Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-05-31
MORAL COURAGE OF THE HEN.
Does Her Own Work In Her Own Way
Without Assistance.

Reams-of paper have been consum.
ed by her admirers in efforts to DO
scant justice to the almost innumer'
able praiseworthy characteristics of
the American hen.
Essayists and poets have We'd with
one another in paying tribute to her
patience, her modesty, her industry
Some of the best thinkers in our land,
and our thinkers are perhaps among
the best to be found in any part of the
world, have dwelt with pleasure upon
her unselfishness, her utter disregard
of personal compliment, her studied
avoidance of attention for strangers
her adherence of publicity, her untir
ing devotion to duty, her answering
fidelity to sacred trust.
No man who can be content to sit
quietly on fence, as many of our
ablest students Of natural history
have done, Willing away the time by
whiting stick, or relieving the to-
dium with cob pipe--no man, we
say, who observes the American hen
at O respectful distance, as she pur.
sues her chosen vocation, apparently
unconscious of everything around her,
bent as she ever is upon her useful
task, will hesitate to testify cheerfully
to the fact that she possesses, and to
very large degree, the one trait in
which the human race is sadly and
conspicuously deficient. She does
her own scratching and attends to her
own business.
Individualism has been developed in
the henyard almost to the point of alb
solute perfection. No self-rcspecting
American hen would employ an assist.
ant in the carrying on of her work
She stands for free competition in the
broadest sense of the term. Now and
then, Of course, 1t happens that two
American hens see the same bug at
the same time and start for it stimuli
taneously, but the unsuccessful com
petitor never thinks of taking the
captured bug out of the successful
competitors mouth. Each American
hen Is on the alert constantly. Each
goes for her own grasshopper, as a
rule. If one succeeds in uprooting a
worm, the others may observe the fact
casually, but there Is never any time
wasted upon discussing the advisa
bility of u division.
The American hen is no socialist.
She is out of sympathy with the eight
hour movement. She forms no SorO-
sizes. She wears no union label. She
rises with the sun and rctircs with the
going down thereof, and during her
hours of activity, beyond giving ut
terance to an occasional Cacklc, or
naturally cXulting for few moments
when she has laid an egg, she In.
dulges In no frivolities.
All these things, or things to the
same general effect, have been said of
her before, but she is continually sur
prising us with new claims to our ad.
miration. An American hen passed
through a great fire in Biddcford, Me,
last week, without deserving her nest.
The flames roarcd above her. The
smoke well-nigh stiticd her. The wa.
ter almost drowned her. But she re-
manned at her post of duty. And when
the excitement was all over she con-
tinued to sit amid the debris. 1t was
warm and helped her with her task,
and all Bddeford was amazed to see
her issue from the ruins on Sunday
last, followed by her brood.
Nobody who knows the American
hen will claim that she is not physi-
cally trihc too timid. She lacks ami
NAL courage. But that she is possess
ed of high degree of moral courage
has long been conceded. 1t was moral
courage that enabled the Biddeford
hen to remain on her nest, fire or no
fire, smoke or no smoke, water or no
water. until she had hatchcd out her
chicks. Surely, among the many
things we have to be proud of as a
nation, we should not, in naming them
to foreigners, overlook the American
hen, who forcsees her duty and does
it, regardless of confiagrations or
cold-storago plants.-Chicago Inter
Ocean.