The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-25

town together seemingly in great spirits
and not a little excited.
During the next few days Miss wilkins
made great number of calls, and the
mystery thickened. Then. one morning,
came the announcement which threw the
whole town into state of excitement,
This announcement was that Miss Sarah
Wilkins had the credit of providing first
of MAY celebration which promised to be
the most unique original and exciting
ever held in the state. 1t was to be in
the form of grand rooster Growing con-
test, to take the place of the annual and
brutal cooking mains. Any rooster own
ed by boy or girl under IS years of age
was eligible to be entered, the three birds
Growing oftenest in one hour to be the
winners of extremely rich and elegant
prizes.
To say that the plan met with general
and enthusiastic approval, both in Bosque-
vile and throughout the county, is to
keep well within the bounds of fact. Even
Dummy and his select following. who at
first said a great deal about girls play,
and nursery games" and affected to
scorn the whole thing, were drawn In by
the rising wave of interest before they
knew it and were second to none in enthu-
siastic preparation. Entries began to pour
in. and the growing of ROSTERS from one
end of the county to the other became in
cessant. In Bosqueville a grave question
arose concerning the proper food to make
ROSTERS crow, and there were almost as
many theories as ROSTERS. processes OF
overlooking were adopted, of starvation,
and diets of raw meat, of angleworms, OF
red pepper of grasshoppers. Several
times the excitement went to fever heat;
once when 1t was rumored that The
Avenger. Dummy Flint's bird of war,
champion of Bosqueville, with two ordi-
nary ROSTERS as encourages, had crowed
273 times In an hour; an heroic feat that
was subsequently, proved to be purely a
product Of Dummys Imagination
III.
When May ! arrived the entries were
discovered to be no less than fifty-one.
BY the rules Of the contest each rooster
had been brought on the grounds in a
simple lath coop, and the ground for con-
testants had been fenced off by ropes
which neither spectators nor owners were
permitted to pass. The coops were ar
rangd in rows of three. before each of
which, at sufficient distance not to dis
| tllrb the Growers, sat a referee, carefully
| chosen beforehand, whose duty II was TO
have charge OF the three ROSTERS in his
row and to keep accurate account % his
| growing And by some whim OF fofelne
| Ralph Waldo Emerson of Boston and that
notable Texas fowl. The Avenger, came
| together in the same row.
The contest had been advertised to begin
| at 10 o'clock sharp and 1t was three min
| utes before that time when Mayor Burle-
| son of Torsicana came forward on the
| Judges stand, watch In hand. Around him
| sat the two other judges, Congressman
| Smith and Editor Quarles of the Banner,
Miss wilkins Dolores Smith, who had
been chosen to present the prizes. aud
other persons of prominence. The Mayor
enjoined strict silence during the hour
which was TO follow. glanced at his watch.
waited a moment or two, and waved
his hand. and the hour had begun
which will never be forgotten by any who
witnessed the first grand rooster-erowing
| contest of Bosqueville.
AS was expected In certain quarters,