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THE STAT&A
VOLUME TWO.
KUMPE R TEN.
WHAT WE THINK OF WHAT WE SEE
‘‘Every lime a man laffs lie lakes a kink out ov
the chain of life, and thus lengthens it.”
A movement is being set on foot by a citizen of
Atlanta, one of the local papers states, to protect
chickens from a cruel custom to which they have
been subjected from time imm unori il. It is the
way they are carried, head down, it is insisted by
the gentleman that this is very painful to the
chicken, and that such treatment should be prevent
ed by an ordinance, or if necessary, by legislation.
There is no doubt that this is a humane view of
the situation. Probably many tender hearted and
considerate people have, at one time or another,
carried chickens that way. It seems so natural to
take hold of a chicken by the legs—their physi
cal arrangement, their ground plan, as it were, ad
mits of this, and naturally, when so held, the head
inclines downward. Ass the movement progresses
there will doubtless be certain formulae prepared
showing the proper way in which a chicken should
be held en route from the grocery store homeward.
A firm grasp upon the legs with one hand, the oth
er hand placed cup-shaped under what may figur
atively be termed the bowsprit of the chicken, held
at such an elevation as to maintain an even keel,
may be adopted as entirely satisfactory to the
chicken and all parties concerned; but this presup
poses that one has but one chicken and can devote
both hands to arranging for its comfort. But sup
pose he has besides the chicken a gallon can of coal
oil, a box of Quaker oats, a roast, a loaf of bread,
some lettuce and a box of strawberries to carry,
what solution of the problem can be found? Our
faith is firm that with patience and untiring ef
fort, the way will be discovered; and we await that
time, taking this opportunity to say that the ques
tion is an important one, and we yearn for re
form.
•6 *
The unmarried women of Danville, Illinois, have
petitioned Council for an ordinance imposing a tax
upon bachelors. The bachelors have presented a
counter petition asking that a provision be in
cluded in the ordinance, that every woman pro
posed to, who refuses to accept the matrimonial
offer, be subject to a fine of ten dollars. This
matter of compulsory matrimony is assuming start
ling proportions. We do not think the fine heavy
enough to protect the bachelors. A woman who
wanted to make a record in the matter of securing
proposals, could play the bachelor tn the proposing
point, refuse, pay the small fine and go forward;
but then how could the luckless man tell what time
he would get into the clutches of a stingy woman
who would prefer matrimony to financial loss?
A rather unique suit has been filed by Joseph
Abrahams against the congregation Ahavath Israel
of Kingston, N. Y. Mr. Abrahams alleges that he
was employed to pray a whole day and he fixes the
ATLANTA, GA., APRIL 25, 1907.
By A. E. 'RAJTSAUR, Managing Editor.
value of his services at ten dollars. The congrega
tion has made answer denying that any agreement
was made to pay for the prayers. They will at
tempt to show’, upon the trial of the issue, that there
never was any visible result obtained by the peti
tions; in other words, that Mr. Abrahams was una
ble to get any connection, and that the considera
tion totally failed.
*5 *
A. damage suit has been tiled in Union, S. C.,
asking an award of $1,000.50, the fifty cents being
for the loss of a hen, and the thousand dollars
being the estimated damage through humiliation
and lacerated feelings. It appears that a certain
lady had a garden in which various tender and suc
culent vegetables were flourishing; that she had
devoted much time and attention to its cultivation,
had gone to much expense in bringing it to a flour
ishing condition, and that she discovered the late
hen walking about therein and scratching with
much earnestness. Each time the hen stood on
one foot and raked the other forcibly along the
ground in a line parallel to the position occupied by
her body, one or more of the plants valuable for
table use, was forcibly dislocated from its position
and placed, as it were, hors de combat. In short,
they were so discouraged that their owner could
see at a glance that they would never amount to
much for home consumption. Whereupon, the own
er of the garden called the hen’s attention to this
fact and intimated her desire that the scratching
stop, using, it seems, no harsher-language than
“shoo,” or words to that effect. This was utter
ly disregarded by the hen, who made no motion to
indicate that she had heard the remonstrance fur
ther than to stand upon the foot first used in
scratching, and make a backward motion with the
other, similar to the one so objectionable in the
first instance. The lady, being annoyed, picked up
a stick lying in the garden and threw it at the hen.
The stick, unfortunately, contrary to all the tradi
tions of female marksmanship, was well aimed, and
struck the hen just below the medulla oblongata,
causing instant paralysis of the vital functions of
her mechanism, which speedily resulted in
death. The lady called to her neighbor and threw’
the body over the fence. Over the fence, as every
one knows, is out. The late hen’s owner sorrow
fully gathered up the remains and prepared them
for the table, where they were much enjoyed, but
as the hen during her life was a favorite of the
whole family and rejoiced in the pet name
“Biddy,” the suit has been brought to square
things.
* M
What this country would be without the Univer
sity of Chicago and the gentlemen who adorn the
chairs of that institution, it is difficult to determine.
We cannot bear to contemplate the existence of the
race without that source from which to draw knowl
edge, inspiration and the peaceful assurance that
there is every moment some one there peering into
the future, stirring up the spirit world, writing a
book or making some effort for the good of the
race. Prof. John B. Watson of the University has
been for some time impressed with the conviction
that animals have a sixth sense not possessed by
man. Realizing the importance of this fact, if true,
he has been making experiments to determine the
question, lie has performed several experiments with
a rat. He placed a normal rat in a labyrinth, and it
found its way out. Next he destroyed the rat’s
senses in turn, the sense of sight, hearing, smell,
taste and then finally froze its feet, but each time
the rat found its way out. When all this had oc
curred the Professor did not hesitate for a moment.
He has acquainted the world with his wonderful
discovery, and by means of it has been called up
higher to join with the other investigators of that
magic circle who have written books giving the last
word of the Christian Religion and who have photo
graphed ghosts and weighed departing souls. A
discovery of this nature has naturally set the world
agog, but as soon as the shouting and the tumult
dies, the Professor may be expected to publish a se
ries of computations something like a logarithm ta
ble whereby even a layman can possess himself of
the uttermost secrets of the members of the animal
kingdom. We are impatient for this page of knowl
edge to be unrolled before our enraptured gaze.
There are stacks of things we want to know. We
have often wondered how, even across streams and
mountains, the cat comes back. How the wood
pecker knows just where to bore down into a dead
tree to strike the bugs inside, is somewhat beyond
us; how the hen knows where to scratch to find the
worm is also shrouded in gloom. But the secret we
will first lay bare when we get hold of our table, is
just how a hornet, flying straight to a small boy
from his nest in a bush, can light on him with his
sting first. When you consider the arrangement of
a hornet, that is odd, isn’t it? But all things shall
be made clear. Patience is all we need.
H *
It is strange how retribution has trouble in find
ing its "way about and how it makes mistakes at
times. The news comes to us that Mr. Frank Rocke
feller has been buncoed by a man out in Missouri
who sold him a “salted” copper mine. He didn’t
have it named a fancy name; didn’t even issue any
gilt-edged and engraved stock certificates. There
was nothing to it except eighteen holes in the
ground, which the bold, bad man told Mr. Frank
were copper-lined. Investigation showed that there
was a mistake in the latter particular, so Mr.
Rockefeller is out just two hundred and sixty-five
thousand dollars. We feel that a mistake has been
made. This dispensation was originally intended
for John D., we are quite sure, and in some way
went wrong. Mr. Frank Rockefeller is a quiet, un
assuming man who never, so far as we know, had
a cartoon made of him. John D. ought to come for
ward and make good this loss of his brother’s.
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