96 The Passenger Pigeon 



Louis and Cincinnati, and marked copies of the notice 

 sent to the press of neighboring d''*cs, the avowed object 

 being to cause such a decHne in price as to force the 

 netters to quit. It was based on the idea that most of 

 them were men of small means, and that unless ready 

 market offered for their birds, they must give out. The 

 effect was to cause a drop in price of fifty cents a dozen 

 in New York and Boston in a single day, to cause the 

 price in Chicago to decline to twenty cents per dozen, 

 and to take the last cent out of the pockets of a hundred 

 netters, leaving many who became discouraged and had 

 to walk long distances to their homes, dependent on 

 chance for even a mouthful to eat. Many, though, 

 held out. Telegrams of denial were sent, and the mar- 

 ket in a week or two rallied somewhat, though it was a 

 month before prices in the East touched the same figure 

 as when the "poison-berry" telegrams were received. 

 During the week when prices were lowest I refused to 

 buy many dead birds offered me at five cents per dozen, 

 preferring to lend the netter money, or to advance it 

 on his next catch to be saved alive. 



And, by the way, let me say that killing the pigeons 

 by pincers is an instantaneous and painless death, the 

 neck being broken by a single movement, and the flutter- 

 ing spoken of being the same seen in any bird shot 

 through the head, or with the head cut off. But had 

 the market remained unbroken, had this infamous pois- 

 oned berry story never been started, no such net results 



