The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-02-08
HAD NATURAL
ALARM CLOCK
Oklahoma Pioneer Who Kept a
Game Rooster Beside
His Bed.
rom the Kansas City Star:

from the hdIlSdS City SIdE.
Every time I see an alarm clock
think of a game rooster" said Hugh
Scott, private secretary to Governor
Frank Frantz. "This association OF
ideas may seem vague until tell my
story. When the Cherokee strip was
opened to settlement, I located on a
claim in Garfield county. The country
was wild and lonesome. I had come
from Missouri, where conditions were
settled, and the strangeness Of my new
life and its possible dangers weighed
upon me. I was about 10 years old,
and for four years lived alone in rude
sod house had built the year Of my
settlement.
Naturally, I was ambitious and tried
to be Industrious. I was inclined to
sleep late, which farmer should not
do, and was at loss to find q way OF
getting up promptly at break of day.
I had no alarm clock, and did not feel
that I could bear the expense Of such
luxury.
"One day I made a discovery. I had
brought with me from my home town
Of Bethany, in Missouri, lot Of game
chickens. I made a small cage IN which
I put one Of the ROSTERS and placed
it beside my bed in the sod house. be-
lieving that the rooster would crow at
early dawn and awake me.
Crowed at Midnight.
Some time in the night was awak-
ened by a single, prolonged scream,
seemingly at my bedside. Then came
silence, and I found myself sitting up
right in bed, my hair on end and my
eyes trying to penetrate the darkness.
I had forgotten the rooster and was in
fear Of panther, until finally thought
Of my new clock. I dressed, cooked my
breakfast and got ready to go to work.
Hour after hour passed, however, with
out the coming Of dawn. To my dis
gust, learned later that the rooster
had crowed at midnight and, having
no clock, was in ignorance of the time
until the sun appeared in the east.
II saw that this arrangement would
not do, and began looking for a rooster
that crowed only at daybreak and not
at midnight. Luckily, I found him, and
for more than two years I put him in
the cage at my bedside every night,
and he never failed to call me at the
right time. Unlike clock, it was not
necessary to wind up the rooster, nor
was there danger of the breaking Of a
spring or the losing of a key.
Freedom of Pioneer Days.
II look back with longing to the
freedom of those pioneer days, what
ever their hardships may have been,
and especially do remember my game
chickens and the entertainments they
gave me. These chickens were fight
ers from the forks of the creek. Run
ming together constantly, they fought
little among themselves. In rainy
weather, however, when could not
work on my claim, 1 would separate
the roosters until they had somewhat
forgotten each other, and then I would
turn them loose in my sod house. Bet
ter chicken fights no man ever saw.
They were just common barnyard
fights, without gaffs. which I would not
use, and the ROSTERS seemed to enjoy
it as much as myself, feeling, probably,
that was a good fellow to give them
the opportunity to break the monotony
of living without visitors day after day
on an Oklahoma claim.
Sometimes I would be too busy to
separate the ROSTERS, and then I re-
sorted to trick to make them fight.
Catching the biggest and most bellig-
erent, changed his appearance by
covering him with -four. Instantly he
was a stranger to the other roosters,
while they were familiar to him. The
others would fly at him, handing him
onS right and left. much to his sur
prise, but without provoking him to