The Washington herald., 1920-11-24
TURKEY PRINCE
OF FOWL MENU
Five Dollars Average Cost
Of Thanksgiving Bird but
Sales Increase.
By wINIFRED VAN DUzER.


r NEW YORK. Nov. 23.-It was a
doughty parsonage who stood upon
the highest point inside Washing
ton market, through which the elite
Of the barnyard travel here on their
table-ward way. Someone had teth-
cred one of his legs; the other rest
ed upon the beautiful golden and
defunct back of a goose. A wreath
Of greens trailed from his neck.
Paused a white-aproned one to
punch the cash register ere point
ing upward. Turkey is king this
year. as always; and doesn't he look
it. alive or dead? oh. he's a noble
bird, for a fact.
I'VE brought in dozens of prime
geese and ducks and hundreds of
chickens. capons. roasting fowls. all
best stock. but d'you think they
hurt his popularity? Not a bit. even
though we thought. on account of
the price. he'd fall behind this year."
His highness pulled in a bandana-
drsped chin and winked one eye.
when the white apron had merged
with all that was mortal of a
youthful pig, the Turk voiced a few
. facts, opinions and. speculations
thus:
Hurt my popularity? huh! I'm
the deep. reverberating rumble
round this time of year and I'm not
worrying about any upstart goose
or even guinea-hens. Fact of the
matter is I'm more in demand right
now than I've been since the day
the first Pilgrim father took a shot
at a fowl and brought down one OF
my ancestors. II proof is needed,
look what they're paying for me
this Thanksgiving
Maryland is where started
from-first family stun and all. So
I'm top-notch and worth sixty-flve
cents per pound! When 1 tell you
that weigh twenty-five pounds you
can see for yourself that I'm no
ordinary bird.
"Of course some of my family"
and he waved the untethered foot
toward a row of corpses all laid out
on marble slab of counter. sell
for fifty cents per pound. But they're
not from Virginia And when they
weigh but ten or twelve pounds,
which is what the average family
can see what we southerners have
to do to keep the shine on the
family namei
You needn't get the idea that
our exclusiveness is mere vulgar
pride" cautioned his highness.
There have been occasions when
no such fortunes lay concealed be-
meath our-er-flappers. Two years
Iago the best OF us stood at fifty
¢s the pound. Remember? All.
see you do
Look at those upstart geesei
Know what represents aristocracy
in their functions circle? Forty
eight cents, Same with the ducks
and roasting chickens.
And for every one of these birds
they sell three turkeys!
Chickens figure next in popular
esteem, leading two to one OF geese
or ducks. Third come geese.
Guinea hens are looking up a bit
though I'm sure 1 can't see what
people see in them. They're going
at two and a half dollars the pair
this season and 1 heard that per-
son in the white apron say they
weigh round three and half each.
Thirty-seven cents the pound.
"Pheasants go for seven dollars
a pair. Huh? Well. I hate to gos-
sip, but I'll just tell you that I
don't think they're any too well
liked generally. You see there've
been too many scandalous goings-
on where they've been present, IL
you know what mean
He gazed moodily at a basket OF
cranberries and finally began doing
sums on his toes. Said he in con-
clusion:
About 1000 of us turkeys are
sold from this stall Thanksgiving
week. There are n dozen or more
stalls in Washington market and
many dozen markets in Greater New
York.
such being so. how many cram
berries do you s'pose it takes every
year to trim US all up with a ruby
glow"
"Oh. don't know either" he
added Il just was asking you!"