River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-03-13
A Great Bird Gone.

From the New York sun.
Capt. Caleb Cronkman, an old and
highly respected resident Of the Twenty
second Ward, owned, until lately, III
gantiv ostrich, that was asfamiliarlyl Unknown
in the REGION as himself The great bird
disappeared about three weeks ago, and
Yesterday a san reporter asked the Cap
tain where it was. The Captain said that
he received on Friday the following dis
patch from his trainer in Hoboken:
The ostrich is dead.
"Oue morning in Juue,n the Captain
continued, II was aroused by peculiar
cracking sound at my door, and / dis
covered in the hall a gigantic ostrich
which, had just bitten off my door knob
AMI was at that moment deyouring it.
Wiz ,he aid of some of the gentlemen in
the hoI Sc ] secured the bind and turned
il into The back yard. The next morning
an advertisement appeared offering a re-
war4 for the ostrich, which had escaped
from menagerie. l WAS 50 charmed
with the birds unique endeavor to satisfy
its appetite that bought it, and got it
cheap by turning over the re ward in part
payment
II occupied the realroom on the sec
ono floor, with window opening on the
roo; Of the extension. pur up fence
aroaud the roof, and thus made nice pen
for,the ostrich, and for some days gave
g1a1icr constant employ nent IN restor-
inG the window glass that the ostrich
hed eaten out Finally / settled this both
er by planking up the windows ana there
after the only trouble the ostrich gave
me was when he took advantage of the
caIalessness Of some gentlemen who had
left the bath room window open. On
such occasions the ostrich would slip
down into the room and eat a few plates
and tumblers; but, as rule, he got
enough from the fragments of broken
croCk kerry and glassware which the house
afioided with now and then junk-bo
tie s4aO, or a dish Of crooked nails as q
deiicacy.
HBut one day, about three weeks ago, he
crept down into the dining room, and
remained there undistuTbed for longer
time than usual, and before it was dis
covered he had cleared one table Of
crockery, glassware, knives and forks,
spoons, casters and all, and finished up
by swallowing the tablecloth. Notwith-
standing the great quantity and the
noarishing quality Of the foe I taken, he
seemed to pine away from tat meal for
waad, aud about two weeks ago ! had
him taken over to my Hob9ken farm,
thinking that a change Of Dir and scene
might be beneficial. Still he grew worse,
and finally about week ago, | bought
out hardware store on Union Hill and
turned the bird into it., hoping that the
sig1t Of all the hardware on the shelves,
wish The privilege of eating whatever
pleased his fancy, might brace him up.
BIZ, in spite Of all these efforts, he faded
and died, as set forth in the brief tele-
gram which read TO you.
sWe ran him through a stone crusher
ana found in him about two barrels of
iron, stone and glass, and, last of all, that
tatlecloth which was the real cause of
his death The wonderful machinery
wl,ich could crush stone jug like an
egg-shell was overcome by that pa,try
table cloth, which had got 50 twisted and
wedaed among the cogs and bearings
that the apparatus could work no longer.
and doubtless life was burden until no
dfeI