Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-08-10
MIR. PHIPPS AND THE HEN.
How lhe Friendship of Two old
Ne1RhbeFs Was ButhIesSIy Bro
ken OF


Max Adeler in New York Weekly.l
A few weeks ago my neighbor,
Mr.. Phipps. observed a yellow fluid
of some kind issuing from the wa
ter-spout on the smokehouse. Upon
examining it closely he ascertained
that it was the yolk of an egg.
For several successive days it CON
tinued to drip from the spout, and
Mr.. Phipps was perplexed about it.
He had not noticed that the wealth
er had been raining omelet, or that
there was any particular quality in
the shingles of the smokehouse
roof that would be likely to induce
them to indulge in a spontaneous
production Of custards. He deter
mined to watch, and on the follow
ing day he observed his Shanghai
hen fly up to the roof of the smoke
house, settle right down over the
aperture to the waterspout, and lay
an egg. Mr.. Phipps had not the
remotest idea what to do about it,
so he let the hen lay on for several
days, while he thought of plan
for discouraging her from operating
in that particular spot.
One day, however, when he went
out, he found the hen sitting on
the top of the spout, manifestly
with the impression that an earnest
effort would enable her to hatch
out the eggs she had dropped into
the pipe.
This seemed to Mr.. Phipps so
wildly unreasonable that he resolved
to prevent the hen from engaging
in such a delusive undertaking.
Accordingly he tried to "shoo" her
off of her nest. She looked bland
ly down at him, winked twice in a
knowing way, and refused to bulge.
Mr.. Phipps' friend Rogers, who
lives next door, climbed over the
fence and advised him to get lad
der and pull the hen off. Mr..
Phipps did SO, and then Rogers
said that if it was his hen he would
simply plug up the hole.
Mr.. Phipps drove plug in the
spout and descended. AS soon as
he reached the ground the hen flew
up and began to try to hatch out
the plug. Rogers said that he
thought she might perhaps be
scared of, so he threw "a piece of
brick at her, but it missed the hen
and went straight through PhippS
dining-room window.
Then Rogers said that if he
owned hen like that he would stop
her if he had to blow her up with
powder. So Phipps got four ounces
of gunpOwder and packed it into
the lower end of the spout, and
Rogers touched it off with a match.
It. merely sizzled out, like a young
volcano, and set fire to Phipps'
trouser leg.
Rogers then said the powder ought
to have been "tamped." So he put
another charged in the spout,and then
drove a white pine plug in, leaving
a gimlet-hole for the slow-match.
The experiment was in a degree
successful. There was a fearful
bang, and the next minute Phipps
eccentric chicken was sailing out
toward the celestial consultations
with a plug in her claws. She went
mp almost out Of sight, and then
she came down, down, down, and
lighted squarely over the spout-hole,
expressing, by cackle or two, her
surprise, but, upon the whole, calm
and sweet-tempered. and as reso-
lutely disposed as ever to give her
attention strictly to business.
Rogers remarked that for a mere
ShaRghai chicken she had real
genius. He said there was only
0nethirg to do now, and that was
to turn the garden hose on her. So
Phipps got out the hose, and Rogers
took the pipe and played a half-inch
stream directly on the hen. The
hen seemed rather to enjoy it, for
she cackled a little in a pleased way,
and Roges told Phipps to turn the
water off while he climbed on the
roof to get a better crack at her
So, while Rogers was going up the
ladder, holding the pipe against his
breast with one arm, Phipps, who
must have misunderstood him, sud
dunly turned the water on again,
and the stream struck Rogers in the
nostrils, nearly choking him and
causing him to let go his hold on
the ladder and fall to the ground.
When he got up he said that a man
who would own such a hen as that
was, in his opinion, no better than
pirate and Il pagan, and so he got
over the fence and went home.
PHI ps then went after him and
oOnlooi1e1 and ihpn he asked