Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1941-11-28
"Chirps'' ~
from the
Democrats Pen

good advertising stunt to get the peo-
ple-that is, the crazy people-to
send in a lot of answers to the old
conundrum: "Why does chicken
cross the road?" And any one who
sent in reply which would be con-
sidered, by competent judges, to be
worthy of it, received sum of mon
ey-just how much, I don't know.
Being a little short of cash, as al
ways, and also little bit crazy, as al
ways, / sent in the following bit Of
verse:
The answer to this question once
Was, ITO get on the other side"
To try it now, the birds Ounce;
It's carcass will tell where it died.
I thought that was pretty good,
don't you? But I must have been a.
way from home when the man called
to pay me my prize money, as / have
not seen, up to date, just what the
size of the bank notes were.
Of course, 1 was referring in my
"pome" to the dangers of the highway
and the propensity of the feathered
tribe to get con the other side" if
that side means home to the biddies.
And was reminded, some weeks ago,
of my abortive attempt to get rich
as the result of a favorable opinion
by competent judges" when nice
fat gobbler took a notion to cross the
road. He reached the middle just as
the bumper of my car decided to oc-
cupy the same central point of the
concrete. There was some sort of an
argument between them which, as far
as I could make out, resulted in a
gobbling up of Mr.. Gobbler. heard
thump which was rather ominous, I
looked into the mirror and it reflect
ed the dead end of Turkey.
Now, I've often heard that this sort
Of fowl had about as little sense as
any other specimen of barn yard dem
liens, and I believe it. l don't know
whether any of you people read the
little item clipped last week and put
into the column headed: From our
exchanges" Well, over on the other
side of Chesapeake Bay there occurred
a little incident which occasioned no
little surprise to me. didn't think
the trans-C hesapeakian climes pro-
duced anything but the "rara aves."
h4 IN fhA
which held the august presence of H.
L. Mencken, ct al, had been blessed
with superior sort of intellect. 1t
didn't matter whether it. was bird,
beast, human, or reptile, it paraded it's
knowledge with such assurance as to
indicate wisdom beyond compare. I
thought it was left for the Eastern
Shore to produce the dregs of human
ity and the morons of all other divi-
sions of organic matter. We have,
over here, according to H. L. scarcely
sense enough to walk the streets
straight even if we are sober, which
couldn't be very frequently since this
same Mr.. Mencken called US rum
guiding set of hybrids.
How-some-ever, over in Baltimore
courtyard Mencken should have
taught them better-it is related that
an honest family of farmers noticed
that two suspicious looking automo-
biles approached their peaceful dwell.
ing. The inmates of the household
put off just little late investigating;
for when they did, they found that
the inmates of their turkey pens had
decided to be A. w. o. L. Either that
or were idling their time walking a.
round the enclosure when they should
have been intelligently roosting on
their virtuous perches. Twenty of the
strutters had taken leave; others had
not yet made up their minds.
But here comes the funny part a.
bout the matter. The next morning
eleven of the strayers had decided to
return to the fold, ask forgiveness,
and promise never to go on another
rampage.
Now, what intrigues me is, how a
Western Shore bird could be so ignor-
ant as to return to its barnyard, af-
ter once being free, when not only
was there one Thanksgiving Day in
view, but two of 'em. You might sus-
pect that of the Sho' egg which hatch
ed a half-crazy animal, afterwards
fed on corn produced in a land from
which sprung no good thing. Indeed,
Nencken should look after his deni-
xens better, be they fish or fowl.
Those birds were no credit to the land
which prides itself on being models
for US here by which to shape our
lives.
Well, I reckon it takes all kinds of
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