Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1902-11-22
The President
| turkey Sssss I; ofl:.I M'"''

Henry r.. Palmer I'm the Ladies' Home
Journal: Horace Vose OF Westerly, r. L.,
who sends a turkey every year at Thanks
giving and at Christmas time to the presi-
dent Of the United States, has been In the
turkey business for forty years. He be-
gan when he was a very young man, for
he is still under the 60 mark. He was
born In Westerly, and his n~eighbors for
miles around know him as q man of much
shrewdness and kindness of heart. Every
year the country hears of the fat bird
hat goes from Rhode Island to grace the
presidents table,: but 1t does not learn
of the thirty or forty turkeys that Mr..
Vose sends TO the poor and deserving of
his own neighborhood, nor does IL know
that Mr. Vose numbers the largest hotel
In New Yorw city among his customers.
Unlike the president, the big hosiery is
not on the free list.
1t will surprise most people who have
heard of Mr.. Vose to be told that he does
not raise turkeys-that is, he confines his
connection with the business to whole
sale dealings, and has only a general ex
ofhcio interest in the birds that strut
every summer over the rocky pastures Of
the N~arragansett region. Farmers In the
district tributary TO Westerly contract
with Mr.. Vose for their entire flocks, and
while the bird that goes TO the president
Is always packed in q box bearing the
Westerly express label, IT may be that 1t
was raised several miles way, or even
on one of the turkey farms In Connecticut.
Mr.. Vose has been dubbed 1.-The turkey
king" and he deserves the title If famil-
iarity with the business of raising turkeys
is sufficient warrant for bearing 1t. All
through the summer and fall he makes
occasional visits to the farms In the VI
cinity, keeping a watchful eye on the
many flocks, estimating the total yield OF
the neighborhood and eagerly scanning
the strutting companies for the coming
champion the distinguished member of all
the ~featherly tribes that is to raise event
ually to the dignity Of a place on the
white house dinner table.
On these Journeys through Turkeyland
Mr.. Vose drives some of the fastest
horses to be found in the state. He Is an
expert horseman as well as poultry man,
and is better known locally as a dealer In
western steeds than as a turkey fancier.
He Is of good height and heavily built,
with gray hair and heavy gray brows and
a big mustache tinged with white. You
see at once that he Is the possessor Of
great nervous force. He has much indi-
viduality, knows just what he wants, and
wastes no time in getting 1t. Going to
he'd a little after sunset in the busy sea-
SUI, he BelS ~ W 81 W "Olh az L SlOSh
In the morning.
When Mr.. Vose began the custom of
sending a turkey to the president he had
no motive other than the desire to send
a Thanksgiving bird TO the man who
writes the Thanksgiving proclamations.
The pioneer turkey went to President
Grant in 1873. 1t weighed SO pounds, and
ELECTED the first Of the courteous notes
that have been coming ever since in ac-
acknowledgement from the executive man.
sion.
Following the precedent Of nearly thirty
seasons the prize turkey Of all his focks
will be sent to the president for hanks
giving day this year.
Is the Rhode Island turkey better than
all it's feathered rivals? 1t has a national
reputation, but the fact is that In the
veins Of that N~arragansett bird runs the
blood Of Virginia, Kentucky and Iowa
stock. Rhode Island is small state and
It would not do to breed and inter-breed
its focks to the exclusion Of all other
strains. So, although the turkey that
goes to Washington is bred on Rhode Is
land soil, or in Connecticut, II is still a
true representative Of turkey nationalism.
The Rhode Island turkey is bred and fed
like any other. His chief diet Is corn,
supplemented by the varied food he picks
up for himself. Four or five weeks before
the fatal day in late fall he is subjected
10 q special fattening process, but there
Is nothing strange nor unusual about It.
Rhode Island and Connecticut turkeys
are sent by the ton every year to all
parts Of the country, though chiefly to
Boston, Providence and New York. The
Boston birds are shipped minus their
heads and feathers, but the New York
turkeys go forth in all the glory Of beak
and wings. Mr.. Nose has sent as many
as 200 at one time to Europe, and has even
included South Africa in his shipments;
so, If the American eagle is our national
bird, the American turkey may perhaps
be called the international bird.