The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-02
lust ~ CHICKENS
y AND II FOXES
Story by a Farmer Who Knows
Where There Is a Job Waiting
For a Man Like Samson.

Il had q call up in Sullivan county IN A
trip Of mine q few weeks ago" said John
Gilbert. the travelling groOeryman, "snd |
stopped with an honest tiller Of the soil and
likewise caterer to the expectations Of New
York summer boarders. During one even-
ing's discussion OF topics uppermost |
asked my host what the prospects were for
the proper entertainment Of the New Ior.
summer sojourner In that bailiwick the com.
ing season.
well said he, I'll tell you. II them
New York boarders what 'spects to gil
chicken and eggs every meal. jist as II they
was as common as pork and 'tatere, wants
to have their regular supply in Sullivan
county next summer you jist tell EN-, by
jing, that they better send up a tol'able big
delegation Of themselves right of, to help
us ~strugglin' farmers kill of foxes, else
we'll hef TO hustle around lively fer full
rations fer 'em when they come up fer their
vacation fodder this year. and they mustn't
fergit II.
a'Why, by jingl' continued this provider
for the oonfding city stranger within his
gates, there wasn't never nothin' like it In
all my recollection. and my recollection
can take tin q mighty big stretch o woods
that has been numbered over and RATED
OF OF fer more than fifty year.
s'Foxesf Amt nothin' but foxes around
this part o. the county! There was a tol'able
oacklin' o. chickens and geese, and a DOM.
f'table goblin o. turkeys, and a oheerin'
ouackin' o. ducks when we started in 10
cit ready fer the comm campaign ag'in
the city boardsr's spring poultry, but, by
ling. you kin ride or walk or run or skate or
swim all over this county now, and il you
kin find a man that's got a darn single
poultry you'll be smarter than the Teller
that diskivered Ameriky.
"'Turn him loose in this agricultural
deestriot, and IL he diskivers a hen or a
goose or q turkey or a duck he'll be dom
more fer suffefin' humanity than he done
when he dropped on TO this country, which
has come to be tol'able well known now.
count O. Sullivan county bein' in it.
why, say!' declared this pessimistic
citizen, and his manner would almost have
persuaded you to believe him, all we've
been dom lately Is tryin' 10 ind out whether
we kin stay here or whether we've got
to pack up and hand the business over IL
the foxes to run 1t. It'll show you somethin'
what the feelin' is when ] tell you what
a neiRhbor o. mine told me t other day.
I not happenin' to be present when the
circumstance he told me about come OF.
"'He was over to the red school house,
he said, to Sunday meetin', and the dominic
give out q little readin' in Scriptur'. In
the course of il he run IN 10 a huntin' story
about Samson ketchin' 500 foxes and tyin'
frebrands to their tails and rasin' hob with
'em and the crops.
a sINtl.- H. I1,nirt. nov through fhal
interestin' part. my neighbor tells me
that Deacon Thompson rig up and says,
considerable het up over 1t. that this here
Samson was jist the Teller we was lookin'
fer, and that he moved hat we send fer
him, And il we don't give him the all
run ag'in," says the deacon. 'cordin 70 my
neighbor, "then he kin ley my hull ding
farm says he; and II I'd been there I'd
seconded the motion.
BY jung! I'm afeard 70 ell now
many foxes, smart as they be, has been shot
and trapped fer a month or 80 back, Gauss
the chances is you'd think / wasn't proftin'
none by the history OF Apanias and Sapiry.
but it'd be funny IL we hadn't bagged some
O the pIowlip' thieves, fer they've been
igger lively speakin'. Listen.
Rome O. my gals was milkin' the COWS
in the barnyard tother eyenin'. We had
jest seventeen chickens left out OF q flock
O. ninety-six. Them seventeen we. had
took to lookin' up in the barn O. nights,
and double lockin' the door. AT that, fer we
wouldn't trust no common single lock ag'in
setch foxes as we've been dealin' with.
These chickens had all gone into the barn,
it bein' on to the edge o dark, and the
milkin' in the yard and had 70 drive the
cows in the barn when she got through
She was squeezin' out the cream from the
last COW.
Her mind was kinder sot on summer
b%osIdeTs si.s SAD; and she was zort o,
slipped by her like a flash and in at the
barn door. In less than two seconds
seventeen sometimes slipped by her like
a fash and had gone in at the barn door
fore she got 1t through her topknot that
seventeen slick, sly foxes had got on to the
situation at our henooop. and had CONT
prepared TO clean it out at one fell swoop.
And they done it. Done it handsome,
fer before the full heft O. the business had
! worked into the gals head sos she could
riz from that barn, and seventeen foxes
come trottin' out, each one with a chicken
When / got to the barnyard with the
gun all l got was q glimpse OF seventeen
FOX tails. big as the plumes on a hearse'
l banged away with both bar'ls after EN-
but all l brought down was a eve sheep o
mine that ! wouldn't "a took three dollars
fer-and all the chicken we've had all winter
has been that sheep and a little salt pork
that was left in the bar1.
And that's jist the way foxes has been
playin' it all around this fertyle region,
don't know where they come from, or what
makes EN- 30 uncommon thick and sassy
I've got an opinion on It, though.
You see, Pike county, Pa. lays only
jist acrosst the Delaware from Sullivan
county. / think that them folks that keeps
summer boardes over in Pike county
and there's a heap Of 'em, got kinder jealous
Of us folks over here in Sullivan, the way
we been stufin' our summer boarders win
chickens and egg, mt oonsekently-mind
this Is only my opinion-they've been putin
their heads together for a year or two back
and sort o. startln' foxeries and hatchin'
foxes by the hundred. and this season
they've aneaked 'em over here to Sullivan
county and turned 'em loose toswoop down
on our henooops TO destroy our crop o
| spring chickens and fresh laid eggs for next
summers city boarder campaign.
See the pint, don't your Bot ] don't
give il fer o fact. It's only my opinion.
50 wen hef to skirmish around al
the time next summer TO keep the CITY
boarders In them delioacies O. the summer
hoarder Raaaon in Sullivan county, Wen