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2HANKSGIVING with
out the turkey is al
most unthinkable.
For this great bird,
which has become
inseparably associat
peculiarly an Ameri
can bird and as much
an Amer ' can lnstltu-
Hon as Thanksgiving
great national bird
ture of the feasting
which is an Important part of the fes
tivities of the day.
The fact is, of course, that turkeys
don’t come from Turkey, and were un
known before the discovery of Amer
ica, In the north of which continent
the wild turkey still roams in unre
strained freedom, though not, alas, in
undiminished numbers.
When the enterprising Spaniards
began to explore the resources of the
new world that Columbus had opened
out for them, they found that the na
tives had tamed a big bird, which they
regarded as a sort of peacock; and it
was not long after the discovery of
America that the new bird made his
appearance in European poultry yards.
Great must have been the disgust
of the original occupants of these
when the invader appeared. For one
thing he was much bigger than any
of them, and could look down on
them in the most literal sense. He
was also fully aware of the importance
of his expensive personality and lost
no time in impressing it on all and
sundry. The peacock, who had
reigned supreme both as an artist in
posing and as a table delicacy—the
Homans used to talk of having “ham
and peacock” as we would speak of
bam and turkey—found himself con
fronted with a rival who made up for
Inferiority of plumage by displaying
with much greater energy and fre
quency what he had got, and by a
JZ’CSjZZ.Zr '
Tpla.v of expression which nothing in the animal
world can equal.
It is all very well to talk of the wonderful
mobility of the human countenance, sensitive to
every change in the emotions of the soul; it is
nothing to the turkey cock’s. See him elongate
his nose till it comes down to his chest, and ob
serve the number of double chins he can pro
duce to add to his importance if he wishes to
Impose on a presumptuous rooster or to impress
a fair young turkey pullet
Then, as to blushing, there was no debutante
ever floated on the social sea who could blush as
our gobbler can; his complexion plays through
all shades between livid blue and ghastly white
to a lively scarlet, and, taken in connection with
the changes in his features, makes him a quick
<awmge artist of the first order, before whom the
chameleon collapses ashamed.
If anybody wants to practise drawing por
traits, let them get hold of a turkey gobbler for
a sitter, and if they can succeed in getting his
features properly fixed on canvas I will undertake
they will find anyone else’s easy in comparison.
Cut it is not only in the display of his charms
that the turkey proclaims his advantage over the
world of our feathered dependents; his stentorian
gobbling arrests the attention of all.
The said gobbling, by the way, has given rise
to the only bit of folk-lore about the turkey that
I know of. Being an American, he is too modern
to have legends associated with him as a rule;
but Indian Mohammedans profess to hear in the
turkey’s voice a blasphemous mockery of their
brief creed as spoken in Arabic. Hence, when a
turkey has to be killed in India, the native takes
a cruel pleasure in executing it by cutting out
Its impious tongue; and so widely spread is the
boltef, that a little native boy, a retainer of an
animal dealer in Calcutta, replied to me, when I
asked him —just by way of trying his knowledge—
the name of an American curassow bird that was
In the yard. "That is a turkey, sahib, but it does
not repeat the creed!”
What with strutting and gobbling himself, and
with proving congenial to the gobbling process as
conducted by human beings, the turkey fairly
bounced the poultry world in general, and actual
ly ousted the goose, the most ancient member of
the poultry association and the savior of Rome,
from popular estimation as a holiday dish. The
turkey is a good type of the product of his native
continent in more ways than one, and som*
Americans, impressed by the fact that the na
tion’s emblem, the white-headed eagle, is not
ohly a “bird of freedom,” but a freebooter, rob
bing the s respectable flshhawk of his catch, and
«eber&Hy playing the needy sharper, have claimed
of SEASON
by FrctivK. Firvrv
that the turkey would
better represent the
United States, and he
certainly better suits
the Ideals of an emi
nently practical people.
Go-ahead as he Is
In his methods, how
ever, the turkey gets
“scored off” now and
then. A century or so
ago, when geese and
turkeys used In the absence of present-day facili
ties for transport to be driven long distances on
the roads, a couple of noble sportsmen laid a wa
ger as to the speed of turkeys and geese over a
course which it would take a matter of days to
traverse. Each nobleman was provided with a
little flock of four of the fowls of his fancy, and
of course betting was high In favor of the tur
keys. And at first they seemed to justify their
backers, for they soon stalked away from their
waddling rivals and left them far behind. So
things went on all day, but as dusk came on the
aristocratic turkey herd found his charges becom
ing passive resisters, and displaying an incurable
desire to go to roost—no amount of coaxing would
propel them farther. Meanwhile the despised
geese, with whom night and day were not of any
very great importance, waddled sedately past, and
ultimately won the race with plenty to spare. It
was pretty nearly the old tale of the hare and
tortoise over again, In fact.
I have known the farmyard bully pretty well
bested on two occasions myself—tragically so,
in fact. One of the most valued possession of the
Calcutta animal dealer I have mentioned was a
fawn-colored European-bred turkey, w r hose color
much commended it In his eyes, since turkeys of
this hue seem not to be found In India. This
privileged fowl used to circulate about his mas
ter’s chair, strutting and gobbling; and though he
often resented the entrance of natives into the
compound he respected Europeans, a piece of dis
crimination one does not expect in a being of such
limited intelligence as a turkey. Another inmate
of the menagerie was a young cassowary, and he
wrought the turkey’s downfall; for, coming into
the compound one day, I missed the glnger-hued
gobbler, and asked what had become of him.
“Ah, my poor turkey!” said the dealer; “he
gave cheek tc the cassowary, and the cassowary
kicked him and burst his bag!” It sounded as if
the impudent bird had been collapsed like a toy
balloon, but 1 did not inquire Into details.
The dealer, however, consoled himself with a
pair of local turkeys or the ordinary dark color,
and the gobbler was beginning to take the place
of his deceased nredecessor in the economy of the
3§
l wm
&rc?sa.
turkevs into this, and when they are inside and
have'eaten up all the corn. It never occurs to
them to stoop under the bridge beneath which they
passed In. but they continue to wander round and
round till the trapper comes and gathers them
in-a proceeding which does not argue any great
amount of Intelligence on their part.
One can even get a turkey by hunting him with
a dog, circumstances being favorable. The said
circumstances are the fact of the turkey s being
a little way off from their woodland retreat, feed
ing out on the prairie, and one s dog being a grey
hound ; moreover, one’s horse should know how to
go. The turkey, even when wild, is not a long
distance flier, but he has not sense enough to re
member this when he finds his foes between him
and the wood, and tries to fly straight away from
the pursuing hound instead of turning about over
head and coming back to cover. After about a
mile he has had enough of flying and takes to his
legs, only to find that his four-legged opponent is
close behind, and he must perforce take to the air
again. But this time his flight is not for so long
a distance, and he is ignominiously “run into,” a
victim of misplaced confidence in himself as an
aeroplane.
Let us be thankful that we have got the tur
key as he is, with all his comic extravagances, and
that in one respect, at all events, he can challenge
comparison with many worthier people; his last
appearance is always creditable, and no one can
deny that he cuts up well!
Cause for Thankfulness.
Thanksgiving day is the one day in the yeap
when the nation turns to heaven in thanks for ita
preservation. The life of the nation is the principal
consideration; not only Its life, but its health, and
Its preservation In that condition in which it was
established by the fathers of the country. Men
can thank God for their own accumulations or sup
plicate him to lighten their burdens, but that is not
the purpose of a national thanksgiving. The nation
itself, the political structure which was framed and
handed down —it is the preservation of this for
which the neople are to be thankfuL
menagerie, when he a’so met bis
end from a far different adversary.
This was a gamecock of some In
dian breed, the most blackguardly
looking fowl I have ever set eyes
upon, with beetling eyebrows, a
bulldog type of beak and pillar-like
legs, his athletic proportions set off
by very tight-fitting plumage. How
ever, he was only a fowl, thought
Ihe two turkeys, and with Oriental
Indifference to the rules of fair play
they both set out to tackle him to
gether. The gamecock acquitted
himself in a manner worthy of his
breed, and bowled them over with
one blow apiece. Perhaps his natu
ral magnanimity—for chanticleer is
seldom anything but a gentleman—
made him lenient with the hen; at
any rate, she was only “knocked
silly.” But he gave her husband a
fair knock-out blow; gripping his
wattle with the bulldog bill, he
brought the columnar shanks down
on the bulky adversary’s neck with
such force that, when I saw the de
feated bully he was sitting in a
state of paralytic collapse, and not
long after inglorlously expired.
Such is the part the turkey plays
as a tame bird—a pretentious and
pushing person who occasionally col
lapses ignominiously. Nor are his
aspect and career as a wild bird
different, for he is one of the few
creatures which have altered very
little in domestication; and though
he may be regarded as the premier
bird of America, and gains a cer
tain amount of dignity and consid
eration thereby, there Is a comic
element In his performances and
misfortunes which robs him of the
dignity of the feathered nobles of
the older world. The blackguardly
tendencies which, seen in domesti
cation, have caused some people to
suggest that he Is called a turkey
because he behaves like the prover
bial unspeakable Turk, are In full
swing In his wild ancestor, who is
altogether born In sin. His wife, or
wives—for tyi Is an inveterate polyg
amist, evert In his primitive teondl
tlon —have to keep their infant
poults out of his way, or he will
crack their little heads for them;
and when he conquers and slays a
rival gobbler, he tramples him when
he Is down and done for. His court
ship Is every bit as absurd In the
wilds as It Is in the farmyard, and
ancient turkey dowagers emulate
his absurdities In strutting to win
his regard, though the pullets main
tain a proper modesty of demeanor.
Moreover, the wily hunter brings
about his downfall In ways which
make him look undignified—no other
bird Is lured to his end In such
queerly discreditable ways.
One Is to call him up within shot
by Imitating the voice of her he
loves for the time being. On a small
pipe, often made of a turkey’s own
drumstick bone, the sportsman imi
tates what he ungallantly calls the
“yelp” of the hen turkey, and the
infatuated gobbler, lured by the soft
Invitation, is often decoyed within
range. To his credit be it said, how
ever, he displays a fine ear, and If
he detects anything suspiciously in
sincere in the accents of the con
cealed charmer, it will be a clever
impersonator who gets him to an
swer another matrimonial advertise
ment for that season at all events.
Another plan is the turkey trap,
which is a pen made of logs and en
tered by a trench, across which
there Is a bridge just Inside the en
trance. A train of corn leads the
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