Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1912-01-03
CHICKEN KILLING AN ART
Unique Methods Used in Town
Some Clever Feats Adopted
By The Cook.
NOT CRUEL OH NO +!
Various Ways Of Getting Maryland
Fowl Into The Soup.
Editor Of Evening Capital:

one quick stroke OF the ak Qec4pl~
tate it. But find l am mistaken.
That may be the quickest way, but
it is neither the commonest nor the
most artistic For the edification,
therefore, of those who may want to
| know, allow me, please, to describe a
few Of the rather unique methods that
| have picked up by casual observa-
| tion about the purplius of our town.
In the first place if you have fowl
to kill, don't do it yourself; put the
| job on the cook. 1t is much easier
to say: Martha, kill this bird for
I;dinner' than to decapitate it yourself.
Besides, it is much more genteel. To
be sure, the cook may burgle the mat
ter, and there may be a good deal of
squawking and fiuttering and blood
letting and all that, but you are talk
ing art or something lofty in the front
| parlor with Mrs. So and So, and don't
know about that, so it is all right.
Meanwhile the cook makes a dive
for the coop, out Of which she drags
a protesting biddy, and proceeds to get
ready for execution. First she binds
its two legs together with piece of
hair ribbon, then drops it on the
| ground just to prove to it that escape
is impossible. This done, she gets a
| sort Of half-Nelson on the bird, jerks
its two wings up over its head. then
| bends them back till the shoulder
blades crack, gives them twist this
way and that, and 10, they are fast
interlocked behind the birds back.
No it cannot fly. Quite true.
Very clever feat, that. The birl
evidently, enjoys the proceeding
quite as much as the cook, for IT
tackles merrily all the while.
Doubtless the cook would enjoy hav-
| ing her arms interlocked behind her
shoulder blades in some such jaunty
fashion. / don't know; how about
it?
Now that the chicken is rendered
legless and wingless so to speak, al
though the fowl, l presume, is still
| quite conscious of these appendages,
the cook leaves it on the ground to
relish the situation, while she goes
off to hunt up her second best cary
ing knife. No ak, mind you; the
carving knife's the thing, and the
| duller the better. If a few knicks
are in it, her JOY is supreme. With
1 this instrument she approaches her
| victim, and putting one foot on its
| cad and tanning it in the ground. she
chokes off the clamorous cackling that
that, perhaps, been going little too
| long, Then, To make a long story
short, she grips the legs with one
hand, and lifting the struggling bird
| off the ground, proceeds to decapitate
/ it by saving at the outstretch ed
neck with her blunt and jagged knife.
| About a dozen strokes more or less
suffice, and the deed is done. The ex-
ecution is over; no mourners go about
the streets. but milady has chicken a
| la Creole and thinks it fine.
| This is a pretty good way of prepar-
ing a fowl for the kitchen, but not the
| only way. Another method is to
employ the small boy who comes
| around now and then to sift the ashes
and clean up the back yard. His in
| strument Of torture is a dull Ratchet.
| He is a dabster, he is. Yes'm, he
can kill hen; done it lots of times.
Perhaps he has, but he doesn't go
| about it in quite the way the cook
| did. When milady has shut the back
door and battened the windows and
| retired to the front room to think some
| pleasant thoughts, the boy sets tc
work. Trusting one hand into the
coop, he yanks out the first fowl he
comes to by the wing or by one leg,
or by tire neck, it doesn't matter
much which, and bangs it on the
ground once, just to dull its emotions
a trifle. Then laying it out on the
soft earth-no block for him-he
makes a pass at its neck with his lit
tie Ratchet. He hits it a sort of half
blow in the thick of the neck, just
| enough to let blood and to wake it up
at the same time. Whoopi The
| blood flies and the chicken, too. Up
and down the yard it goes, flipperty
| flop, and the excited urchin after it.
| Finally, after the happy fowl has
| walked the echoes of the precinct for
five or ten minutes with its fappings
and gurglings and occasional oozy
| squawkings, the small boy corners it,
and, demmit, proceeds to deliver few
more blows. none of which appears to
have much effect. He is at last COM
| PEELED to adopt the tactics of the cook,
and pressing the edge of the Ratchet
| against the somewhat lacerated neck
of the bird, and the whole against the
| ground, he saws back and forth a
while till the head finally leaves the
neck, and the job is done. Now mi
lady can have chicken dinner as be-
fore, and expect to 90 to heaven just
the same. Cruel? Not a bit; she
gave orders, necessary orders, to the
cook or the boy, and if they bungled,
why it was their fault So.
There are other ways of getting
Maryland chicken ready for its final
resting place, quite as delicate as
those just noted, such as holding the
birds head and cutting circles in the
air with its body, hoping by the GEN.
trifugal force thus engendered to
break it neck, but for fear of being
thought tedious, l refrain from d.
lating further. have, perhaps said
enough to show that chicken-killinp
is sometimes something of an art.
H. J. F.
I
School Flag Upside Down.
Ma 4ba hn,- x-ha ro;soe A. g.. -.