The Portland daily press., 1889-04-05
ATRIP FOR JOHNNY.
How Crafty Colorado Man circum-
vented the Crows.

Bangor Industrial Journal.l
Il don't suppose so many crows were ever
slaughtered in the same length OF time as l
saw killed out in Colorado this winter, SAID
traveller who had recently retured from q
two months tour In the far West. Il stopped
two weeks with an old schoolmate In Color
ado. and the second day was there he told
me he was going to show me something
novel that afternoon. Four miles from MS
residence he had quarry, and In the quarry
worked a number of men who knew now 10
handle dynamite. In barren ridge about
three furlongs from the quarry hundreds OF
crows met and quarrelled and fought every
afternoon, and their racket made some OF the
wOrkmen in the quarry mad. My host had
heard the men find fault so many times with
the crows that he had set himself to work to
contrive plan for silencing them, and he
told me that he had perfected his scheme on
the previous day and got everything in readi-
ness for carrying it into execution. So that
afternoon he hitched up and we drove out to
the quarry. Then he explained it all to me.
From the top of the ridge where the
crows were in the habit of assembling he
had ordered the men to string wire along
the tops OF knee-high sticks stuck in the
ground to spot opposite to the opening of
the quarry There were two branches to the
wire On the ridge, and at the end Of each
branch there was dynamite cartridge
larger than candle. Near the quarry there
was little battery, and my friend told me
that his plan was to have one of the dyna-
miters work the battery as soon as the crows
got thick on the ridge. He took two good
field glasses along, and through them we
were to watch the explosion and its effects
on the crows.
I'VE took our position on a knoll at least
three-Quarters of a mile from the ridge and
in plain sight of the dynamiter, that person.
age being Instructed to touch the battery
button when he saw my friend wave a white
handkerchief. About 3 o'clock the crows
began to settle down on the ridge all around
where my friend said the cartridges lay.
They came from every point Of the compass,
and the din they made was heard plainly
enough where we were. They cawed and
futtered and hoped over one another, and
in fifteen minutes the ridge was a mass of
moving wings and bodies was watching
friend bad lent me. and he was making OBJ
servations, too, and we were talking to one
another about how the crows would be apt
TO feel when the dynamite went Of among
them
after while he said; Keep good watch
now I'm going to give the signal and in
less than half minute there was a quick,
dull explosion that Jared the ground little
where we sat, and the air on the ridge for
rods around appeared to be filled with small,
black particles that looked more like swarm
of gnats and flies than anything else. The
cloud was mixed with dust and other brown
particles, and when the mass settled we
couldn't see single crow either on the ridge
or in the sky anywhere around. Il guess 1t
was success my host exclaimed gleefully,
and now we'll go over TO the spot and see
what effect the explosion had on the crows.
$50 we hurried down the side of the knoll,
and ran across little fiat to the foot of the
ridge, where we began to find crows bills,
legs, caws.whol heads, tail and wing feath-
ers, and other evidences of the remarkable
havoc made by the two cartridges. There
must have been all Of two hundred crows on
the ridge when the dynamite exploded, but
we couldn't find whole crow anywhere. It
had killed every one of them and scattered
their remains over large territory, and up
to the time that my visit came to an end the
workmen reported to my host that they
hadn't seen solitary crow within mile Of
where the dynamite had got in its deadly
work on the flock of black flutterers