THE HEN FEVER. '215 



US here, I think, 'will gainsay) have commenced an on- 

 slaught upon almost everything of foreign extraction ; but 

 they kindly permit us to import Chinese fowls, and allow 

 us to breed them — for the present, at least — -without inter- 

 ruption; fcr which I trust they may receive a unanimous vote 

 of thanks from this American National Poultry Society." 

 ("Yes, yes ! " followed this allusion, with hearty cheers.) 



" I repeat it, sir, — the times are auspicious. Money is 

 a drug in the market, plainly. The patronage bestowed 

 upon this show (in which, Mr. President, I am sure your 

 native modesty and national patriotism cannot suffer you to 

 feel the slightest personal interest) is evidence of this fact. 

 The prices paid here, in 1854, for domestic fowls — though 

 so clearly beloV their actual value ! — supports this assertion : 

 and your own entire lack of backwardness in coming for- 

 ward to assume the risk and responsibility of the expenses 

 of this exhibition is the crowning proof that V argent is 

 plenty — somewhere, at least. I have no disposition, Mr. 

 President, — far be it from me — Heaven forbid that I 

 should attempt — to offer one word of flattery, that you 

 might, by any possibility, appropriate personally. No, sir, 

 — I am no such man ! But, if ever there was an individual 

 whose pure-bred disinterestedness, whose incomparable gen- 

 erosity, whose astonishing sacrifice of self, stuck out like a 

 sore thumb, these attributes have now been evinced, beyond 

 the shadow of a shade of question, on this exhilnrating occa- 



