Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-11-02

Thousands OF Them Now Being
Slaughtered In the South by Mar
ketmen.
Thousands or rice birds are being
SLAUGHTERED daily in the fields around
Georgetown to supply the markets OF
the east. The season, which opened
auspiciously for the bird dealers, has
been profitable. and one firm in George
town has made the largest shipments
ever recorded in this section. Some
time ago a dealer in PHILADELPHIA Of
fered to buy the entire output Of the
GEORGETOWN dealer. regardless Of price
and the number Of birds shipped. The
Philadelphian said he could easily han
die $4,000 dozen at once. which gives
an idea of the enormous demand. Dur
ing the past week the Charleston buy
ers have had great difficulty in getting
birds, as the price has jumped from so
to rs cents a dozen. But this increase
has not stopped the sale here and the
city Is feasting.
Daniel Crowley, q well-known hum
ter at Georgetown, has novel way of
handling rice birds and he has amassed
a small fortune from his labor. None
Of the little flyers sent out from the
Crowley establishment are filled with
shot, and on this account Crowley gets
a larger price for his product. This
week he had 25 Negroes picking feath-
ers from the birds which were cap
tured near his home.
IT have found that the shot bir'|s
are not easily sold," said Mr.. Crowley
in speaking of his business, land for
that reason I never allow a piece of
lead, however small, to tear the flesh.
We have a good idea Of the places
where the birds roost and at night
send out a crowd Of Negroes with
flaming torches. The birds are blinded
by the light and there is no trouble
in raking in barrels Of the living ones.
They are easily caught and are killed
thumb and the forefinger Of mans
by crushing the skull between the
hand"
After the thousands Of rice feeders
ed, Negroes are employed to clean
them of feathers and from the pick
ing room they are passed to the cool
ers. Boxes containing twelve birds,
all of which have the head intact, are
put under pressure sufficiently power
full to freeze them, and in that condi-
ton they are shipped by the fast trains
to the markets of the country. Within
the past year Crowley has practically
created a rice-bird monopoly, although
the prices are fixed by the popular de-
mand and not by this Georgetown bird
king. There are many other shippers
from the rice field section; but their
methods Of killing and picking differ
from Crowley's, and they are less sue
cessful for that reason. The novel
sight of the night scenes, when, with
flaming torches the fields. are invaded
by the bird catchers, is only surpassed
by the other scene in the picking room
where hundreds of little Negroes are
cleaning the feathers from the meat.
In a few weeks, when. the rice bird
supply around Georgetown is weak,
the Eastern markets will be flooded
with an imitation rice bird, which diff
fers but slightly from the real article.
These fakes" are coots The feath-
ers are black, where the feathers OF
the rice bird are of a canary color, and
the bill is longer. But after the feath-
ers and the heads have been removed
there is no way by which the differ
ence can be detected and the differ
ence can only be noticed by the expert
The coots are caught without difficult
ty and can be bought from Negroes
for a trife. Coming as they do at the
fag end Of the rice bird season, they
command a ready sale, and unscrupu-
lous dealers have found that money
can be coined by selling them.