Mrs. Swisshelm expresses wonder that any song bird are found in the United States, since cats are so numerous here, and proceeds to show pretty conclusively that they have done more than man himself to extirpate some of our most valuable prairie fowls. This calls to mind the statement made some years ago by a patient observer of the habits of these beasts of prey, he declared that two cats upon his farm killed over three hundred young partridges in one season. and more recently the protest came from Kansas that these animals were killing off the birds that ate the grasshoppers. This is a very bad report for pussy.
Now the economist pertinently asks if the food which the fifty or sixty feline whether there would not be more left to feed some of the starving children; and to put the finishing stroke upon the business, Mrs. Swisshelm intimates very strongly that the cat is in a measure responsible for the grasshopper plague. After this it will be difficult to find a modern Cowper to defend the sleek and bloated hypocrite that purrs before the grate fire, and that is only waiting for the night to come, to banish sleep with the voice of the damned.
October 6, 1876. Cats vs. birds. Weekly Sumter Republican 23(32): 4. Also: October 13, 1876. Weekly Sumter republican 23(33): 1. Issued at Americus, Georgia.