The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-07-26
AN OUTLINE FOR CROWS.
Uncle Caleb Lowery of the Wyom-
ing Valley Amusing Himself.

Il kin tell We the funniest trick tina
was ever played on lot O. pesky crow
if We want to hear it," said Farme
Caleb Lowery, as he sat in the Susque
hanna House here the other day. well
on my farm, over in Scott township
the 'tarnel critters We been thicker I
puddln' this spring, and altogether the
meanest an checklist crows ever see
They was as mean as pusiey, an the
way they carried on made me as mad a:
a settin' hen. Every afternoon five
hundred of 'em, more or less, had the
habit of ightin on a ridge bout forty
rods away from my house an holdin' a
regular picnic. They 'peared to be de-
batin some important question, an as
they all talked at once. they didn't
make much Roadway. This had been
repeated so many times that got tired
of it.
What did We do to stop it?" asked
an impatient listener.
"Say, you jest hold on till l tell We.
T'other night l took strong line which
use in the pond as an outline in the
bullhead season, and fastened the ends
to couple of sticks. Then l went up
on the hill where the crows had been
holdin' their conventions an druv the
sticks IN the ground as fur apart as the
lined reach. Then l fastened bout
twenty small fish lines to the big line
four or FIVE feet from another. On the
I haA a1I Eel,
hook, on which was a piece of putrid
meat. 1 sprinkled a few bundles of
straw very thin along the ground where
the big line lay and went home.
The next morning l told Jake Liv-
lngston and Chris Hathaway and some
more of the neighbors to come up to my
place In the afternoon if they wanted
to see some fun among the crows. The
consequence was that we had quite
crowd. Long bout o. clock the cheeky
crows, numberin' few hundred, hover
ed over the fish lines. Thinks 1, nv
funny fellers, you. won't feel quite so
cunning pretty soon. Finally they be-
gun to light round the fishhooks. but
they didn't seem to mistrust nuthin'.
They cawed and Scampered round as
they was bout to elect a chairman.
Pretty soon there was a terrible flutter-
ing and general commotion among the
black scamps on the hillside. Half a
dozen of the crows had got tishhooks in
their bills and they was acting stranger'n
fury. They braced their feet and pulled
back jest as young coltll do the first
time he has halter on and the more
they pulled and auttered the better did
the fishhooks do their business. The
other crows was puzzled but they
flocked around the trapped cusses and
tried to find out what all the fuss was
about, but they didn't make much head
way. After a while they got into a
general fight, and the rumpus was
enough to make one deaf. 1t was plain
to see that the crows with hooks in their
outlets got no sympathy from the
others; III fact, the free ones picked an
at the captives as though they
thought they was to blame for being in
such a situation. In few minutes, the
adjourned, leaving the
prisoners to take care of themselves. IL
was the most amusing sight ever see,
,or the crows seemed to be as mad at
as I had been mad at them
killed the hooked birds, and since then
amt seen a single crow on that hill
side"