The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-04
FONDLED TO DEATH.

The Fate of Thousands of Little Chick
 ems in the Hands of Children at Eas-
 ter Times.
 When the Audubon Society gets through with it's anti-aigrette cam paign perhaps 1t will pay some atten- tion to the cry of the Easter chickens, those downy yellow babies which are matched out by the thousands during the week preceding Easter and hawked about the city as though they had no more feeling than the chickens of the toy shops. Twenty-Five thousand of these babies, varying in age from two days to week, have been sold in New York last week. One firm alone has sold 12,OO0, and could have disposed of many more if it had had them.
 The chickens are sold as Easter gifts for children and for advertising pur- poses. Many shops buy them in win dow attractions and others give them away with purchases. One store in Brooklyn sold 500 in this way during the last week.
 For whatever purposes the chickens are sold, the question naturally arises: What becomes of them when Easter week is past?" It is impossible to imagine their being kept very long in 1 New Yorks flats, even in the cute little homes with the legend Home Sweet Home above the portals, that are sold for their occupancy, and 1t Is very easy and correspondingly unpleasant to imagine what 8 child would be like ly to do with such pet. The desire to squeeze soft and fluffy things seems to be irresistible in the young of the hu- man species, and discrimination be- tween living creature and the wooly dog supplied by the toy shops is not particularly acute at certain ages It is highly probable therefore, that thous- ands of these helpless little creatures have their lives choked out within a few days after Easter. Add to this those which are allowed to die of ne- glect and the record Is a rather ghastly one for the season of joy and thanks giving, when all the earth is glad and mankind is supposed to be animated by kindlier sentiments than at most other seasons of the year.
 The dealers say that they have no means of knowing what becomes of chickens after they sell them but that there is no reason why they should not be kept even in a New York flat, until they are or months old, when they would be quite old enough to kill for broilers. Some are fortunate enough tc be sent to the country. Business men on their way to the ferries stop and buy them either from the regular dealers or from street vendors, and take them to their children in the the country, where they have something like fair chance in life. Those placed in windows foi advertising purposes are probably giver away when they are no longer required and their fate is problematlcal
 The little creatures are bred al laround New York within radius ot about 30 miles for the Easter season and are sent to the city in crates GOV. cred with a single layer of burlap. The little bodies keep each other warm and the burlap does not keep out the air The express companies always hurry the crates through, so that the birds will not die on their hands, and they usually arrive without having sustain. ed much injury. A case of POO which came in about o'clock yesterday after. noon had been travelling since o'clock in the morning, and there was only ont chicken dead
 The trade demands that the chicken, shall be either white or yellow, and they sell for 25 cents each, while the house. are s1. The custom Is a comparatively recent one, for until few years ago il saw not thought possible to transport such young chickens It Is now grow ing enormously every year--New Yorl Tribune.