FERRETS 
HE one who handles ferrets needs to 
have courage; for however carefully 
the little master or mistress may be, 
they are sure to be bitten more or less. 
Ferrets are never so tame that they 
will not bite at the smell of blood. 
The ferret has an almost uncanny 
fierceness, and a will power that makes 
it a destroyer of other animals. This characteristic 
fierceness is not likely to teach gentleness to its care- 
takers; but other pets may be kept for that purpose; 
and with all the knowledge which we now possess 
concerning the dangers to human life through rats, 
we must realize that sympathy with the lower ani- 
mals cannot always be maintained. Thus it is that 
ferrets may well supplement the child’s experience 
with pets; if he has eyes to see, the ferrets will give 
him some excellent examples scarcely to be gotten 
elsewhere, of some of the forces in the great struggle 
for existence in nature. Moreover, one who watches 
a ferret mother care for and discipline her young 
ones gains a new insight into the training which the 
wild mothers administer in fitting their youngsters 
for successful lives. 
I am indebted to Mr. Karl P. Schmidt for my 
interest in ferrets. At my request his brother, 
Frank J. W. Schmidt, a lad of twelve years, wrote 
me a letter about the habits of his ferrets, and I think 
I cannot do better than to give the letter exactly as 
he wrote it: 
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