The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1923-09-04
PIGEONS START ON
TRIP TO WASHINGTON
KEPR-OVER NIGHT AT SYL-
VESTER, FED AND BEGIN
RETURN JOURNEY HOME.

The Sylvester Local says that J.
H. Pate, of that place, last Monday
morning received from party in
Washington by express four pigeons
with the request that he feed them on
arrival, keep them over night and turn
them loose the next morning. The
object was to see how long it would
take the pigeons to fly back to Wash
ington. The birds came in on the II
O'Clock express train Mr.. Pate car
ried them home, placed them in a
wired chicken house, fed and watered
them, where they rested for the night.
Tuesday morning at eight o'clock he
turned them loose. The birds circled
around a bit to get their bearing and
after reaching the proper height they
few towards the nations capital in
a straight line. 1t was guessed that
the birds would reach Washington in
eight hours from the time they de-
parted from Sylvester. 1t is about
eight hundred miles from Sylvester to
Washington, and it is said the birds
fly about one hundred miles an hour,
Only One Reached Home.
The following account of the return
fight, written by -. B. s. OF Wash
ington, and telling of the tragic end
that overlook three of the birds on
the homeward journey, is printed in
the current issue of the Sylvester pa
per.
"Gallantly the four homing birds
rose in the early Georgia morning
air. Grateful in their gentle hearts
though they were to the kindly young
man who had received and treated
them so considerably, they yet yearn
ed for their home on the banks of the
broad Potomac.
$50, for little, they rose high, fly
ing to the eastward in greeting to the
sun, the Lord of the day, then turned
northward on the long, to them, mo-
mentous flight Tom-hero Of doz
en- races, some from as far as Chi
cago-Mary, his mate, who had flown
from Beaufort, S. c., Sam and Sue,
younger birds, although both had
made flights of 800 miles or more.
Tom and Mary-thinking of their
pair of young fedglingS in Washing
ton-set dizzy pace, which Sam and
Sue, yet minated but beginning to
love each other, matched wing-stroke
for ng-stroke. Without mishap they
came above the salt marshes of Caro-
lima, but there predatory fish eagle
came swooping noiselessly from above
them, sinking his cruel cruel talons
into Sues helpless back, at the same
time a hunter below fired his heavy
duck gun at the eagle; but, unfortu-
nately, one of the spreading shot also
struck Sam, giving him a mortal
wound, so that all three-eaglc and
two pigeons-came down together.
Tom and Mary came on together
in strong flight till over the Blue
Ridge in Virginia they met the cold
rain and wind storm that had come
down out of Canada bringing wintry
cold. 1t grew dark in d-afternoon,
so the two birds, wet and bedraggled,
circled downward seeking a shelter
from night and storm. In their swift |
fight Mary, blinded and exhausted by |
the cold, struck the naked branch OF
a dead old oak and was instantly kill |!
ed. AS she fell to- the ground lifelesS !
the disconsolate Tom alighted beside !
her
'"All next day Tom crouched be-
side his dead mate, while overhead |
the cold winds moaned and the cold |
er rains came in miserably soaking |
gusts The following morning Tom !
gave his mate up forever, and, think |
ing of the young one at home, he |,
rose into the still storming air at 3 |
p. m, and came into the home, cold T,
sick and heartbrollen."