430 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 

 The Great Poultry Show at Boston. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 10:27-29; Jan., 1851] 



[November 13, 1850] 



I LEFT New York, last evening, on the Vanderbilt — a 

 very excellent boat — and a lovely moonlight passage I 

 had through the sound; arriving at Stonington, at 12i/2» 

 and at Boston, at 4V2 A. M., over one of the best rail- 

 roads in the Union, at a speed almost fast enough to sat- 

 isfy Yankee go-a-head-i-tive-ness. Whether this is the 

 best of all the routes between New York and Boston, I 

 am not prepared to say; but I will say it is a good one, 

 and as worthy of patronage as any other. 



The first sound that greeted my ears, the morning of 

 my arrival at Boston, was one united, concentrated, tre- 

 mendous cock-a-doodle-doo; uprising in the clear morn- 

 ing air from some two thousand throats ; with which was 

 mixed a fair portion of gander gabble and turkey gobble ; 

 with an occasional interlude, applicable to the occasion, 

 of quack ! quack ! ! quack ! ! ! whether there were any real 

 quacks present I do not know. The din of hackmen and 

 hotel runners, for once, was put to silence. "For a noise 

 went up to heaven as of many cocks crowing." And that 

 noise in imagination, is still ringing in my ears; for I 

 have been all day wandering among the coops, trying to 

 learn what magic influence — what morus-multicaulis 

 miracle of speculation hath so wrought upon the sober 

 character of this Yankee population ; as thus to gather 

 together such thousands of biped beings, feathered and 

 featherless, in one great crowing match of all New Eng- 

 land. 



The exhibition is held in the public garden, west of the 

 Common, under a mammoth tent, which covers 23,716 

 superficial feet — over half an acre. This is filled with 

 coops, arranged in rows and tiers, containing an un- 

 counted number of all manner of domestic fowls, vari- 

 ously estimated from 6,000 to 16,000. From the notes 

 which I saw of one gentleman who undertook to enumer- 

 ate the multitude, I am satisfied the smallest number 



