Waterbury Democrat., 1902-09-18
SHARK STEALS HENS.
Startling Story Told by Truthful
 Louisiana Lawyer.
The Robber Fish Caught in the Act, with Chicken Feathers Between His Ugly Teeth-How He
 Worked the Game.

It is not often that shark breaks 1 into mans henroost and steals his l chickens. Such case, however, is on record at Pointe-a-la-Hache. Em- met Hingle told the story as he l showed a New Orleans Times-Demo- crat man around his fathers back yard, which was full of lively and intelligent young chickens. MT. Hin gle has only had a few years ex. perience as lawyer. His veracity is therefore unquestioned. He intro 9uced the matter by remarking:
 We lost great number of our chickens last year by shark.''
 White or colored?" asked the vis- 1 itor, incredu1ous1y.
 "A shark, man-a shark from the gulf-eight feet long,
 sDid he walk all the distance or come in fish car?"
 s'The affairs is not as impossible as you are inclined to believe" re- marked MT. Hingle in an aggrieved tone. 'sYou notice the levee in front of the house. We'll, each year dur ing the equinoctial season, a strong southern wind blows the waters of the gulf into -Hache and floods the town. The water is three or four feet deep. We have to go in skiffs from the front of the house to. the levee. Last year, as usual, when the floods commenced, we drove all our chickens into the big henhouse. Naturally when the flood became deep they could not come down to 1 H,<S |, T up 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.''
 ''I did not know that chickens ever ate sitting down or in re clining position" interjected the visitor. However, that may have been their custom during the days of the Romans
 s'It was only method of expres- sion,'' continued MT. Hingle. ''I meant that the chickens stood on the roost and ate the corn as it passed before them in the basket. We'll 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. I rigged myself up platform in the chicken-house and went out to spend the night. From ten o'clock un- til four nothing happened, and was becoming pretty well tired, thinking probably that the negro who had been robbing our henroost had seen me and would not make another attempt while was there. As the gray light began to dawn, however, I heard a series of sp1ashes, and, looking toward the rear, I saw a large shark jumping the fences as if they had been hurdles. Naturally I was very much surprised. When the shark had jumped our fence he disappeared under the water. Twas looking all around for him when I heard a noise in the henhouse, and looking down I saw the shark. He had come in by diving through the large hole through which our chick ems had gone into the yard when they awoke in the morning. You can imag- inc my consternation. I was. alone in a henhouse with a chicken-eating shark, and I had no adequate assu- rance that he was not also a man. eater. The shark did not wait for an introduction; balancing. himself upon his tail, he grabbed 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 to see me, otherwise he might have bitten me in the leg.
 ''Well, to make a long story short continued MT. Hingle, i've waited for him next morning and stopped the hole after he had entered. We then killed him with rife''
 Taking the visitor to the rear gal 1ery, Mir. Hingle showed the jawbone and teeth of the shark. In the teeth were number of chicken feathers
 "We managed to kill him before he had had time to pick his teeth" re- marked Mr. Hingle, modestly.