Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-08-30

1
chickens. Such a case, however, Is On
! record att Pointe-a-la- Hache. Ehl'Iet
| Hingle todd the story As he showed u
| visitor arAund his fathers back !a'u'
| which was full of lively and 'inteiiigeht
young chickens. Mr.. Hingle mas oiiis
| had few years experience as Jaw
yer. His veracity is therefore uniues-
toned. He introduced the matter py
remarking: s.
1--WE lost 1 great number of our
chickens last year by a shark.
White or colored?" asked the VIsi6-
| or incredulously.
"A shark, mana shark from the
Cuffs feet long
Did he walk all the distance or
come in a fish caro-
.The affair is not as impossible as
you are inclined to believe, re-
| marked Mr.. Hingle in an asSrieVed
| tone. You notice the levee IN front Oh
the house. Well, each year during the
eqUinoctial season, a strong southeast
wind blows the waters of the Gisit INTO
Pointe-a-la- Hache and floods the
town. The water is three or four feet
deep. We have to go in skitfs from the
front of the house to the levee. Last
| year, as usual, when the foods COM
menced. we drove all our chickens INTO
the big henhouse. Naturally, when the
flood became deep they could not come
down to eat. In order to feed them we
rugged up a rope parallel to each roost,
and slowly pulled basket of corn
| from one end to the other. In this way
the chickens had to eat standing up. "
! Il did not know that chickens ever
ate sitting down or in reclining posi-
| tion," interjected the visitor. How
| ever. that may have been their custom
during the days of the Romans"
| 1T was only a method of express
sion.'' continued Mr.. Hingle. II
meant that the chickens stood on the
roost and ate the corn as it passed be-
fore them in the basket. Well we had
been feeding them in this way for a
few days when we noticed that they
had begun to diminish in number. We
| then began to count each morning, and
| found that four or five disappeared
| each night. We finally decided to
| watch. l rugged myself up a platform
| in the chckenhouse and went out to
spend the night. From 10 o'clock until
/ 1 nothing happened, and l was peccm-
| ing pretty well tired, thinking proba-
| bly, that the negro who had been rob
bling our henroost had seen me ard
would not make another attempt While
l was there. AS the gray light began
| to dawn, however l heard a series Of
| splaShes, and, looking toward the rear,
1 saw a large shark jumping the
| fences as if they had been hurdles
Naturally / was very much surprised.
When the shark had jumped our fence
he disappeared under the water. /
was looking all around for him when l
heard noise in the henhouse, and
looking down / saw the shark. He had
come in by diving through the large
hole through which our chickens had
gone into the yard when they awoka in
the morning. You imagine my con-
sternation. L was alone in a henhousc
with a chicken-eating shark, and
had no adequate assurance that he was
not also a man eater. The shark did
not wait for an introduction, balanc-
irg himself upon his tail, he grabbed a
chicken from the roost and swallowed
it whole. He repeated the feat until
he had eaten six, and then, diving
through the hole, went leaping over
the fences again, evidently very much
pleased. He had failed 20 see Inc,
otherwise he might have bitten me in
the leg.
well. to make a long story short"
continued Mr.. Hingle, I'VE waited for
him next morning and stopped the hole
after he had entered. We then killed
him with a rife"
Taking the visitor to the rear gal
lery. Mr.. Hingle showed the jawbone
and teeth of the shark. In the teeth
We're a number of chicken feathers.
I'VE managed to kill him before he
had had time to pick his teeth" re-
marked Mr.. Hingle modestly.-New
Orleans Times-Democrat.