Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1908-10-01
The Preachers Wife and
Her Poultry.

have a horse and ride around a
kind of circuit have often been
twitted with a fondness for
chicken, as served on the tables
of the good people where they
visit. Their visits to country
homes are often unexpected and
the busy housekeepers are com
PEELED to prepare a hasty meal
for their guests.
1t occurs, therefore, as a ne
\cessity, that the spring chicken
is dressed for the table, saw
DRY dish, such as any hungry
person would relish and the
clerical visitor would be real
unlind if he did not praise the
food so kindly prepared for him.
No wonder they learn to like it.
The kindness and hospitality of
the country people do not al
ways stop at providing some
thing. good to eat for the preach
er when he visits them, but re-
member the wife in the parson-
age and it sometimes happens,
that a choice pair of poultry
beauties go to her when the
preacher returns from his work
among the people or are set
down at the preachers home
as present. Much as the mas
ter of the house loves fried
chicken the good woman, who
sews on buttons and straight
ems out the shirt collar when he
is about to go off to his appoint
ments, assures him that her nice
pets, sent her by Sister Barbara
Heck, cannot be used for food,
as she cannot often go with her
husband and be a guest with
him in country homes she deter
mines to use the presents sent
her to start a poultry yard of
her own and raise fome friers
at the parsonage.
So it happens that some
preachers wives show not only
a fondness for poultry raising,
but real talent for that industry
She has to stay at home anyhow
and her life is a lonely one, so
the little chicks which the moth
er hen gathers under her wings
at night and scratches for dur
ing the day, make good company
for her by their frequent calls
at the kitchen door and she soon
learns to take pleasure in their
increase.
A few incidents of poultry
keeping among the wives of
Methodist preachers, will pos
sibly interest some readers.
Twenty or more years ago, a
poor preachers wife, living in a
country place, received pair of
Partridge Cochins which were
a wonder for beauty and SYM
metry of form. A poultry house
of pine poles was quickly set up
at the foot of the hill on which
these chicks were expected to
forage for scraps of grain and
bugs such as they liked. 1t is a
current story oft repeated, that
the little chicke when Matched
were so large and grew so fast
that some of them were big
enough to fry when six weeks
old. Memory does not say how
many were beheaded at that
tender age but it is likely that
the large portion of these full
blooded Cochins were kept over
another year, though they did
not journey with the owner to
'94e4s
I9q4oue u! 95Ieqo GeMe icy QUA
A little preachers wife in a
midland city of small dimen-
sions, whose hubby had out of
town Pensioners, received a
kindly token of esteem in the
gift of a King Grower and mate
both light Brahmas, from a
country home. The empire of
Brazil was then in its glory
under the last of it's kings, and
these chicks were named Don
Pedro and Brazilla. There were
no scrub chickens on that place
so the princess had the choice
of places to make her nest. The
nesting places were not so abun
dant, however, as in the coun-
try whence she came, so the
nest in which her first eggs
were found was far up under
the house, a most unexpected