Evening star., 1934-11-04

seats around q square inclOSure bOrdered by
about 2-foot planks and hoored with clay as
hard as rock
The four Washington visitors soon learned
that this was not regular cooking main, but
that it was to be q series of individual matches
between birds raised in the surrounding farm
country and q few brought all the way from
Washington. But the rules of the game were
to be about the same as those for regular
main and betting was to run high-indeed it
had already started.
DINNER lanterns lighted up smaller rooms
on the first floor of the tumbledown structure
and another lantern on the stairway showed
the way to other private" rooms upstairs.
Here and there a man was seen with slim,
rangy muscular, bright-eyed game cock held
lovingly under arm, waiting his turn or dis
cussing in low tones the terms of some match
to come OF later in the evening; for it was
to be an all-night affair and the last Of the
handlers and spectators would not leave that
old field until dawn was coloring the woody
crags OF the Blue Ridge. Some birds, whose
turns were to come late in the night, were still
In cages.
In the private rooms the handlers, owners
or otherwise, were holding mysterious huddles
and judiciously using shears to clip feather
here or there to make it easier for the cock
to maneuver in battle, for all the world like
. battleship being cleared for action
One of the men in the Washington party had
never before witnessed cock fight. He was
inclined to think it cruel sport. But it ap-
peared that so far as the birds are concerned
they would rather fight than eat They had to
be held far apart, except in the rare instances
when bird showed the white feather. They
fought as long as they could stand and even
after they could not stand, with apparently
no fear nor pain. 1t seemed to be their chief
purpose and their chief joy in living.
My bird is trif1e heavier than Toms" said
one handler. "IIu have to give him the benefit
of the odds-not much, though not over an
ounce or two. I'm sure I'll beat him. Did you
ever see a finer bird in your life? I'll put those
gaffs on myself-can't take any chance with
this cock He's won five times-hnest in the
State"
1t was a bird with fiery eye, all a-tremble
to get into the pit with an opponent although
nothing much to look at from the layman'S
point of view-a dirty gray color, mottled all
over with black In half an hour that bird was
dead as a doornail We had him-a little
tough. it is true-for dinner in chicken stew
next day.
M/ITHoUT going into the details of the vari-
GUS fights it will suffice to say that they
followed each other fast as the birds could
be trimmed. matched, weighed and brought
into the pit. Owners and handlers bet and
when the spectators, now crowded In tne
smoke-f1lled big room around the pit, saw the
birds. they, too, put up bets. There were no
regular betting commissioners or bookies. You
placed your bet with your neighbor on your
honor
How those birds did fight! 1t was coming
daylight when we pulled out of that field and
went to a nearby farm house to sleep 1t on,
and not a bird who was loser had come OUT
of that pit alive. Nor did anybody have to
make them fight. The next day we saw q game
cock put to walk" in a barnyard with other
hens and roosters, the latter twice his size and
many times his number. He chased them all
over the farm and it took half the morning to
get those big roosters back into their proper
places and over their terrible fear
OF course, everybody knows that cock fight
ing Is against the law, but all the laws that
the States of Maryland and virginia and many
other States have been able to enact have not
stopped it yet. At the fight of which tell
there were present the sheriff Of the county
and two of his deputies, who stayed as long
as anybody and bet as heavily as anybody.
It is said that as cock fighting, like liquor
drinking, increases, the more laws are enacted
against it. As for the game cock himself, 1t
is thrilling to see such nerve, such consummate
fighting spirit He is rightly named-probably
the gameSt thing for his sine, mayhap any
size in existence.
It is difficult, if not impossible to saw when
and where cock fighting originated. Almost
every known part of the world claims that
honor II honor it be- It is known that the
.rc;ont persians Greeks and Romans had
game cocks and fought them with enthusiasm.