Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-10-15
a MILE A MINuTE
Ine Training and Use of Homing Pigeons
I'm Times of Peace and War


in Times of Peace and War.
The recent performances of homino
pigeons bred by American fanciers in
breaking all previous records for DIS
lance naturally revives the interest
OF those who are not fanciars in this
sport Although the systematic de-
velopment of the bird has only been
attempted in the last seventy-fiye
years, their use extends back for a
score OF centuries. Noah was the
first to experiment In this direction.
He sent out the raven and the dove to
bring him news of the worlds condi-
ton after the flood, and while the
raven flew idiotically to and fro. the
dove buckled down to work and
brought back the olive branch. That
was before the day of ingenious in
ventors. and there was no patent
trap to ingulf the bird when it
alighted. register the exact second
OF time, and ring a bell to at
tract the patriarch's attention. In a
more prm tive way s'he put forth his
hand and took her, and pulled her in
unto him into the ark" and, perhaps.
made mental note of the fact that
1t was nigh unto the going down of
the sun. This settled the claims of the
raven as messenger for man, if it
ever had any, and left the dove
in possession. Next. it is related,
that the v!ctors in the Olympic
games used to inform their anx-
lous relatives of their success by means
OF homlng pigeons. Pliny says that
when Decmus Junius Brutus was be-
sieged in Modena. b. C. As. bv Mark
Antony. the beleagured CARR son COM
municated with their friends by means
OF carrier pigeons. Nour- ed-Din Nah
mould. Mohammedan ruler of SYRIA,
established regular pigeon postal
service. which was kept in good run
ming order by generous subsidies from
1145 to liza A. ID. When Louis IN.
invaded Egypt in 1349 his arrival at
Damietta was made known to the sui
tan at Cairo by messages carried by
pigeons. When HARLEM was be-
sieged in 1873 William of Orange sent
out homng p geon. which was I'M
fortunately captured by the Spaniards.
who thereafter tried to kill every bird
that came within gunshot of their
camp. Pigeons We're much used in the
French wars in the early part of this
century, and bankers used the birds to
convey to one another pointers" on
the state of the market. On the Egyp-
tan temple of Medmet Hapoo are
sculptured the professions in honor of
the coronation of that father of peo-
pie Rameses I'LL, and among the
other figures are those of priests lib
Grating carrier pigeons which shall
speed the news tot all parts of the earth.
In 1S49 Reuter- used these birds to
hrId oo tho in hic fol !,
lines. Before the siege of Paris. in the
FrancO-PruSslan war, strenuous efforts
were made by pigeon fanciers to get
the French Government to allow large
numbers of outside birds to be brought
into the city and city birds to be taken
out into the country that continuous
communication might be kept up in
case the city was plockaded. But the
Government feared treachery, and
actually made the bird a contraband of
war. Consequently, when the Prussian
lines We're drawn about the city the.only
way was to carry the birds out into
the country in balloons. In this way
1868 were taken out, and fifty of them
returned safely, bearing photograph
ically reduced copies of letters and
newspapers. In the slang of the day,
however the Prussans caught on to
this little scheme" and organized
corps of ira ned hawks. which killed
off the pigeon scouts. The flying of
pigeons has now become the national
sport OF Belgium, and has spread all
over Europe and England.
How far back does the sport date
in American asked reporter recently
of Mrs. f. 5. Starr, the editor of the
Homing Pigeon.
..T< 1879 - bo onSxror
eral birds were liberated at Columbus,
o., in that year to fly to New York.
but were never heard of afterward
The next year six more were started.
two of which came through. There
are now some fifty clubs and a fedora
ton of the homing pigeon societies of
the United States. Then there are
number of more modest clubs whose
names and deeds are unknown to fame. |
Wherever number of English opera
tives are collected there you will find
homing pigeons which are flown in
modest. economical way, the perform |
ance rarely, if ever. being reported. |
The sport has become a common one
in England. while in Belgium over a
hundred thousand birds are often llb-
Grated on Sunday. Here is map of
the country, showing all the stations
and the network of routes traversed !
by the pigeons. The map in ques-
ton looked like one of the plates of
diagrams issued by hefashion papers.
.sThe BIRDS that covered the distance
of 963 miles from Florida recently in
thirteen days. eleven and three-quart r
hours were owned by r. Hayes and c.
A HenseI. There are others which are
now out which were liberated at New
Orleans. One long flight in Europe
was the 900 miles from Rome to Bel |
GUM, on which two hundred birds |
started, but only twenty of them came |
in. For short distances birds have |
been known to attain a speed of !
a mile a minute and more. In a Jour
ney of several hundred miles they will |
average thirty miles an hour. The |
messages are wrapped about the mid
die tail-feather, which is partially |
shaved for the purpose. Six or seven
pages of manifold is about all bird |
will carry. The birds fiv low because
they can not sustain themselves at
great height. In consequence they are
often shot and many pigeon freight
ed with important messages has been
transformed into pot-pie for some farm
er's household. If, on the other hand.
they do fly at as great a height as pos
sible the hawks kill them.
There are two seasons for racing in
this country, the spring and autumn.
The latter is for young birds only, the
former for all kinds. The method for
is to take the young bird few
N