The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-09-14
THE 0S7R|CHS 5 W|SHBONE
Strange Relic Found in the
Den of a Snowman.
ONE CHRISTMAS DINNER
Told by the Old Circus Mana Strik.
ing Event In the Giants Life Re-
Called by a Singular Souvenir.

Called by Singular Souvenir.
"That?' said the old circus man,
following the eye of his visitor, which
had rested upon something hanging
on the wall Of the old showman's den.
why. that's an ostrich's wishbone. a
souvenir Of the great giant. It 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 a 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 Its winter quarters for twen-
ty-five pound turkey so as to have
bird that would come somewhere
near to being In proportion with him.
for the great giants Christmas din
ner or course, even such a turkey
used to look like a 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 n baked ostrich
That OF course, you understand.
meant very costly dinner. Now,
when these great birds are raised in
this country, | suppose you can buy
good-sized ostrichs for somewhere
about couple Of hundred dollars
apiece. but the ostrchs we had. mt
that time. cost us $3.50 a pair. But
we had had that year a 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 1t
turned out, too; the chief cook him
self, OF course. looking after the cook
ing of it,
ut took two men to bring the baked
ostrich in, at that Christmas dinner.
and the two men walking down the
room with it, on a 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
or the giant, and you had looked from
1t 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 great scale, he never for
got or neglected the details; he hadn't
provided 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
fork. No; he had provided him for
this occasion with carving knife hav-
Ing blade longer and wider n sabre
blade, and fork to match. And this
carving knife and fork the giant pick
ed up and proceeded to carve with.
just as II 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
ond joint OF the ostrich and sent 1t
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 1t. And he would have sent me
the other second joint, but l told him
I'd rather have a drumstick.
THAT drumstick, you know. had
more meat on 1t than a good sized
ham, so that there would have been,
even il / had liked it, good deal
more of 1t than l wanted anyway.
But, say! While 1t 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 il
l had money enough so that | could
afford to buy pretty much anything /
wanted to eat | never should spend
very much of 1t on baked ostrich.
That had at the giants dinner was
the first | ever eat-I don't think I
should miss 1t much II never had
any more.
"But the giant2 Well, the great
giant actually seemed to like it-he
ate away on 1t 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 1t up and
smiled, He didn't do this because it
was so big, which it wasn't, in fact, to
him, but just as every carver does