88 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



The men explained their regaHa by saying they had 

 been out "sporting for pigeons with the big-bugs and 

 tried to dress up some !" The old store at Oleona had 

 been purchased by the timber firm and the attic emp- 

 tied of such venerable relics of the long ago, when Ole 

 Bornemann Bull, of Norway, violinist, had founded 

 a Scandinavian colony in that forest, in 1852 ; and the 

 reminder of the "Swedish Nightingale" had been pur- 

 chased by the romantic enthusiast, Ole Bull, to supply 

 the demand for silk hats in the Potter county forest. 

 They had been stored in the attic for a generation; 

 but at last, they graced a most disgraceful occasion. 

 A thrifty clerk had found the hats and sold them to 

 the teamsters, log cutters and bark-peelers, for a dol- 

 lar each, to decorate the festal holiday at the pigeon 

 city. In 1850 the great showman, P. T. Barnum, 

 staged, at Castle Garden, New York, a reception to 

 the celebrated prima donna, the proceeds of the first 

 concert being donated to the public charities, after her 

 custom. Mr. Barnum, however, realized handsomely 

 ]>y selling to the highest bidder, in various manufac- 

 tures, exclusive rights for making a style, to bear the 

 name "Jenny Lind." Mr. Knox paid $5,000 for the 

 hat privilege, and Ole bought $500 worth of the beau- 

 tiful hats for his Oleona store, opened in 1852. The 

 last of them were sold in 1886 at a farewell scene for 

 the Passenger Pigeons. That is an example of what 

 investigation revealed. 



During the month of March, 1892, I camped in the 

 forests of eastern Oklahoma, looking for some wal- 



