The history of the hen fever. A humorous record

Front matter

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Contents

Chapter Page

I. Premonitory Symptoms of the Disease, 9

II. The "Cochin-Chinas." Bubble Number One, .... 14

Chapter I. Premonitory Symptoms Of The Disease

I was sitting, one afternoon, in the summer of 1849, in my little parlor, at Roxbury, conversing with a friend, leisurely, when he suddenly rose, and passing to the rear window of the room, remarked to me, with considerable enthusiasm,

" What a splendid lot of fowls you have, B ! Upon

my word, those are very fine indeed, — do you know it? "

I had then been breeding poultry (for my own amusement) many years ; and the specimens I chanced at that time to possess were rather even in color, and of good size ; but were only such as any one might have had — bred from the common stock of the country — who had taken the same pains that I did with mine.

There were perhaps a dozen birds, at the time, in the rear yard, and my friend (then, but who subsequently passed to a competitor, and eventually turned into a sharp but harmless enemy) was greatly delighted with them, as I saw from his enthusiastic conversation, and his laudation of their merits.

I am not very fast, perhaps, to appreciate the drift of a man's motives in casual conversation, — and then, again, it may be that I am "not so slow " to comprehend certain matters as I might be ! At all events, I have sometimes flattered myself that, on occasions like this, I can " see as far into a millstone as can he who picks it;" and so I listened to my friend, heard all he had to say, and made up my mind accordingly, before he left me.

"I tell you, B , those are handsome chickens," he

insisted. " I 've got a fine lot, myself. You keep but one variety, I notice. I 've got 'em all."

" All what? " I inquired.

"0, all kinds — all kinds. The Chinese, and the Malays, and the Gypsies, and the Chittaprats, and the Wang Hongs, and the Yankee Games, and Bengallers, and Cropple-crowns, and Creepers, and Top-knots, and Gold Pheasants, and Buff Dorkings, and English Games, and Black Spanish and Bantams, — and I've several new breeds too, I have made myself, by crossing and mixing, in the last year, which beat the world for beauty and size, and excellence of quality."

" Indeed ! " I exclaimed. " So you have made several new breeds during one year's crossing, eh ? That is remarkable, doctor, certainly. I have never been able yet to accomplish so extraordinary a feat, myself," I added.

"Well, I have," said the doctor, — and probably, as he was a practising physician of several years' experience, he knew how this reversion of nature's law could be accomplished. I didn't.

"Yes," he continued; "I have made a breed I call the 1 Plymouth Eocks,' — superb birds, and great layers. The — a — ' Yankee Games, ' — regular knock-'em-downs, — rather fight than eat, any time ; and never flinch from the puncture of steel. Indeed, so plucky are these fowls, that I think they rather like to be cut up than otherwise, — alive, I mean. Then, I 've another breed I 've made — the £ Bengal Mountain Games.' These are smashers — never yield, and are magnificent in color. Then I have the ' Fawn-colored Dorkings,' too; and several other fancy breeds, that I 've fixed up ; and fancy poultry is going to sell well in the next three years, you may be sure. Come

and see my stock, B , won't you ? And I '11 send you

anything you want from it, with pleasure."

I was then the editor of a weekly paper in Boston. I accepted my friend's kind invitation, and travelled forty miles and back to examine his poultry. It looked well — very well; the arrangement of his houses, &c, was good, and I was gratified with the show of stock, and with his politeness. But he was an enthusiast ; and I saw this at the outset. And though I heard all he had to say, I could not, for the life of me, comprehend how it was that he could have decided upon the astounding merits of all these different breeds of fowls in so short a space of time — to wit, by the crossings in a single year ! But that was his affair, not mine. He was getting his fancy poultry ready for the market; and he repeated, "It will sell, by and by."

And I believe it did, too ! The doctor was right in this particular.

He informed me that he intended to exhibit several specimens of his fowls, shortly, in Boston ; and soon afterwards I met with an advertisement in one of the agricultural weeklies, signed by my friend the doctor, the substance of which was as follows :

Notice. — I will exhibit, at Quincy Market, Boston, in a few days, sample pairs of my fowls, of the following pure breeds ; namely, Cochin-China, Yellow Shanghae, JBlack Spanish, Fawn-colored Dorkings, Plymouth Rocks, White Dorkings, Wild Indian, Malays, Golden Hamburgs, Black Polands, Games, &c. &c; and I shall be happy to see the stock of other fanciers, at the above place, to compare notes, etc. etc.

The above was the substance of the "notice" referred to ; and the doctor, coming to Boston shortly after, called upon me. I showed him the impropriety of this movement at once, and suggested that some spot other than Quincy Market should be chosen for the proposed exhibition, — in which I would join, provided an appropriate place should be selected.

After talking the matter over again, application was made to an agricultural warehouse in Ann-street, or Blackstone-street, I believe ; the keepers of which saw the advantages that must accrue to themselves by such a show (which would necessarily draw together a great many strangers, out of whom they might subsequently make customers) ; but, at my suggestion, this very stupid plan was abandoned — even after the advertisements were circulated that such an exhibition would come off there.

Upon final consideration, it was determined that the first Exhibition of Fancy Poultry in the United States of America should take place in November, 1849, at the Public Garden, Boston. 2

Chapter II

THE "COCHIN-CHINAS." BUBBLE NUMBER ONE.

A public meeting was soon called at the legislative hall of the Statehouse, in Boston, which had the effect of drawing together a very goodly company of savans, honest farmers, amateurs, poulterers, doctors, lawyers, flats, fanciers and humbugs of one kind or another. I never attended one of the meetings; and only know, from subsequent public and private "reports," what occurred there.

On this first occasion, however, after a great deal of bosh and stuff, from the lips of old men and young men, who possessed not the slightest possible shadow of practical knowledge of the subject proposed to be discussed, it was finally resolved that the name for the (now defunct) association then and there formed, should be " The New England Society for the Improvement of Domestic Poultry'''' ! ! !

Now, the only objection I ever raised to this title was that it was not sufficiently lengthy ! When applied to for my own views on the subject, / recommended that it should be called the "Mutual Admiration Society." But, though I was thought a great deal of by its members, — especially when the concern was short of funds, — in this case they thought my proposed title was altogether too applicable ; and the original name, above quoted, was adhered to.

I was honored with the office of vice-president of the society, for Massachusetts ; to which place I was reelected annually, I believe, until the period of its death. For which honor I was not ungrateful, and in consideration of which, "as in duty bound, I have ever prayed" for the association's prosperity and weal.

The first name that was placed upon the list of subscribers to the constitution of this society was that of His Excellency Geo. N. Briggs, formerly Governor of this commonwealth. He was followed by a long list of "mourners," most of whom probably ascertained, within five years from the hour when they subscribed to this roll, that causing the cock's spur to grow between his eyes was not quite so easy a thing to accomplish as one " experienced poultry-breeder " at this meeting coolly asserted it to be ! How many attempted this experiment (as well as numerous others there suggested as feasible), I am not advised. But I am inclined to think that those who did try it found it to be "all in their eye."

While these gentlemen were arranging the details of the new "society," and were deciding upon what the duties of the officers and committees should be, I quietly wrote out to England for information regarding the somewhat notorious "Cochin- China" fowl, then creating considerable stir among fanciers in Great Britain ; and soon learned that I could procure them, in their purity, from a gentleman in Dublin, whose stock had been obtained, through Lord Heytsbury (then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland), direct from Queen Victoria's samples. I ordered six of them, — two cocks and four hens, — and in December, 1849, I received them through Adams & Co.'s Transatlantic Express.

At this period there was no telegraph established from Boston to Halifax, I believe. Some of the reporters for the daily city papers usually visited the steamers, upon their arrival here, to obtain their foreign files of exchanges ; and here my birds were first seen by those gentlemen who have made or broken the prospects of more than one enterprise of far greater consequence than this "importation of fancy fowls" could seem to be.

But on the day succeeding the coming of those birds, several very handsome notices of the arrival of these august Chinamen appeared in the Boston papers, and a vast amount of credit was accorded to the " enterprising importer" of the outlandish brutes, that were described in almost celestial language !

After considerable trouble and swearing (custom-house swearing, I mean), the officers on board permitted my team to take the cage out of the steamer, and it was conveyed to my residence in Roxbury, where it arrived two hours after dark.

I had long been looking for the coming of these Celestial strangers, and the "fever," which I had originally taken in a very kindly way, had by this time affected me rather seriously. I imagined I had a fortune on board that steamer. I looked forward with excited ideas to beholding something that this part of the world had never yet seen, and which would surely astound "the people," when I could have the opportunity to show up my rare prize, — all the way from the yards or walks of royalty itself! I waited and watched, with anxious solicitude, — and, at last, the box arrived at my house. It was a curiously-built box — the fashion of it was unique, and substantial, and foreign in its exterior. I supposed, naturally, that its contents must be similar in character. That box contained my " Cochin-Chinas," — bred from the Queen's stock, — about which, for many weeks, I had been so seriously disturbed.

I am noiv well satisfied that the " Cochin-China " variety of fowl is a gross fable. If such a breed exist, in reality, we have never had them in this country. Anything (and everything) has been called by this name among us, in the last five years ; but the engraving on the following page, in my estimation (and I have been there !), is the nearest thing possible to a likeness of this long petted bird ; and will be recognized, I think, by more than one victim, as an 2*

PORTRAIT OF THE " COCHIN-CHINA " FOWL?

accurate and faithful portrait of this lauded "magnificent " and "superb" bird !

I was anxious to examine my celestial friends at once. I caused the box to be taken into a shed, at the rear of the house, and I tore from its front a piece of canvas that concealed them from view, to behold a ' — well ! nHm-

j>orte — they were Cochin- China fowls !

But, since God made me, I never beheld six such birds before, or since ! They resembled giraffes much more nearly than they did any other thing, carnivorous, omnivorous, — fish, flesh, or fowl. I let them out upon the floor, and one of the cocks seized lustily upon my India-rubber over-shoe, and would have swallowed it (and myself), for aught I know, had not a friend who stood by seized him, and absolutely choked him off !

This is truth, strange as it may seem ; but I presume they had scarcely been fed at all upon their fortnight's voyage from Dublin, and I never saw any animals so miserably low in flesh, in my life, before. What with their long necks, and longer legs, and their wretchedly starved condition, I never wondered that the friendly reporters spoke of their appearance as being "extraordinary, and strikingly peculiar."

These were the original " Cochin-China " fowls of America. And they probably never had the first drop of Chinese blood in their veins, any more than had the man

THE HISTORY OF THE HEN FEVER.

who bred them, and who knew this fact much better than I did — who knew it well enough.

I housed my "prize" forthwith, however, and provided them with everything for their convenience and comfort. The six fowls cost me ninety dollars. They were beauties, to be sure ! When I informed a neighbor of their cost, he ventured upon the expressive rejoinder that I " was a bigger d d fool than he had ever taken me for."

To which I responded nothing, for I rather agreed with him myself!

Nine months afterwards, however, I sold him a cock and three pullets, four months old, raised from those very fowls, for sixty-five dollars ; and I did n't retort upon him even then, but took his money. The chickens I sold him were " dog-cheap," at that !

Chapter III. The First Fowl-show In Boston

Never in the history of modern "bubbles," probably, did any mania exceed in ridiculousness or ludicrousness, or in the number of its victims surpass this inexplicable humbug, the "hen fever."

Kings and queens and nobility, senators and governors, mayors and councilmen, ministers, doctors and lawyers, merchants and tradesmen, the aristocrat and the humble, farmers and mechanics, gentlemen and commoners, old men and young men, -women and children, rich and poor, white, black and gray, — every body was more or less seriously affected by this curious epidemic.

The press of the country, far and near, was alive with accounts of "extraordinary pullets," "enormous eggs" (laid on the tables of the editors), "astounding prices" obtained for individual specimens of rare poultry ; and all sorts of people, of every trade and profession and calling in life, were on the qui vive, and joined in the hue-and-cry, regarding the suddenly and newly ascertained fact that hens laid eggs sometimes ; or, that somebody's crower

was heavier, larger, or higher on the legs (and consequently higher in value), than somebody else's crower. And the first exhibition of the society with the long name came off duly, at last, as agreed upon by the people, and myself.

"The people" ! By this term is ordinarily meant the body-politic, the multitude, the citizens, at large, the voters,

the — the — a — the masses ; the Well, no matter !

At the period of which I am now writing, the term signified the " hen-men." This covered the whole ground, at that time. Everybody was included, and thus nobody was left outside !

At this first show, the committee " flattered themselves" (and who ever heard of, or from, a committee that did n't do this !) that never, within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, — who, by the way, was then living, but has since departed to that bourn from which even defunct henrnen do not return, — never had such a display been witnessed ; never had the feathered race before appeared in such pristine beauty ; never had any such exhibition been seen or read of, since the world begun ! And, to say truth, it was n't a very bad sight, — that same first hen-show in Boston.

Thousands upon thousands visited it, the newspapers appropriated column after column to its laudation, and all sorts of people flocked to the Public Garden to behold the " rare and curious and inexpressibly-beautiful samples " of poultry caged up there, every individual specimen of which had, up to that hour, been straggling and starving in the yards of "the people" about Boston (they and their progeny) for years and years before, unknown, unhonored and unsung.

Gilded complimentary cards, in beautifully-embossed envelopes, were duly forwarded by the "committee" to all "our first men," who came on foot or in carriages, with their lovely wives and pretty children, to see the extraordinary sight. The city fathers, the public functionaries, governors, senators, representatives, all responded to the invitation, and everybody was there.

The cocks crowed lustily, the hens cackled musically, the ducks quacked sweetly, the geese hissed beautifully, the chickens peeped delightfully, the gentlemen talked gravely, the ladies smiled beneficently, the children laughed joyfully, the uninitiated gaped marvellously, the crowd conversed wisely, the few knowing ones chuckled quietly, — everybody enjoyed the thing immensely, — and suddenly, prominent among the throng of admirers present, loomed up the stalwart form and noble head of Daniel Webster, who came, like the rest, to see what he had only " read of" for the six months previously.

The committee saw him, and they instantly lighted on him for a speech ; but he declined.

" Only a few words ! " prayed one of them.

" One word, one word ! " insisted the chairman.

" I can't ! " said Daniel.

But they were importunate and unyielding, that enthusiastic committee.

" Gentlemen ! " said the honorable senator, at last, amid the din. "Ladies and gentlemen ! " he continued, as a monster upon feathered stilts, at his elbow, shrieked out an unearthly crow, that drowned the sound of his voice instanter, — "Ladies and gentlemen, really — I — would — but the noise and confusion is so great, that I cannot be heard ! " — and a roar followed this capital hit, that drowned, for the moment, at least, even the rattling, crashing, bellowing, squeaking music of the feathered bipeds around him.

The exhibition lasted three days. Unheard-of prices were asked, and readily paid, for all sorts of fowls ; most of those sold being mongrels, however. As high as thirteen dollars was paid by one man (who soon afterwards became an inmate of a lunatic asylum) for a single pair of domestic fowls. It was monstrous, ridiculous, outrageous, exclaimed every one, when this fact — the absolute paying down of thirteen round dollars, then the price of two barrels of good wheat flour — "was announced as having been squandered for a single pair of chickens.

I sold some fowls at that show. I didn't buy any there, I believe.

The receipts at the gates paid the expenses of the exhibition, and left a small surplus in the hands of somebody, — I never knew who, — but who took good care of the money, I have not a doubt ; as most of the officers at that time were, like myself, " poor, but honest."

By the time this fair closed, the pulse of the ' ; dear people " had come to be rather rapid in its throbs, and the fever was evidently on the increase. Fowls were in demand. Not good ones, because nothing was then said by the anxious would-be purchasers about quality. Nobody had got so far as that, then. They -wanted foiols only, — hens and cocks, — to which they themselves gave a name.

Some fancied one breed, or variety, and some another ; but anything that sported feathers, — from the diminutive Bantam to the stork-shaped Chinaman, — everything was being sought after by " amateurs " and " fanciers " with a zest, and a readiness to pay for, that did honor to the zeal of the youthful buyers, and a world of good to the hearts of the quiet breeders and sellers, who began first to get posted up, and inured to the disease.

/ was an humble and modest member of this latter class* I kept and raised only pure breeds of fowls.

Chapter IV. How " Poultry-books " Are Made

Soon after this, I learned that one Asa Rugg, of Pennsylvania (a nom de guerre), was in the possession of a breed of fowls that challenged all comparison for size and weight. They were called the Chittagong fowl, and were thus described in the poultry-books published in 1850 :

" The fowl thus alluded to has been imported, within the last two or three years, into Pennsylvania, and ranks at the head of the list, in that region, for all the good qualities desirable in a domestic bird. The color is a streaked grey, rather than otherwise, and the portraits below" (my birds) " are fine samples of this great stock. They are designated as the Grey Chittagongs."

"Asa Rugg," in his letter to me, described this stock as being at the head of the races of poultry, having "the largest blood in them of any variety of fowl with which he was acquainted." The pair he first sent me were light-grey and streaked, and " at less than seven months old weighed over nineteen pounds."

He said, in that insinuating and delicate manner so peculiar to the habits of gentlemen who possess what another wishes to buy of them, — "I did not intend, my

dear Mr. B , to part with these magnificent specimens at

any figure whatever. I assure you I had much rather retain them ; for they are very fine, as you would say, could you see them. If, however, you are disposed to pay my price, I shall let you have them. I really shall regret their absence from my yard, however. Try and make up your mind to be satisfied with something else — won't you? These fowls I must keep, if possible," &c. &c.

Now, Asa knew very well, if he had charged me two hundred (instead of twenty) dollars for those grey fowls, I should have taken them from him. Of course I sent for them at once; and, within ten days, they were in my poultry-house, a new wonder for the hundreds who called to see my " superb " and " extraordinary " fowls.

A competitor turned up, a few months after this, a notorious breeder in P , who, though a respectable man,

otherwise, never knew a hen from a stove-pipe, but who had more money at that time than I had, and who, in the hen-trade, possessed the impudence of the devil, without the accompanying graces to carry out his object.

This man chanced, while in Pennsylvania, to hear Asa speak of trie, and at once he stepped in to "head me " in that quarter. He bought all the "Grey Chittagongs " that

28 THE HISTOBY OF

Rugg had left (most of which, when they reached P ,

happened to be dark red and hrowii), and forthwith set up an establishment in opposition to me ; "for what purpose I never knew. I did not know him from a side of soleleather, I had never spoken to or of him, and I could not comprehend why this person should render himself, as he did, my future "death's head" in the fowl-trade.

If he went into the traffic for the purpose of making money out of it, he has found, by this time, I have no doubt, that he would have been, at the very least calculation, five thousand dollars better off had he never thrust himself into a business of which he did not know the first rudiments.

If he embarked in it to interfere with or to injure "me, personally, he has now ascertained, I imagine, that it required a faster horse than he was in the habit of driving to keep in sight of my team.

If his purpose was the gratification of his own petty spite or ambition only, he has had to pay for the enjoyment of it, — ay, to his dear cost ! — and he is welcome to all he ever made out of his contemptible, niggardly huckstering.

Soon after the first exhibition, it was announced by the publishers in Boston that Dr. Bennett's new Treatise would be immediately issued by them. The doctor had originally applied to the establishment in which I was then a partner, to issue this work ; but I recommended him to the others, because our own facilities for getting it out were not so good as I thought were theirs.

I furnished a considerable amount of the matter for that book, and had already obtained, at my own individual expense, several of the engravings which appear in the work spoken of. After the original cuts were placed in the publishers' hands, they were reduced in size, and injured (for my purposes), as I conceived, when they finally appeared in print.

The doctor's book on poultry had been announced again and again ; but it did not make its appearance in the market, in consequence of his tardiness. Week after week, and month after month, passed by, but still no Dr. Bennett's book could be found. I saw some of the proof-sheets finally, observed the fate of the illustrations of my fowls, and made up my mind what I would do. The book was at last announced positively to appear in three weeks.

I immediately called at a stereotype foundery, and asked how much time it would require to stereotype a work of one hundred and fifty pages for me. I was told that it would occupy three to four weeks to complete it. " Can't it be done in owe week?" I inquired. The proprietor smiled, and said that this was impossible. I replied, " Well, sir, to-day is Tuesday. I have engaged to deliver in New York city, on the morning of a week from next Saturday, three 3* thousand copies of a book which I am about to write. Is there no way that you can help me out ? " The gentleman looked at me incredulously.

I added, "Mr. ; I have been in the newspaper business a good many years, and I have had the message of the President of the United States — a document occupying a dozen columns of solid brevier and minion — set up and put to press within forty-two minutes from the time it reached our office. Anything can be accomplished, now-adays, if we but will it."

1 ' But, you say you are about to write it. When will nie ' copy' be ready ? " said the stereotyper.

" I have thought of this," I replied, " but a few hours. The title, even, is not yet decided upon. I will give you fifty pages of manuscript to-morrow morning, the next day I will add another fifty, and you shall have the whole in hand by Friday morning."

He kindly undertook to aid me. I engaged three engravers, who worked day and night upon the drawings and transfers of the fowls for my illustrations ; the paper was wet down on Monday and Tuesday ; I read the final revised proof of my work on Wednesday night ; the book went to jpress on Thursday ; the binders were ready for it as it came up, the covers were put on on Friday morning, and I sent to the New York house (who had bespoken them), by Harnden's Express, on Friday evening, three thousand five hundred copies of the " New Enq-land Poultry- Breed ee," illustrated with twenty -Jive correct engravings of my choice, magnificent, superb, unapproachable, pure-bred fowls.

This book had an extraordinary sale, — far beyond my own calculations, certainly. I got it out for the purpose of "doing justice" to my own stock, and calculated that it would prove a good advertising medium for me, — which it did, by the way. But the demand for the " New England Poultry-Breeder " was immense. And thirteen different editions (varying from three thousand five hundred to one thousand copies each) were issued within as many weeks, and were sold, every copy of them. This is the true history of the "New England Poultry-Breeder."

By and by Dr. Bennett's book appeared. The market was now glutted with this kind of thing, and this work, though a good one, generally, dragged on the hands of its originators. I doubt if a thousand copies of this book ever found their way into the market, the author being too deeply engrossed with his then thriving trade, to trouble himself about urging the sale of his book, or of thinking about the interests of his publishers.

Chapter V. Threatening Indications

Another meeting was now called at the Statehouse, which was even more fully attended than the first, and at which much more serious indications of enthusiasm were apparent.

Old men, and middle-aged farmers, and florists, and agriculturists, and live-stock breeders, from all parts of this and the neighboring states, congregated together on this eventful occasion, and entered into the debate with an earnestness worthy of so important and " glorious " a cause.