The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-06-01
AN OSTRICH DEAL.

Talking of the prices of birds, I've
seen an ostrich that cost $780," said
the taxidermist, recalling his youth of
travel" e3OO!"
He looked ut me over his spectacles.
Tive seen another that was refused at
e400
mo, he said, cit wasn't any fancy
points. They was just plain ostriches-
a little off color, too, owing to dietary,
and there wasn't any particular restric-
ton of the demand either. You'd have
thought five ostriches would have ruled
cheap OH an East Indiaman. But the
point was, one of 'cm had swallowed a
diamond
"The chap it got it off was Sir Mo-
hinl Padishah, n tremendous swell-a
Piccadilly swell, you might say, up to
the neck of him, and then an ugly black
head and Il whopping turban, with this
diamond i'll it. The blessed bird pecked
suddenly and had it, and when the chap
made u fuss it realized it had done
wrong, [ suppose, and went and mixed
itself with the others to preserve its in
cog. 1t all happened i'll minute. Twas
among the first to arrive, and there was
this hoathen going over his gods, and
two sailors and the man who had charge
of the birds laughing fit to split. 1t was
rummy way of losing a jewel, come
to think of it, The man in charge had
not been about just at tho moment, so
that he didn't know which bird it was
Clean lost, you sec. I didn't feel half
sorry, to tell you the truth. Tho bcggar
had been staggering over his blessed
diamond ever since he came aboard.
"a thing like that goes from stem to
stern of ship i'll 10 time Every one
was talking about it, Padishah went
below to hide his feelings. AT dinner
he plugged ut n table by himself, he
and two other Hindoos-thc captain
kind of jeered at him about it, and he
got very excited. He turned round and
talked into my ear. He would not buy
the birds; lie would have his diamond.
He demanded his rights as Il British
subject. His diamond must be found.
He WAS firm upon that. He would ap-
peal to the house of lords. The man in
charge of the birds was one of those
wooden headed chaps you can't get Il
new idea into anyhow. He refused any
proposal to interfere with tho birds by
way of medicine. His instructions were
to feed them so and so and treat them
so and so, and it was as much as his
place was worth not to feed them so
and so and treat them so and So Pa
dishah had wanted stomach pump,
though you can't do that to u bird, You
know. This Padishah was full of bad
law, like most of these blessed Bengal
csc, and talked of having ii lien on tho
birds and so forth. But an old boy, W no
SAID his son was Il London barristcr,
argued that what IL bird swallowed be-
came lpso facto part of the bird, and
that Padishah's only remedy lay in an
action for damages, and even then it
might be possible to show contributory
negligence. He hadn't any right of way
about an ostrich that didn't belong to
him. That upset PadiShah extremely,
the more so as most of us expressed an
opinion that that was tho reasonable
view. There wasn't any lawyer aboard
to settle the matter, so wo all talked
pretty free. AT last, after Alden, it ap-
pears that ho came round to tho general
opinion and went privately to tho man
i'll charge and made an offer for all five
ostriches
Tho next morning there was q fino
shindy ut breakfast. The man hadn't
any authority to deal with tho birds,
and nothing on earth would induce him
to sell, but it seems he told Padishah
that Eurasian named Potter had al
ready made HIM an offer, and on that
Padishah denounced Potter before MS
all. But think the most of us thought
1T rather smart OF Potter, and | know
that when Potter said that he'd wired
at Alden to London to buy the birds and
would have an answer at Sucz | cursed
pretty richly at a lost opportunity.
at Suc2 Padishah gave way to
tcars-actual, wet tcars-whcn Potter
became the owner of the birds and
offered him e250 right off for the five,
being more than 200 per cent ON what
Potter had given. Potter said he'd be
hanged if he parted with feather of
them: that he meant to kill them Off