The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-01-22
4 Al CHAPTER ON HENS.
CRANIAL DEFICIENCY OF THE AVER
AGE SELF-MADE FOWL.
A Philosopher's Feelings in the Presence
Of a Setting Hen-The Hen who
Does Not Win the Gen
eral Confidence.
bill Nye in Chicago News. !


!. limited amount OF brain-force Any one
4 viii notice thatif he viii compare the skull
OF the average seif-nade hen with that OF
| Daniel Webster, taking careful measure
ments directly over the top from one car To
the other The well-informed brain-studeut
! will ut once notice q great falling-of in the
region of reverence and an abnormal bulg-
| ing out iii the location OF alimentivcness.
Nov take your tape-Ineasure and, begin
| ming at memory, pass carefully over the oc-
ciputal bone to the base of the brain IL the
region OF love Of home and offspring and
you will see that, while the hen suffers much
| in comparison with the statesman in the
| relative size Of sablirnity, refec tion spirit
| ua'ity, time, tune, etc, when 1t comes to
love OF home and offspring she shines forth
with great splendor.
The hen does not care for the sublime in
nature y Neither does she caro- for music
Music has no charms to soften her tough old
breast. But she loves her homo and her
country. have sought to promote the in
terests of the hen TO some extent. but have
not been success in that line
80 -- SENSE OF CNwoRTHINEss.
lean write q poem in fifteen minutes. |
always could dash of a poem whenever
wanted TO. and very good poem, too, for a
dashed poem could write speech for q
friend in congress-a speech that would be
printed in the congressional record and go
all over the United States and be read by no
one could enter the field of letters any
where and attract attention, but when it
comes to setting a hen feel that am not
worthy. never feel my utter unworthi-
ness as l do in tho presence of n setting
hen.
When the adult hen in my presence eS-
presses a desire to set | excuse myself and
go away. That is the supreme moment
when q hem desires to be alone. That is no
time for me to intrude with my shallow
,leyity. Ineyer do it.
: 1t is after death that most fully appre-
ciate the hem When she has been cut
down early in life and fried respect her.
No ono can look upon the still features of a
young hen overtaken by death in lifes
young morning snuffed out, as it were, like
an old tin lantern in gale of wind, without
being visible affected. ~ -
----7- AGED AND IN HER DoTAGF.
But it is not tho hen who desires to set
for the purpose of getting out an early edi-
ton of spring chickens that 1 am averse to-
It IS the aged hen, who is in her dotage, and
whose eggs, also, are in their second child
hood Upon this hen shower my anathe- I
mas Overlooked tS the pruning book of
time, shallow in her remarks, and a wall
flower in society, she deposits her quota of F.
eggs in tho catnip conservatory, far from ;
the haunts Of men, and then in August, !
''A'ii Ss5' oAS SAticiAiciy low uHu COL /
lection OF no value to any one but the anti J
she proudly calls attention to her |
summers work
This hen does not win the general conf |
dence. Stunned by good society during
life, her death is only regretted by those
who are called upon to assist at her obse- /,
quies- Selfish through life, her death is re-
garded as calamity by those alono who
are expected TO eat her.
p SAr THE CLOSE OF LIFE.
And what has such n hen to look back
upon in her closing hourss A long life, per-
haps, for longevity is one OF the character
teristics of this class of hens; but of what has
that ifc been productivel How many
golden hours has she frittered away, hover
ing over porcelain, docr-knob, trying to
hatch out a litter Of Queen Anne cottages
How many nights has she passed in soli-
tude on her lonely nest with a heart filed
with bitterness toward all mankind, hoping
On against hope that III the fall she would
come of the nest with a cunning little brick
block perhaps ia. ...-.
Such is the history Of the aiInless hen.
w hile others were at work shc stood around
With hr hanos in her pockets and criticized
The policy of those who labored, and when
he summer waned she came forth with
With nothing but regret, to wander listlessly
about and freeze Off some more Of her feet
Turing the winter. For such hen death
IAN have no terrors