the eggs to rocks or undersea plants. The discovery that the shark has something of value in every inch of him, from his tail to his snout, that he is an industrial and commercial asset instead of a dead loss, has brought on a big boom in shark Sshing. is sure that strange powers for the in- fluence of human beings are centered in the piercing eyes of the exquisite piece of sculpture. Men are actually said to have fallen in love with this chalkstone head. It is eaid that one well-known German edu- cator remained a bachelor for many years because he lost his heart to the strangely fascinating likeness of this royal lady of three thousand years ago. The head is considered one of the fin- est examples of ancient Egyptian sculp- ture yet brought to light, and it is al- most priceless in value, in the eyes of archaeologists. Ever since ‘ts excavation at Tell-el-Amarna some years ago it has been the subject of a bitter controversy between Germany and Egypt. The latter charges that Professor Bor- | chardt stole the head and smuggled it away to Berlin, where it now occupies the place of greatest honor in the Berlin Museum. The Egyptians further charge that the head was kept secretly in Berlin until after the signing of the Versailles Treaty in order to prevent its being re- stored to Egypt. But the Germans insist that these charges concerning the head, which many people think to be really be- witched, are entirely without foundation. It was, they say, legally awarded to Pro- fessor Borchardt by the Egyptian au- thorities as his share of the archaeelog- ical spoils.