The History of The Hen Fever Part 10

Subsequently, these fowls came to be called "Buram-pootras," "Burram Putras," "Brama-pooters," "Brahmas," "Brama Puters," "Brama Poutras,"

and at last "Brahma Pootras." In the mean time, they were advertised to be exhibited at various fairs in different parts of the country under the above changes of t.i.tle, varied in certain instances as follows: "Burma Porters," "Bahama Paduas," "Bohemia Prudas," "Bahama Pudras."

And, for these three _last_ named, prizes were actually offered at a Maryland fair, in 1851!

The following capital sketch (which appeared originally in the Boston _Carpet-Bag_) is from the pen of the late Secretary of the Mutual Admiration Society,--a gentleman, and a very happy writer in his way. It gives a faithful and accurate description of what many of these monsters really were, and will be read with gus...o...b.. all who have now come to be "posted up" in the secrets of the hen-trade.

The editor of the above-named journal remarks that "as our _Carpet-Bag_ contains something connected with everything under the sun, we have abstracted therefrom a chapter on chicken-craft, which embraces a very important detail of that most abstruse science. When our readers scan the beautiful proportions of the stately fowl that _roosts_ at the head of this article, they will acknowledge that we have some right to _cackle_ because of the good fortune we have had in securing such an un_eggs_ceptionable picture, exhibiting the very perfection of c.o.c.kadoodledom. Isn't he a beauty, this BOTHER'EM POOTRUM?

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Examine his alt.i.tude! Observe the bold courage that stands forth in his every lineament! There is no dunghill bravery there! See what symmetry floats round every detail of his n.o.ble proportions! What kingly grace a.s.sociates with the comb that adorns his head as it were a crown! What fire there is in his eye! With what proud bearing does he not wear his abbreviated posterior appendage! Looking at the latter, we, and every one knowing in hen-craft, will readily exclaim, 'Gerenau de Montbeillard! you must have been a most unmitigated m.u.f.f to designate _that_ beautiful fowl the _gallus ecaudatus_, or tailless rooster.' For ourselves, our indignity teaches us to say, 'Mons. M.! your Essai sur Historie Nat. des Gallinacae Fran. tom. ii., pp. 550 et 656, is a humbug!' We know that the universal world will sympathize in our sentiment on this point."

Peter Snooks, Esq. (a correspondent of this journal), it appears, had the honor to be the fortunate possessor of this invaluable variety of fancy poultry, in its unadulterated purity of blood. He furnished from his own yard samples of this rare and desirable stock for His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and also sent samples to several other noted potentates, whose taste was acknowledged to be unquestionable, including the King of Roratonga, the Rajah of Gabble-squash, His Majesty of the Cannibal Islands, and the Mosquito King. Peter supplies the annexed description of the superior properties of this variety of fowls:

"The _Bother'em Pootrums_ are generally hatched from eggs. The original pair were not; they were sent from India, by way of Nantucket, in a whale-s.h.i.+p.

"They are a singularly _pictur-squee_ fowl from the very sh.e.l.l. Imagine a crate-full of lean, plucked chickens, taking leg-bail for their liberty, and persevering around Faneuil Hall at the rate of five miles an hour, and you have an idea of their extremely ornamental appearance.

"They are remarkable for producing bone, and as remarkable for producing offal. I have had one a.n.a.lyzed lately by a celebrated chemist, with the following result:

Feathers and offal, 39.00 Bony substances, 50.00 Very tough muscle and sinew, 09.00 Miscellaneous residuum, 02.00 ------ 100.00"

A peculiarly well-developed faculty in this extraordinary fine breed of domestic fowls is that of _eating_. "A tolerably well-fed Bother'em will dispose of as much corn as a common horse," insists Mr. S----. This goes beyond _me_; for I have found that they could be kept on the allowance, ordinarily, that I appropriated daily to the same number of good-sized store hogs. As to affording them _all_ they would eat, I never did that.

O, no! I am pretty well off, pecuniarily, but not rich enough to attempt any such fool-hardy experiment as that!

But Snooks is correct about one thing. They are not fastidious or "particular about _what_ they eat." Whatever is portable to them is adapted to their taste for devouring. Old hats, India-rubbers, boots and shoes, or stray socks, are not out-of-the-way fare with them. They are amazingly fond of corn, especially _a good deal of it_. They _will_ eat wheaten bread, rather than want.

They are very inquisitive in their nature. Their habit of stalking around the dwelling-house, and popping their heads into the garret-windows, is evidence of this peculiar trait.

Their flesh is firm and compact, and requires a great deal of eating to do it justice. Like Barney Bradley's leather "O-no-we-never-mention-'ems," when cut up and stewed for tripe, "a fellow could eat a whole bushel of potatoes to the plateful." It is of the color of a stale red herring, and very much like that edible in taste. Its scarcity const.i.tutes its value.

This _rara avis in terris_ grows to a height somewhere between .00 feet .16 inches and 25 feet. Its weight somewhat between .06 pounds and 1 cwt. It never lays, except when it rolls itself in the sand. The female fowls sometimes do that duty, though amazingly seldom.

Mr. Snooks says he will back his Bother'em, for a chicken-feast, to outcrow any three asthmatical steam-whistles that any railroad company can scare up; and adds, "I am ashamed of the prejudice which makes my fellow-men unjust. The Fowl Society--the New England organization, I mean--repudiate the special merits of my _Bother'em Pootrums_, and tell me that their ideas of improvement go entirely contrary to the propriety of tolerating my n.o.ble breed of fowls. _Disgustibus non disputandum_, as Shakspeare, or somebody for him, emphatically says,--which means, 'Every one to his taste, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow.' One thing it will not be hard to prove, I think; that is, simply the probability of something like envy operating among the members of the Hen Society, on account of the exclusive attention paid my _Bother'ems_ at the late Fowl Fairs in Boston,"--where the 'squire's contributions _did_ rather "astonish the boys" who were not thoroughly acquainted with the excellent qualities of these birds. Verily, Snooks' "Bother'ems" did bother 'em exceedingly!

CHAPTER XV.

ADVERTISING EXTRAORDINARY.

From the outset of my experience in the final attack of the hen fever, I took advantage of every possible opportunity to disseminate the now world-wide known fact that n.o.body else but myself possessed any "pure-bred" poultry! I could have proved this by the affidavits of more than a thousand "disinterested witnesses," at any time after April and May, 1851, had I been called upon so to do. But as no one _doubted_ this, there was then no controversy.

But, as time wore along, compet.i.tion became rife, and the foremost chicken-raisers began to look about them for the readiest means obtainable with which to cut each other's throats; not "with a feather,"

by any means, because that would have "smelt of the shop;" but whenever, wherever, or however, their neighbors could be traduced, maligned, vilified, or injured (in this pursuit), they embraced the opportunity, and followed it up, without stint, especially towards my humble self, until most of them, fortunately, broke their own backs, and were compelled to retire from the field, while "the people" grinned, and comforted them with the friendly a.s.surance that it "sarved 'em right."

At the Fitchburg Depot Show, in 1850, my original "Grey Chittagongs"

(already described) were in the possession of G.W. George, Esq., of Haverhill, to whom they had been sold by the party to whom I had previously sold them. n.o.body thought well of them; but they took a first prize there, and the "Chittagongs" (so entered at the same time) of Mr.

Hatch, of Connecticut, also took a prize. My friend the Doctor then insisted that these were _also_ "Burrampooters;" but, as n.o.body but himself could p.r.o.nounce this jaw-cracking name, it was taken little notice of at that time.

Mr. Hatch had a large quant.i.ty of the Greys at this show, which sold readily at $12 to $20 the pair; and immediately after this exhibition the demand for "Grey Chittagongs" was very active. I watched the current of the stream, and I beheld with earnest sympathy the now alarming symptoms of the fever. "The people" had suffered a relapse in the disease, and the ravages now promised to become frightful--for a time!

An ambitious sea-captain arrived at New York from Shanghae, bringing with him about a hundred China fowls, of all colors, grades, and proportions. Out of this lot I selected a few _grey_ birds, that were very large, and (consequently) "very fine," of course. I bred these, with other grey stock I had, at once, and soon had a fine lot of birds to dispose of--to which I gave what I have always deemed their only true and appropriate t.i.tle (as they came from Shanghae), to wit, _Grey Shanghaes_.

In 1851 and '52 I had a most excellent "run of luck" with these birds. I distributed them all over the country, and obtained very fair prices for them; and, finally, the idea occurred to me that a present of a few of the choicest of these birds to the Queen of England wouldn't prove a very bad advertis.e.m.e.nt for me in this line. I had already reaped the full benefit accruing from this sort of "disinterested generosity" on my part, toward certain _American_ notables (whose letters have already been read in these pages), and I put my newly-conceived plan into execution forthwith.

I then had on hand a fine lot of fowls, bred from my "imported" stock, which had been so much admired, and I selected from my best "Grey Shanghae" chickens nine beautiful birds. They were placed in a very handsome black-walnut-framed cage, and after having been duly lauded by several first-rate notices in the Boston and New York papers, they were duly s.h.i.+pped, through Edwards, Sanford & Co.'s Transatlantic Express, across the big pond, addressed in purple and gold as follows:

+-----------------------------------------------+ | TO H.M.G. MAJESTY, | | Victoria, | | QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN. | | | | _To be Delivered at Zoological Gardens_, | | LONDON, ENG. | | | | FROM GEO. P. BURNHAM, BOSTON, Ma.s.s., U.S.A. | +-----------------------------------------------+

The fowls left me in December, 1852. The _London Ill.u.s.trated News_ of January 22d, 1853, contained the following article in reference to this consignment:

"By the last steamer from the United States, a cage of very choice domestic fowls was brought to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, a present from George P. Burnham, Esq., of Boston, Ma.s.s. The consignment embraced nine beautiful birds--two males and seven pullets, bred from stock imported by Mr. Burnham direct from China. The fowls are seven and eight months old, but are of mammoth proportions and exquisite plumage--light silvery-grey bodies, approaching white, delicately traced and pencilled with black upon the neck-hackles and tips of the wings and tails. The parent stock of these extraordinary fowls weigh at maturity upwards of twenty-three pounds per pair; while their form, notwithstanding this great weight, is unexceptionable. They possess all the rotundity and beauty of the Dorking fowl; and, at the same age, nearly double the weight of the latter. They are denominated Grey Shanghaes (in contradistinction to the Red or Yellow Shanghaes), and are considered in America the finest of all the great Chinese varieties. _That they are a distinct race, is evident from the accuracy with which they breed, and the very close similarity that is shown amongst them; the whole of these birds being almost precisely alike, in form, plumage and general characteristics._ They are said to be the most prolific of all the Chinese fowls. At the time of their s.h.i.+pment, these birds weighed about twenty pounds the pair."

This was a very good _beginning_. In another place (see page 88) I have given a copy of the letter from Hon. Col. Phipps, her Majesty's Secretary of the Privy Purse, acknowledging the receipt of this present.

A few weeks afterward, the _London News_ contained a spirited original picture of seven of the nine Grey Shanghae fowls which I had the honor to forward to Queen Victoria. The drawing was made by permission of the Queen, at the royal poultry-house, from life, by the celebrated _Weir_, and the engraving was admirably executed by _Smythe_, of London. The effect in the picture was capital, and the likenesses very truthful. In reference to these birds, the _News_ has the following:

"GREY SHANGHAE FOWLS FOR HER MAJESTY.--In the _London Ill.u.s.trated News_ for January 22d, we described a cage of very choice domestic fowls, bred from stock imported by Mr. George P. Burnham, of Boston, Ma.s.s., direct from China, and presented by him to Her Majesty. We now engrave, by permission, these beautiful birds. They very closely resemble the breed of _Cochin-Chinas_ already introduced into this country, the head and neck being the same; the legs are yellow and feathered; the carriage very similar, but the tail being more upright than in the generality of Cochins. The color is creamy white, slightly splashed with light straw-color, with the exception of the tail, which is black, and the hackles, which are pencilled with black. The egg is the same color and form as that of the Cochins. .h.i.therto naturalized in this country. These fowls are very good layers, and have been supplying the royal table since their reception at the poultry-house, at Windsor."

All this "helped the cause along" amazingly. It proved a most excellent mode of advertising my "superb," "magnificent," "splendid,"

"unsurpa.s.sable," "inapproachable" GREY SHANGHAES.

The above articles found their way (somehow or other) into the papers of this country immediately; and, within sixty days afterwards, the price of "Bother'ems" went up from $12 and $15 to $50, $75, $100, and $150, the pair!!

"Cochin-Chinas" were now _no_whar! But _I_ was so as to be about yet.

CHAPTER XVI.

HEIGHT OF THE FEVER.

While this cage of Grey Shanghaes stood for an hour or two in the express-office of Adams & Co., in Boston, a servant came from the Revere House to inform me that "a gentleman desired to see me there, about some poultry."

As I never had had occasion to run round much after my customers, and, moreover, as I felt that the dignity of the business--(the _dignity_ of the hen-trade!)--might possibly be compromised by my responding in person to this summons, I directed the servant to "say to the gentleman, if he wished to see me, that I should be at my office, No. 26 Was.h.i.+ngton-street, for a couple of hours,--after that, at my residence in Melrose."

The man retired, and half an hour afterwards a carriage stopped before my office-door. The gentleman was inside. He invited me to ride with him--(I could afford to _ride_ with him)--to Adams & Co.'s office. He had seen the "Grey Shanghaes" intended for the Queen there.

"I want that cage of fowls," he said.

"My dear sir," I replied, "they are going to England."

"I _want_ them. What will you take for them?"

"I can't sell them, sir."