56 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



green. The cock carries proudly, for comb, two 

 horns of brilliant red flesh; its wattles are pendent 

 and very long. The hen has two similar but shorter 

 horns; her wattles are small and rounded; finally, 

 her legs have not the disproportionate length of the 

 cock's tall stilts. Such are the patients preemi- 

 nently destined for the cruel industry of fattening. 

 Let us come now to the practice of it. 



< < The greatest care in this world is that of the fam- 

 ily. You know with what continual and laborious 

 solicitude the hen watches over her little ones, with 

 what self-sacrifice the mother spends herself in order 

 to keep her nest of eggs warm. If pains were not 

 taken to remove her from the nest and make her eat, 

 she would let herself starve to death, sacrificing her 

 own life for the sake of her eggs. Is it possible for 

 a bird to take on flesh with such ardent maternal love 

 burning in her veins f Certainly not. The first con- 

 dition for becoming large and fat is to consider one 's 

 self alone, a thing permitted only to the beast whose 

 end is to become an excellent roast. 



"Well, in order that the hen may consider solely 

 herself, think of nothing but eating and digesting 

 well, so as to take on fat and flesh abundantly, it is 

 put out of her power to lay, which in turn takes from 

 her all idea of brooding and of raising young 

 chickens. Out of a mother, ready to devote herself 

 unstintingly, is made a brute that, if only its crop be 

 full, has no care of any kind ; in fact, a veritable fat- 

 factory. The operation is a cruel one. With the 

 blade of a penknife a slight incision is made in the 



