Animals: Brooklyn Farmers

Most city folk would buy a farmfirst and stock it afterward, but not Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Massula of Brooklyn. They believe in buying livestock when the buying is good. Last week Mr. Massula could not go to court because he was out lookingfor a farm, so Mrs. Massula appeared to answer a charge of keeping two bargain sheep and ten bargain goats behind their house in Brooklyn’s swarming, slummy Williamsburg district. A sympathetic magistrate gave the Massulas three more weeks to find their farm.

Newshawks soon discovered that the Massulas, sturdy immigrants from Italy, were harboring not merely two sheep and ten goats (some with kids) but also two dogs, 65 rabbits, five geese, ten chickens, a pony, a mule and some horses which could not be counted because they were out with Mr. Massula. Their owners overflowed with human kindness. The pony, Mrs. Massula explained, she had picked up for $4 from a horse dealer who was starving it. It was so weak that she had had to carry it home on her back. “She don’t do a day’s work,” said Mrs. Massula fondly. ”She just stays here and I feed her and love her.” The only pay stock was the pair of sheep, both ready for shearing.

As for the mule, declared his mistress, “He’s too lazy to work. We keep him here for luck. Wherever there’s a mule there’s luck. I love him, too. I am crazy about the rabbits. Of course when there are too many I have to get rid of a few.”