The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-30
THE HENWIFE VS.. SPORT.
A Dissertation Touching Cruelty and
the Fatuousity of the Duckiing.
Forest and Stream.


Consider the way Of the henwife who puts
a setting of duck eggs under a hen. When
in due course the ducklings come lortn,
from their natal hour the henwife watches
over the brood with a solicitude not less
vigilant than that of the maternal hen, ana
superadded TO this with a womans tender
ress which hen nature can never know.
She extricates them from the pred'caments
into which silly duckiings fan; ana III one
Of them happens TO be killed, she mourns
over IL with genuine pity and signs for its
untimely taking of. She notes from DAY
10 day with quiet satisfaction their aston
ishing growth; sees to their safe housing
croaching vermin: doctors them for the
gapes and such other Ills duck flesh Is
ing sulphur for that: and In a thousand
and one ways supplements with her own
superior human wit the well meant but
0f And ali this foT %ha That when the
fowl shall have attained due stage or
plumpness, tenderness, juiciness and avoir-
their heads of to make of them the piece
de resistance OF the summer boarders' Sun
day n or TO s ,Sa Ine,r try aTte 50
From the very moment the eggs were put
to hatch, this final doom was her purpose.
ing of these ducklings was to preserve their
lives and fatten them for killing. From be-
fore their birth they were predestfned and
foreordained by her to be brought into the
world. to puzzle and guzzle their neeting
hour, to distend their little crops with mJsh
and corn and kitchen scraps, and az the
Consider how the silly things vie one with
another in growth how they scramble az
meal times. the stronger pushing the weak
er to one side and gulping more than their
own share of the food: and consider how
those who thus snatch the most to eat grow
the faster and the sooner bring their heads
TO the block, their bodies 10 the cook. and
| the legend roast duck to the bill OF fare.
For in a brood OF ducks II is not the TT
| test which survive; the fittest go first 20
execution at the hands OF the henwife. And
| consider moreover, how vain and foolish
are the weaker ones left behind, who Quack
| with Joy to find themselves freed from the
competition Of their stronger brothers, and
| forthwith fatuously gorge themselves I'm
peace and plenty. which means for them
| only that thus making up for lost time and
putting on hesh they too. must the sooner
know II not, in their comings and their go
| ings, their eating and drinking and making
merry, ever over them stands the henwife.
who is to them as the three fates-Clotho.
| who spins the thread Of life; Lachesis. who
| twists IL, and Atropos, who cuts II.
| Now, this henwife, who puts duck eggs TO
hatch that she may have ducks TO Kill, shall
we account her cruel? Most certainly mott
| is the death wrought by her own hand. Was
| the solicitude she showed for the infant fowl
| only feigned solicitude, her compassion for
| ducklings in distress insincere? There was
none ever more genuine, though the heart
| that pitied and the hand that helped them
| were in the end the heart and the hand
| that destroyed. In fact. and this IL the point
| OF our consideration-the henwife who raises
tame birds TO kill may be accounted al
| humane-and only as humane, no more. no
| less-as her brother who hunts with a gun
| wild birds TO Kill. and conversely, her
brother who hunts wild birds 10 kill with
| a gun may be accounted az humane-no
more, no less-as the henwife who raises
| tame birds 10 kill.