The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-08-19
Bill NYE TO HIS son.
He Relates His Experience in the Chicke
Industry.

My DEAR Son: We are still pegging along
here at home in the same old way, your
mother and me. We are neither of us real
well, and yet suppose we ara as well as FOLKS
at our time of life could expect to be. Your
mother has good deal of pain in her side all
the while and am off my feed more or less
in the morning. Doc has fixed ne up some
condition powders that he says will straighten
me out right away. Perhaps So Doc has
Strengthened oat good many people in his
time | wish had as many dollars ms he has
Strengthened out people
Most every spring I've had TO take a little
dandelion root, limbered up with gin, but
this year that didn't seem to get there, as the
boys say. l fixed up a dost of it and took it
day and night for n week till wore that old
dandelion root clear down to skin and bone,
but in ten days my appetite was worse than
ever and had head ON me like a 2-year-old
colt. Dandelion root never served me that
way before and your mother thinks that the
goodness is all out of it, may be. It's the
same old dandelion root that I've been using
for twenty years, and believe when you've
tried thing and proved it's good, you orient
to change off.
tried to get your mother to take dose of
it last week for the pain in her side. Fixed
up two-quart jug of it for her, but she can't
bear the smell of gin, so l had to take it my
self Dandelion is a great purifier OF the
blood, Henry. Some days after have been
taking this dandelion root, for an hour or two
feel as if my blood was pretty near pure
enough l feel like new man.
You know wrote you last winter, Henry,
that was going to buy some new-fangled
hens in the spring and go into the egg bust
ness Well, | sent east in March for n couple
of fowls, one of each sect. They came at 50
Der pair over and above railroad charges,
which was some s.. 35 more on top of that.
thought that as soon as the hen got here
and got her things off and got rested she
would proceed to lay some of these here high
priced eggs which we read of in The Poultry
Keepers Guide and American Eggist But
she seemed pensive, and when | tried to get
acquainted with her she would cluck in
croupy tone of voice and go away.
The rooster was no doubt fine-looking
brute when he was shipped, but when he got
here he strolled around with a preoccupied
air and seemed to feel above us, He was a
poker-dot rooster, with gray name and tail,
and he was no doubt refined, but | did not
think he should feel above his business, for
to the self-made American hen. He seemed
bored all the time, and | could see by the
way he acted that he pined to be back in Ere
mont, O., having his picture taken for The
Poultry Keepers Guide and American Egg
ist. He still yearned for appreciation. He
was used to being much made of, as your
mother says, and it CALLED him to enter into
our plain, humdrum home life.
life. Actually, when 1 went out to feed him
in the morning he would give me Il cold, ar
rogant look that hurt my feelings. | know
I'm not what you would call an educated
man nor polished man, though claim to
have a son that is both of said things, but
hate to have rooster crow over me because
he has had better advantages and better
breeding than l have. So there was no love
lost between us, as you can see.
Directly noticed that the hen began to
have spells of vertigo. She would be stand
ing in a corner of the hen retreat, reverting
to her Joyous childhood at Fremont, O., when
all at once she would "fall senseless on the
earth and there lie prone upon the sward."
She would remain in this comytoes condition
for between five minutes, perhaps. Then she
would rally a little, slowly pry open her large,
mournful eyes and seem to murmur, "Whcre
am Ip
/ could see that she was evading the egg
issue in every way and ignoring the great OBJ
ject for which she was created. With the
ability to lay eggs worth from 81 to ST. per
dozen delivered on the cars, | could plainly
see that she proposed to roll up this great tai
emit in napkin and play the invalid act
do not disguise the fact, Henry, that | was
mad. l made a large rectangular affidavit
in the inner temple of the horse barn that
this poker-dot hen should never live to say
that / had sent her to the seashore for her
health when she was eminently fitted by ma
ture to please the public with her lay.
l therefore gave her two weeks to decide on
whether she would contribute a few of her
meritorious articles or insert herself into
chicken pie.
She still continued naughty to the last
moment. So did her pardner. We there
fore treated ourselves to 80 dinner in April.
then got some expensive eggs from the
effete east They were not robust eggs.
They were layed during a time of great de-
preston, Judge do not say that the eggs
were bad, but say that their instincts and
their inner life wasn't what they ought to
have been.
In early May bought one of those inky-
baters that does the work Of ten setting hens.
hoped to head off the hen SO far as possible,
simply purchasing her literary efforts and
editing them to suit myself. cannot endure
the society of a low-bred hen, and a refined
hen seems to look down on me, and SO !
though if could get one of these ottymatic
inkybatcrs / could have the whole process
under my own control, and il the blooded
hens wanted to go TO the sanitarum and sit
around there with their hands in their
pockets while the great hungry world of
tIanniio clamored for more spring chickens
fried in butter, they might do so and be dog
goned.
Thereupon l bought one of the medium
size, two-story hatchers and loaded it with
eggs In my dreams could see long pro-
cession of fuzzy little chickens marching out
of my little inky bater, arm In arm, every day
or two. l was dreaming one of these dreams
night before last, at midnights holy hour,
when was rudely awakened by gallon OF
cold water in one of my ears. l arose in the
darkness and received squirt Of cold water
through the window from our ever watchful
and courageous fire department / opened
the easement for the purpose OF thanking
them for this little demonstration, wholly UNI
solicited on my part, when discovered the
hennery WIS in flames. i went down TO assist