CHAPTER III. 



THE FIRST FOWL-SHOW IN BOSTON. 



Never in the history of modern "bubbles," probably, 

 did any mania exceed in ridiculousness or ludicrousnesa, 

 or in the number of its victims surpass this inexplicable 

 humbug, the "hen fever." 



Kings and queens and nobility, senators and governors, 

 ni^yors and councihuen, ministers, doctors and lawyers, 

 merchants and tradesmen, the aristocrat and the humble, 

 £irmers and mechanics, gentlemen and commoners, old men 

 and young men, women and children, rich and poor, white, 

 black and gray, — everybody was more or less seriously 

 affected by this curious epidemic. 



The press of the country, far and near, was alive with 

 accounts of "extraordinary pullets," "enormous eggs" 

 (laid on the tables of the editors), "astounding prices" 

 obtained for individual specimens of rare poultry ; and all 

 sorts of people, of every trade and profession and calling in 

 life, were on the qui vive, and joined in the hue-and-cry, 

 regarding the suddenly and newly ascertained feet that 



