Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-10-07

we jest put that whole ten thousand In the
birds an started out. -
"They was easy enough to drive; there
amt a more tractable or dociie bird on
two legs than the turkey is. If 1t had been
hens, now, / wouldn't never have under
took It, but turkeys Is all right jest put
bell on the biggest one in the OUTFIT an
started him right, an the rest Went COB
bin along after him. 1t wuz as pretty a
sight to see them turkeys on the road as
ever you seen in your life. Twelve thou
sand five hundred of them an not a
straggler in the banch! r e14gC
Feed? Well, what do you think ?
Wasn't there bugs on the road? 7 reckon
there was. 1t was a grasslropper year, [
want TO tell you, and the way those tur-
keys fatted up was sin 10 snakes Four
teen pounds. Why, there wasn't one of
them turks that wouldn't have tipped the
scale at twenty-five in a week, an the
bell turk an the one that l strapped the
blankets an the cookin' outfit noto-I
wouldn't want to tell you what they did
weigh.
mo trouble about night herdn'. AS
soon as it was shutdown they would COM
menst lool1in around for a place to roost,
an then they would fly up into the trees,
an we could rest easy until the next
mornin'. We took the old overland trail
along the Platte out to Fort Laramie, an
not a hitch in the arrangements. We
could see how the folks in California was
goin to flock round us with their dust
when we got there. We could zee our
selves in carriages, with plug hats an
spiketail coats an blooded stock. Hah!
do you know what that would have
brought us. It's easy. Putin It at the
moderate estimate of a dollar pound, an
allowin' the average of twenty-five
pounds to the bird, there we We're with
a clean profit of s2475 on every one of
them, or allowin' for possible losses by
death or misadventure, say 100000 on the
outfit. 1t was a gol burned shame that
we had to slip UP on the deal.'
The old man began to, smoke his pipe in
stoiid silence. and the stock-tender winked
at 10 stage agent The silence continued
for half an hour, and was then broken
by the stock-tender remarking that it was
about time for him to feed them horses
Yes" resumed the old man, plaeidly.
we Shipped up on IT, an II was TINS way:
You see, we had had lots of cottonwood
trees all along the Platte, but when we
started to cross the plains to Green river
we noticed that the turkeys got bothered
at roosting time. They KEEP twistin their
necks around lookin' fer some place 10
roost all night long. an the next day some
of them had necks like pretzel. When
they tried to feed an took shot at n bug
or grasshopper they would miss him from
six inches to q foot on one side or the
other. Joe allowed that they would learn
to calculate the variation after awhile,
but they never did. an they got poorer an
poorer. so all there was to it we had to
take them back to the Platte to get the
crick Strengthened out, which they did in
few days. But when we took them to
the plains again we had the same cid
trouble. an, to make a long story short,
We KEEP drivin' them back an forth an
back an forth until there wasn't any more
to drive
What got away with them?" asked the
stage agent.
I'VE ct EN-, you derned fool" replied the
old man.