The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1902-05-03
THE wIsHBorE INDUSTRY.
thousands Of the Lucky Bits Handled
by Poultry Dealers All Over
the Country.

One of the largest handlers of poul-
try in the country, which has its gath
ering stations in a score of states and
its cooking and canning plants in half
a dozen cities, handles tens OF thou
sands of wishbones every day, or at
least every week. 1t would be consid-
cred by the outsider that there was
no more value to this little two
pronged piece of the fowls anatomy
than was to be extracted in the place
where bones are ground and bone dust
made. Not so, however, says the Chi
cago Chronicle. for just the other day
one dealer closed a contract with tins
corporation that handles the chickens,
turkeys and other domestic fowls by
the thousands and that contract called
for the delivery of half million OF
nicely cleaned wishbones, every one
of which is TO be perfect and unbroken-
The firm buying the wishbones is not
alone in the business and there are
others who have appreciated the COM
mercial value of the little framework
on which the white meat grew
The particular big order for 100000
was to be used as quickly as the order
was filed in an advertising scheme
that had struck the ingenious man
who attracts the attention of the pub
lie to the firms goods, and at this
time they are doubtless being sent out
over the country. The barriers once
broken down and the reputation OF the
wishbone for being mere article to
afford excitement to the superstitions
of the young being destroyed by the
cold proposition of buyer to pay
money for them in half million lots,
there is no telling where the thing will
| end. Down in the swamps of the Ten
nessee river where the natives like
corn pone and turnip greens. there is
tradition that peculiar breed of
hogs has been developed to provide the
smoked jowl, without which turnip
| greens, corn pone and buttermilk are
like the mint julep without the ex-
tracted essence of the ridge-growr
corn.
This hog, so it is said by those who
have penetrated that section, are near.
~ all jowl, that portion of the animal
being developed probably somewhat
| like the wings of the bird were. be-
/ cause there was a need for it. The dis
| coyery that the wishbone has COM
mercial value, who knows, may result
in the chickens of the near future
| turning their attention to the cuitiva-
! ton of larger and finer shaped ones
and a breed of barnyard fowls with
extra finely developed wishbones may
be coming to fill the commercial de-
mand. There is nothing on earth
| equal to that same commercial demand
for developing things from the quick
| fattening porker to the writer OF
funny poetry. If there is sale and
the price to be paid viii Justify the
trouble the porker viii be produced
and the poetry, too why not the wish
bone?
The wishbone sales, however, have
stirred up a lot of speculation, not SO
much in wishbones as in the minds OF
the old fogies. There is one particular
bone of the chicken that, like the wish.
bone, has had its place in the world
because of its connection witha super.
stition. Possibly it is correct to cal
the rites and belief of voodooism a
superstition. and it is in connection
with these that the particular chicken
bone is used. Among the voodoo doc
tors of the south this bone has long
been held in favor, and it has had q
corresponding power of creating cold
chills among the darkys who are not
among the practicers of the strang,
rites. This bone is taken from the
wing of the chicken and in the hand.
of the expert voodoo doctor it can be
made to perform strange feats. Ont
of these is to dance when the doctor
is on the other side of the room from
it and there is no connection between
the two except the mystic communica
ton that makes the bone respond Il
the commands of the mind of the VOC
doc doctor. 1t would not be surprisins
if when the market demand for sucl
bones has been safely established
there should be call for Thousand
of wing5ones from different parts O
the earth, the region of the Cong,
river in South Africa being the grea
mart. If the voodoo doctors of Africa
the gulf states and the West Indie
want the bones the Chicago CHECKER
dealers will doubtless furnish then
by the carload or larger quantities i
necessary, and at price that, though
reasonable to the purchaser, win adj
to the total value of the hens of tn
United States percentage that vii
be very satisfactory to the growers o