Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-04-08
NIisfellanepns &eadima.

Mistellauepns &eading.
MIR. D0DGE's SUCCESS.
Our Southern fellow.citizens are accustom.
ed to assert that the colored man has, two
glaring faults-that he will not work and his
presence casts such a blight upon chickens
that no white man can proftably engage in
raising poultry in the Southern States. Mr..
James G. Dodge, who recently emigrated from
Natick, Mass. to Laurelville, Ala, has sig
nally refuted the popular Southern estimate
of the colored man, and has succeeded, not
only in keeping chickens, but inducing thir-
ty.four colored men to work for him without
wages.
Mr. Dodge arrived at Laurelville. last
Spring with the intention Of cultivating a
farm. The local white population received
him courteously and wished him every success,
but they warned him that he could not induce
single colored man to work on his farm ex.
cept at preposterous wages. When he casu-
ally introduced the subject of chickens, they
assured him that there was an African church
within mile of his newly purchased farm,
and that he might as well try to keep icicles
in hot-house as to raise chickens in such q
neighborhood.
Mr.. Dodge was a stubborn man, and,
withal, an ingenious one. He determined to
prove to the Laurelvilians that he could do
precisely what they said he could not do.
Accordingly, he offered to bet with Judge
Slemons that he would cultivate his new farr,
with colored labor, and that he would raise
chickens without losing sing gle one by col
ored larceny. The bet was taken, and Mr..
Dodge went to his farm and began opera.
tions.
With the aid of the Laurelville carpenter,
Mr.. Dodge built magnificent chicken.house,
with accommodations for FIVE hundred feath-
cred guests. The windows were made so
small that not even consumptive colored
boy could pass through them, and the door
was of unprecedented thickness and strength.
In one side of the chicken.hou Mr.. Dodge
required the carpenters to leave round hole
of about two feet in diameter, for purpose
which be declined to explain. Much pity was
felt for him by his neighbors, on the ground
that he was wasting his money in vain at
tempt to struggle against the chicken.stealing
genius of the colored people; but Mr.. Dodge
"guessed" he was all right, and "cal'lated"
that his chickens wouldn't be stolen to any
great extent When the carpenters had fin
ished their work and had gone home, Mr..
Dodge unpacked large bundle which he had
received from the North, and after dark he
filled his chicken.house with three hundred
chickens, and, locking it securely, went to
bed
About II o'clock that night leading citi-
zen, of chicken proclivities, made bis way into
the chicken. house through the hole which had
been left open He chuckled quietly at the
folly Of Mr. Dodge in locking the door, and
at the same time forgetting to close the hole
in the side of the chicken-house. When he
had selected dozen of the largest chickens,
he undertook 10 creep stealthily out of the
hole, but found his egress impeded by series
of sharp and projecting spikes. He then re-
allied that he had been caught in trap Of
the same general nature as that pleasing va
riety of mouse-trap into which the mouse
readily enters through wire-lined passage,
the pointed ends of which prevent him from
escaping. The leading colored citizens esti-
mate Of white intellect underwent sudden
change, and he sat down gloomily in the cor.
ner of the chicken-house to invent some
plausible tale which would account for his
presence, when the inevitable moment Of dis
covery should come.
Half an hour later the minister Of the COL
ored church entered the chicken-house, and
was warmly greeted by his predecessor, who
was beginning to feel very lonesome. From
midnight until dawn the arrivals were almost
incessant. The fact that three hundred chick
ems were in Mr.. Dodget chicken.house, was
known in every colored cabin within radius
of two miles, and the oppressed race had risen
as one man and resolved to have those chick
ems. At half past three there was standing
room only in the chicken.house, and gentle
men arriving after that hour were compelled
to return home disappointed.
After comfortable breakfast, Mr.. Dodge
took his shotgun and the key of the chick
en- house, and proceeded to ascertain what
luck his trap had brought him during the
night. To his great pleasure, he found, thir-
ty four able. bodied colored men in the chick
en.house, and, after the most careful investi'
CATION, he ascertained that not a chicken was
missing. He put no unpleasant questions to
the colored men whom he had caught, as to
why they had crowded into his chicken house,
but he merely informed them that he sup
posed they had come to assist him in plant
ing, and that he was greatly obliged to them
for their kind assistance. At noon Judge
Slemons and a dozen white Laurelvilians
arrived at the farm and gazed with amaze
ment at the spectacle of thirty-four colored
men working energetically in the field. When
the Judge was convinced that no chickens
had been stolen during the night, he frankly
admitted that he had lost his bet.
Since that day Mr.. Dodge has never lost
chicken. He has, however, only caught
few sporadic colored men, and has thus been
obliged to hire most of his labor. Neverthe.
less, he has successfully refuted the assertion
that no white man can, keep chickens in Al
ALBANIA, and has, on at least one occasion, in
duced thirty-four colored men to work for
him without pay. Whether his plan would
be permanently successful if tried in other
parts of the South is, of course, uncertain;
but there is certainly good reason to suppose
that it would greatly increase the security OF
chicken property.-New York Times. .,
NATIONAL COMPARISONS.
New York and Pennsylvania seem large,
while Texas and California are dimly appre'
ciated. But such survey as we have sup
posed will supply you with new and vaster
standards of measurement. Texas, for in