The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-28
CHICKENS AS PETS.
Remarkable Power Exercised by q
Little Child.
From the New York Press.

Little child.
From the New York Press.
Out in York. Pa, there is a little g.
year-old miss who exercises most
wonderful control over the fowls in
and carry at her command and do
tricks that performing dogs would be
applauded for doing upon the stage.
This little maiden is Baby Iva.
daughter of the Rev. j. A. Long of the
German Baptist Church. She is lively,
bright and affectionate. AS a matter
of pleasure and rest Mr.. Long pur-
chased about a year ago some finely
bred Plymouth Rocks and Black Mi
norcas for breeding purposes, and from
the first these took a remarkable fancy
to his little daughter. so that now the
child almost lives with the feathered
family.
Baby Iva is awakened in the morn
ing by the Growing of a large Ply
mouth Rock, SAM" by name, which
walks into the houes at soon as the
doors are opened, stalks up to his lit
tie mistress room and perches at the
foot of her bed. He acquired this habit
from chickenhood, because the first
thing in the morning the child would
cry for a chicken, and in order to pac-
ify her the mother would go down and
return with Sam"
At first. naturally, Sam objected
to this mode of treatment, but now,
after six months living with the lit
tie GIRL he could not begin the day un-
less he awoke her. This success with
Sam" awakened in the child the idea
of compelling her pets to do her WILL
From early morning until evening
she would be among the chickens,
sometimes scolding, sometimes pelting
them. Very few grown people could
have succeeded as has this child, and
Ii has only been by repeated failures
and the TRY, try again" method that
success has crowned her efforts. There
were days of tears, and now and then
burst of happy laughter as some par
tieularly clever rooster did as he was
told May little tricks she has taught
her family, and among the most re-
markable is the performance of large
Minorca rooster the only one of its
kind ever so trained. 1t has been
taught to remain quiet in harness, a
light ARRANGEMENT of knitted wool, and
TO pull hen in a tiny cart, Iva clucks
TO it, calls ii pretty names and the
rooster struts about and seems to know
that he is of Importance. But all the
clucking and pretty names in the uni
verse will not cause this Minorca to
submit to the indignity of playing
horse unless plenty of bright yellow
corn is displayed.
The little harness is then put on. the
tiny cart attached and off the rooster
goes. Generally the hen is first placed
in the cart; II not she must be dropped
in after, for this rooster waits for no
man. nor hen. 1t win take guiding
fairly we'll, and is often attended on
his drives by his mistress by a num-
erous gathering of admiring small
boys.
Another remarkable performance is
that of large Buff Rock rooster In
the garden of his home Mr.. Long has
Iva has trained the rooster to jump
on the other end. and up and down
they go. the rooster seeming to enjoy
the sport as well as she.
After a few minutes of this play the
rooster closes his eyes, settles down
and goes TO sleep, like every little
child that has been rocked. This is a
polite way of telling his mistress that
he has had enough.
The little chickens Iva calls her sis
tiers, and it is a curious sight to see
them flock about her at feeding time.
At twilight she takes a large pan of
grain and goes among them. Imme-
diately there is much noise and many
feathers beaten, the favorite ROSTERS
fly to her shoulders. and so many sit
on her arm and in the pan that she Is
obliged to drop 1t and run until all
have been fed.