Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-28
WHO OWNS THE CHICKEN?
Here's o Pleasant Story From q Little
Long Island Town.

FROM tnc new Iork Times.
The majesty Of the law has been invoked by
two citizens OF Parkville, LII, to settle q dis
pute such as has probably never been brought
into court before. Should the Judge who
hears it render decision satisfactorily cover
| ing all the points involved his name should 60
down to history with n conspicuous place on
the roll OF eminent jurists
The parties in dispute are James McCaughn
and John Gormley. They have for some time
been next-door neighbors at Parkville, and in
the enjoyment Of the pastoral pleasures OF
their rural homes formed for each other u warm
friendship. That friendship the present
trouble will not sever, but Messrs. McCaughn
and Gormley decided that it was necessary to
60 to law in defense Of what each believes to be
right and JUSTICE
Both hcCaughn and Gormley have memories
IN their back yards and it is from an apparent
mixing OF their fowls that the present difficulty
| arose. McCaughn's taste for hens runs to
fancy breeds and his coops are filed with
specimens valued at from $40 to SOS apiece
Gormley's hens, on the contrary, are every
day, common barn-yard fowls, with nothing to
recommend them to the eyes OF a connoisseur
Dut with the inart!stic yet practical faculty Of
providing their owner with an abundance Of
eggs.
Some time ago there was Matched on the
promises OF Gormley n brood of chickens
When they began to feather and scratch around
the yard with the mother hen McCaughn no.
ticed them, and with surprise discovered that
In that brood of plebeian young chickens there
was ono that showed the high breeding and
blue blood OF his fancy stock. When satisfied
that the young chicken was of fancy breed he
demanded from Gormley that it be returned to
him on the ground that one of his fancy hens
must have SO far forgotten her dignity as to
ny over into Gormey's yard and lay an egg in
Ine iowly nest OF one OF Gormleys plain hens.
This being so, he insisted that the fancy little
chicken had come from that egg, and that as
that egg was laid by one of his hens the chicken
was his
But Gormley even while admitting that the
egg might have been laid by McCaughn's hen,
absolutely refused to give up the young
chicken. He declared that. while McCaughn's
hen had laid the egg, his (Gormley's) hen had
Matched it and was, therefore, the mother of
the chicken. While he refused to surrender
the chicken. however. he was quite willing and
ofered to pay McCaughn 81 for tho egg that
Matched the. chicken, but this offer McCaughn
scornfully refused. McCaughn. i'll turn offered
that II Gormley would give him the chicken he
would pay Gormley any reasonable sum he
might name for the time and service of the
hen that Matched the egg and tor the corn and
fodder used i'll bringing the young chick up.
This offer Gormley refused. saying he did not
intend to insult his hens by using them as in
cubators for other hens eggs.
And so they have gone to law to determine
whether the ownership OF the chicken is vested
in the ownership of the egg from which it was
Matched or in the ownership of the hen that sat
on said egg. 1t is a case without O precedent
and one that is likely to bother Justice McMa-
hon OF Parkville, who is to try the ISSUE Nc
Caughn has retained ex-Judge Callahan to
conduct his suit and Wauhope Lynn will appear
for Gormley.
The defense promises to knock the prosecu-
ton on Its feet by falling back upon we'll
az mi, ~ NJ To-. l. IL
tirely applicable to chickens. Gormley says
that he has good reason to believe that his
homely but gallant old Shanghai rooster is the
father OF the chicken. 1t is even said there is
that In the appearance of the young chicken
that marks 1t as the offspring of Gormley's
rooster.
IT this can be proved. Gormley must win his
case, for, according to law, a fathers claim to
the offspring Is paramount even over the claim
OF the mother. Therefore, if Gormley can
show that he owns the rooster that wooed the
hen that laid the egg that Matched the chicken,
the court must give him a decision.