Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1899-03-23
Bee Samuels' Dancing Turkeys.

There were seven turkeys, all large
ones, six bronze and one white. On a
board over the wire front of their cage
was painted the announcement "Sev-
ea Dancing Turkeys; Exhibited For
the First Time; Round and Square
Dances and the Highland Fling
The exhibitor was a sallow-looking
boy about Is years Of age, with droll
droop of his left eye. In connection
with his cage of educated turkeys, y
which he was showing at the county
far, he had a sweet-cider and peanut
stand The peanuts were excellent, for
he had a stove, kept hot with a coal
fire, and roasted ovenful after ovenful.
The stove and fuel box were partly
hidden from the public eye by cur
tain at one end and both stand and
cage had just behind them the high
board fence of the fair grounds.
Few people knew the owner. Those
few called him Bez Samuels. He had
been at the fair the year before with a
"whirling table" which, after the fist
day, had been excluded by the man
agemeut as something too nearly akin
to gambling.
But this time he had brought flock
of educated turkeys, which spoke so
well for his patience and skill that his
show was admitted to the grounds
without question.
Dur ng the first day the cage did not
attract much attention for the people
were interested in other novelties; but
soon they began to talk about 1t.
Bez' plan of exhibiting was not the
usual one. He had no tent, but merely
a slide curtain inside the wire front OF
the cage. Whenever the passing crowd
raised so cents Bez opened the curtain
and gave a brief performance. Of
course many saw it who had paid moth
ing; yet as many newcomers were con-
stantly arriving the plan worked well.
During the forenoon of the second
day of the fair my friend Tom and l
and ten or a dozen other young peo-
pie contributed the 80 cents requisite
to see the turkeys dance.
There was a rsttling sound as Bee
pulled the curtain b., and immedi-
ately those seven turkeys began to hop,
first on one foot, then on the other,
constantly shifting and moving around
the cage. One could scarcely say that
they executed a regular figure; but
they went round and round, hopping
in a very curious and ludicrous man
ner Moreover, it was hard to guess
the motive for their antics. The bot
tom of tie cage inside the wires ap-
peared to be of old zinc or sheet-iron.
Occasionally Bez either struck the bot
tom of the cage or ratified beneath it
as if with an iron rod, ITO change the
time of the dance" as he explained.
At once, then, the turkeys bagan to
leap higher using their wings to assist
them. At every hop they rose to the
top of the cage, height Of certainly
six feet Their feet seemed scarcely
to touch the ground at all, so rapidly
did their leaps succeed each other. Up,
up, and up and around they went IN
maze of leaping and tapping This
was the Highland Fling, and no one
who saw it could help laughing.
After a minute or two Bee pulled
the curtain, and thanking Us, declared
the performance over. Nearly every
one went away remarking that there
never was such turkey dance, and in
the course of ten minutes another 30
cents were collected. People wondered
how a bird so stupid as a turkey could
ever have been trained to go through
such performance. Music had moth
ing to do with it; Bee had merely
raped OIL the floor as signal for the
dance to begin, and had ratified louder
for the Highland Fling"
1T must have taken no end of time
and patience to teach them" Iremem-
Der saying to my companion.
Maybe; but doubt it, he replied.
II don't like the looks of that Bee, "
be continued. Il think it's a trick :"
Some discussion ensured then We
went back to ask him how he had
trained the turkeys.
The fellow looked at US attentively,
and then gave an account Ofthe "gift"
he possessed of communicating his
will" to birds and animals. 1t re-