Year: 1875

No city in the country has suffered
more from the class Of vagabond
chicken thieves than Memphis, but
thanks to French ingenuity,a panacea
for the growing evil has been discov-
cred and its name is the Torpedo
Chicken" This little machine is as
near a chicken as human skill can
make it. Itis covered with feathers,
with perfect head, legs and wings.
1t is soft to the touch, and the legs
and wings are flexible, and can be
moved and placed in positions SINH
lar to those Of . genuine chicken,
and when set upon a perch the de-
eeption can not be discovered even
by az expert. Like other chickens,
too, if a burning match is placed near
its nose it topples of the perch, and
when it does it falls with the weight
and destructiVeness Of a bombshell.
Inside of the autemation is placed a
torpedo which explodes if it is taken
by the legs or struck with any force.
Hearing Of this ingenious machine,
a Front street merchant recently
ordered a number Of them with which
to experiment. Some half dozen Of
them were secretly distributed Fri
day to persons who complained from
ANNOYANCE from chicken thieves, and
about the time other chickens seek
their roests they were placed con-
spicuously in the hen houses, and the
persons setting them retired to await
the results.


A widow lady named Mrs. p.
Simmons, living near Fort Pickering.
who has been much annoyed, and
whose watch dog was poisoned only
q few nights since, was so anxious
to know the result Of the experiment
that she sat up 10 await the coming
of the visitors. About one o'clock
she heard some subdued voices out
side the fence which surrounds her
house, and soon after the scrsmbling
noise made by q person climbing
over the fence. Soon there was a


iutering in the hen house, a subdued
caekle, and then a noise like the dis
charge of heavily loaded gun An
agonized shrek Of pain and retreat
ing footsteps told Of the success Of
the machine


The lady who before was filed
with anger and thought only OF ven
geanee on the thieves who had so fire.
quently taken her chickens, was now
filed with alarm, and half way re-
GREETED having used the torpedo chick
en-. She did not have the courage to
90 out doors alone, but called to
neiShbor who had been aroused by
the report. He accompanied her to
the hen house, where a great noise
was being made by the surviving
chickens. Several had been killed
and some manned by the explosion


A search was made for the torpedo
chicken, which was finally found
among the wreck Of poultry. The
body Of the machine was blown
to atoms, but its two legs were found
intact, tightly grasped by a huge
black hand, which had been literally
torn from the arm. Death never
held tighter to a dead niger that did
this negro's dead hand grasp those
two chicken legs. As before stated,
the negro ran away as fast as it was
possible in bis wounded condition,
and if any one finds negro with a
hand freshly shot of, let him inform
Chief Athy q the fact Another
negro was brought to grief the same
night, BY one Of the same instruments,
in the eastern subugbs. Traces Of
blsod were discovered leading from
the chicken roost, and it is believed
be will be arrested. This is, iRdeed,
a great invention, and vastly superi-
or to a trap gun. Its general use
viii soon rid our city Of the large
number of chicken thieves who infest
it. The inventor, when be dies,
should be canoniZed.