The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-04-23
MEAN TRICK ON THE HENS.
A Connecticut Way Of Making
Them Work Overtime.

Them Work Overtime.
Il hate to tell this story" said the man from
Long Island. as he raked his chin whisker
with his fingers. It's a tale OF deception and
the betrayal OF the. condolences Of faithful.
hard-working creatures.
We'll. to boil It down. IL was this way. A
thin Yankee moved over from Connect
cut. bringing with him about fifty hens. He
fixed up the old barn on the place next to mine.
which he bought. and he installed the poultry.
with three or four arrogant ROSTERS. In this
here barn. He gave out. although he didn't
talk much. that he was a-Roln' to run an egg
farm. He called 1t an egg ranch. As he wasn't
sociable to any large extent. and was in the
habit OF drinkin' by himself. nobody paid much
attention to him. We let him potter around
and Just formed the conclusion that he was a
mighty mean man. And. by ginger spruce! he
was the meanest. low-downdest cuss that I've
ever run UT against. and We have some purity
mean members Of the tribe over In Long Island.
We'll. things went along. and this fellow
Perkine was his name-went down to the rail-
road station every day n shipped his eggs to
N York. One day Sam Martin came to me
and seq. sezzee:
Joe. how many hens has that ere Perkins
fellow got layin' for him?'
well. l didn't know edzactly. but the Post
master. who keeps the grocery store as a side
show to his business with Uncle Sam. he
chipped n m says: Why. he's only got fifty
That's jes' what I thought. says Sam. n
that's why ast ys, Ye see. that fellow is send
fer n~obody's missed none. 80 where n thunder
does he get EN-
mistaken. but the next day / was down at the
rrailroad station; and so were 2 lot Of others.
d0Zan pROa n thA markaf
Now. you folks who live up here can't think
how that Perkins's egg situation bothered US.
were lost sight Of. n we, didn't do anything
hut talk ab9 put the PERKINS egg output day:
it came to a crisis. The strain was a%.9ettinf'
too heavy. We were losin' sleep over the mat
ter 1t was decided that We must Investigate.
get within ten feet Of that, barn :, Nary.
Or two Ill finally somebody suggested that
t pSeTktnf ,on had d cast a npell on the hens. The
E SG'9s SO sSG * get '" az fRe s'ss Of the aR%s shoyYs; thing HS
night about midnight: Well. we did. m IN
sneaked up to the barn, Everything was quiet.
m we didn't notice that he'd run electric light
somever. we got hold m one Of our gang threw
open the barn door.
NV vs1ia fys' sesn ra saen ia i was the s y sight Of
but this beat 'em al, for those hens were
dumb. creatures. .WhatJer think this mean
cuss OF a Perkins had done? We'll. he'd hung
up painted scenery. like We see in theeayters,
all around the sides Of the barn. to look like
landscape. Then from the middle OF the roof
hung down a dozen electric lights. Around
the sides.o of the barn. in their boxes. set the
most woebeGone, detected. wornout set Of hens
you ever saw. II. you ever saw agony in a
hens face it was there. Why. they had almost
human lines OF care writ in their faces.
You see the game Of this Perkins party was
a. slick one. 1t was this away. He'd turn on
the electric lights for four hours n the hens
would do their duty n lay their usual eggs.
Then he'd turn of the lights, n the hens would
think il was night n 90 to bed. He'd let en-
sleep for four hours. n then slap would go the
lights on again: full glare. The misguided
hens would think it was another day and strain
Themselves. work overtime. as it were. and lay
another egg apiece, The. poor things didn't
know how they were fooled. but they knew
something. was wrong. n the appealing looks
theyturned to us made us almost cry. Say. some
OF those fowls was on the verge OF suicide.
We'll. We held an indignation meeting the
next day. n the result was that this Perkins
Cruelty to Animals people"