CHAPTER XXV. 



THE GREAT PAGODA ^N. 



The most idiculous and fulsome advertisementa now 

 occupied the tolumns of certain so-called agricultural 

 papers in this country, particularly one or two of these 

 sheets in New York State. 



Stories were related by correspondents (and endorsed by 

 the nominal editors), regarding the proportions and weights 

 and beauties of certain of the " Bother'em " class of fowls, 

 that rivalled Munchausen, out and out. Fourteen and fif- 

 teen pound cocks, and ten or eleven pound hens, were as 

 common as the liars who told the stories of these impossibil- 

 ities. And one day the following capital hit, by Durivage, 

 appeared in a Boston journal. He called it " The Great 

 Pagoda Hen." There is as much truth in this as there 

 was in many of the more seriously -intended articles of that 

 time. It ran as follows : 



" Mr. Sap Green retired from business, and took posses- 

 sion of his country ' villa,' just about the time the ' hen 

 faver ' was at its height ; and he soon gave evidence of hav- 



