Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-08-22
Strange Relic Found in the
Den of a Snowman.
ONE CHRISTMAS DINNER
Told by the Old Circus Mana Strlk-
ing Event in the Giants Life Re.
Called by Singular Souvenir.

souvenir of the great giant. 1t came
out of an ostrich that we baked one
year for the giants Christmas din
ner.
you see, an ordinary ten, twelve,
fifteen-pound turkey would be to the
giant about the same as quail would
be to us, he was so big; and every
winter we used to scour the country
round about the town where the show
made it's winter quarters for twen-
ty-five pound turkey so as to have a
bird that would come somewhere
near to being in proportion with him.
for the great giants Christmas din
ner. OF course, even such a turkey
used to look like n pigeon beside him,
and one winter, when we were talking
over the giants coming Christmas
dinner the old man says, BY gracious
let's give the giant this year, for once
in his life, anyhow something like;
let's give him baked ostrich
That, of course, you understand,
meant a very costly dinner. Now,
when these great birds are raised in
this country, / suppose you can buy
good-sized ostrichs for somewhere
about a couple of hundred dollars
apiece, but the ostrichs we had, at
that time. cost us $3.50 a pair. But
we had had that year phenomenal.
ly good season, with the great giant
easily our greatest attraction, and
there was never anything too good for
the giant, anyway, and so when the
subject came up the old man says, like
that:
Lets give him, this year, an
ostrich and We did.
There wasn't any trouble at all
about cooking the bird. We had a big
brick oven, that we'd built ourselves
to bake bread in, and we baked the
ostrich in that, without the slightest
difficulty, and beautifully baked it
turned out, too; the chief cook him
self, of course, looking after the cook
ing of it.
at took two men to bring the baked
ostrich in, at that Christmas dinner,
and the two men walking down the
room with it, on great wooden plat
ter, keeping step all the way, was GER
tainly sight to see; and when they
had set this great bird, nicely
Drowned, down on the table in front
of the giant. and you had looked from
it to him, and from him to it, why,
you felt that it was worth the money;
that this. as the old man had set out
to have it, was for once, anyway,
really something like.
Great as the old man was in plan
ming on a great scale, he never for
got or neglected the details; he hadn't
provided a baked ostrich for the
giants dinner and then left the great
man to try to carve this great bird
with an ordinary carving knife and
forS. No; he had provided him for
this occasion with carving knife hav-
ing a blade longer and wider n sabre
blade, and a fork to match. And this
carving knife and fork the giant pick
ed up and proceeded to carve with,
just as if they'd been Of ordinary size,
which, of course, they really was to
him.
'The giant was as generous as he
was great. and it never occurred to
him but what others could eat as
much as he did. He carved off a sec
onG joint of the ostrich and sent it
around to the old man, on one Of the
platters that the cook had sent in to
use for plates.
"'No, no" says the old man, when
he sees that second joint coming. You
keep that yourself Don't rob your
self
But the giant wouldn't listen to
him; he insisted on the old man keep
ing it. And he would have sent me
the other second joint, but told him
I'd rather have a drumstick.
That drumstick, you know, had
more meat on it than a good sized
ham, so that there would have been,
even if had liked it, good deal
more of it than / wanted anyway.
But, say. While it may not be, as
they say in the Congress debates, ex-
actly germane to the subject. I'd like
to say, just personally to you, that If
had money enough so that | could
afford to buy pretty much anything |
wanted to eat l never should spend
very much of it on baked ostrich.
That l had at the giants dinner was
the first l ever eat-I don't think
should miss it much if l never had
any more.
But the giant? Well, the great
giant actually seemed to like it-he
ate away on it as if he did, anyway
and in the course of time, in carving,
when he came to the wishbone and
carved that out he held it up and
smiled. He didn't do this because ii
was so big, which it wasn't, in fact, to
him, but just as every carver does
when he comes to the wishbone-
H,,t