Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1897-11-19
PIGEONS IN POLITICS.
TO Be Used az Messengers In the
Presidential Campaign.


-
Ter pigeon: Instead of raising the birds
ON shore, they are bred and trained on
shipboard, and if kept on land when the
vessel sails, will make bee-line for her
the moment they ore set free.
The presidential election this year Of
Sers opportunity for the supreme test
of the carriers ability to follow its own
particular ship for hundreds OF miles
across the broad waters. through storm
and sunshine, to pick her out from
among the thousand crafts that throng
the ocean pathways and land ito mes
sage at the captains feet.
For months the men on board the
transatlantic steamships have been pre-
pairing for the trial of this novel plan
of election bulletins. There are coops
with whole colonies Of carriers. which
the ships crew have fed, pctted and
coddled, and people who start for Eur
rope in that momentous first week Of
November may be tolerably certain OF
having a good bulletin system Of the re-
turns.
While there are people TO whom the
result of an election is a matter of b'isi-
ness life or death, there are those, just
as there are on shore, who merely want
to know" On shore they get early
dinners, chase to the nearest illu-
minated bulletin boards, and stay there
until the last returns are in, and cheer
themselves into voicelessness as the dis
patches tell good news OF their candi-
dates.
This is precisely what ia going to be
done on shipboard this year, and under
the gray-blue feathers Of the carrier
pigeon the story of the gold and sill
yer debate will travel over the Attain
tic.
To receive the returns of national
election in such fashion is alone worth
the price of the passage, and it will be
an event of history, and there will be
gay old demonstrations on the decks OF
up-to-date ocean liners when every few
minutes a carrier comes from the far
horizon, where home lies, and the chalk
artist letters the message he has
brought high on q big blackboard
There will be cheers and jeers and pop.
ping of bottles.
In sending out returns the birds will
have to be liberated every five or ten
minutes, to insure frequent bulletins on
shipboard, as well ns to allow the few
flyers which fail, as pigeons will at un'
expected times, for some Of them al
times refuse to fly, as sulky race hors<
| does to run.
In sending the carrier pigeons out
to the vessel, a start of IL hours only
will be allowed the ships. The bird
will be detained at the docks and will
see their home disappear. It Is sale
carrier pigeons can see so miles at sea
There are, the experts say, only {
few strains Of pigeons which can ENC
their way over water readily. Mos
birds require landmarks - steeples
rivers, towns-but these ocean-goin{
pigeons, which are German, Belgian
and English, have an infallible instinc
which guides them across the sea.
This experimental bulletin will set
tie a great many questions about which
pigeon enthusiasts have long been Il
doubt They do not know, for exam
Pile, Just the distance that a carrier pi
geon will fly over water. A first-claA
bird can go a mile q minute for man,
miles, but whether he can keep it VI
for 1000 miles nobody has yet learned
A record bird ought to cover LOO
miles in "a hours, with some time T.
spare for rest. It Is the resting, o
perching, that makes pigeon-wise PEG
pie doubt the perfect utility Of the car
riers as ocean messengers. They vii
not fly at night. When darkness come
they perch on the highest point the,
can find, and rest until light come
again. But the first faint tinge of daw1
finds them on the wing again. And o.
moonlight or starlight nights the;
often fly continuously, stopping only t
rest at the dark hour just before tn
dawn.
II q bird happens to perch on tn
mast Of q returning ship, he loses dun
ing his resting hours just the distanc
the vessel travels, in addition to the los
his own delay causes.
But even with these drawbacks an,
uncertainties, it Is long odds that tn
carrier pigeons, with their bundles o
microscopically written election re
turns, will bring relief to many anxiou
people, and sport TO q great many NOR
who are not SO anxious.-N. Y. Journal
Catsrrh Cannot be Cured
with LOCAL APPLICATIONS. Is they cam
| reach the seat of the disease (,AtaFrh In