Carpetbagger From Dixie

America, a receptive nation which has been overrun by everything from the English sparrow to the dry Martini, is now being taken in by that old marsupial, the opossum. A carpetbagger in reverse, this odd creature has spread from its traditional grounds below the Mason-Dixon line and is heading north, carrying its multiple offspring in a built-in suitcase.

There was a time when the possum was regarded as an integral part of the Deep South, as Southern as moonlight on magnolias. Down there it has three generally accepted locations: 1) up a persimmon tree with the dogs baying down below, 2) in a folksong with Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Coon, or 3) nestling in roasted form alongside a bank of sweet potatoes.

OLD GHOST-FACE

But now what happens? Citizens over three-quarters of the country are stumbling onto this roving mammal in all sorts of curious places. Usually old ghost-face is encountered at night but sometimes he is apprehended before he has a chance to hole up for the day. Residents of cities as well as suburbanites and country folk have been seeing more and more of this peripatetic creature of the night.

Recently Mr. and Mrs. John Biele, of New York City, had eerie visitors. When they sat down to dinner in the dining room of their home in the Bronx two pale-faced animals would peer at them through the window. Finally the Bieles jack-lighted two peeping possums with a flashlight. One escaped but the other was still staring into the beam of light when an agent of the A.S.P.C.A. arrived and captured it with a noose on the end of a stick.

Mary Luscombe, a pretty blonde with big blue eyes, also had possum trouble in the Bronx. Attired in a green Bikini bathing suit, Miss Luscombe was climbing to the roof of her five-story apartment building. Her intention was to do some sun-bathing. When she got to the top step, she was halted by a gray animal, the like of which she had never seen. She started to pet the animal but it bared its teeth in a snarl. Miss Luscombe fled. Police arrived and took a possum into custody. They never did find out how it happened to be on a New York rooftop.

In East Rutherford, N.J., Elsie Hoster climbed a ladder to clean out a squirrel house in her yard. Sticking out of the entrance hole was a foot far too big for any squirrel. The owner of the foot turned out to be a half-grown possum. It had grown too large to get out of the squirrel house. The mystery here was who or what had been passing food in to the possum.

Last April a possum was spotted climbing up a 336-foot smokestack of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, N.Y. When the animal had climbed about three-quarters of the way up the lightning cable of the stack, it suddenly fell to its death. The problem here was why would a possum want to climb a smokestack anyway.

Such possum incidents as these are occurring in more and more sections of the country as the animal continues its northward march. Almost anybody can bump into the animal nowadays, but to most job-holding persons the presence of the possum is revealed when they drive to work in the morning and see the dead ones that have been hit by cars during the night. Possums are unheeding jaywalkers and the great numbers that are hit give an indication of how numerous they have become.

It is difficult to determine just when the creature started north. Being a nocturnal animal, the vanguard penetrated many sections before the general public was aware of its presence. In recent years they have spread through most of New England. They also have crossed the border and are now residents of Canada.