THE HEN FEVER. 255 



people," I am very much in error regarding the ordi- 

 nary strength of their nerves. It was an almost immac- 

 ulate performance ; and the " New York State Poultry 

 Society" should positively insist that this extraordinary 

 man (if he can be proved to be sane) should at once 

 accept from them one of the largest-sized leather medals, 

 to be worn next to his gizzard, for this unexampled 

 disinterestedness, and. extraordinary sacrifice of self. 0, 

 but that gentleman must be " a brick," indeed ! 



A journal that alluded to this singular circumstance, at 

 the time, asserted that this procedure on the part of the 

 president " was highly commendable in the author, if his 

 statements were made through principle, rather than 

 through fear to encounter public opitiion. He stands high 

 in the estimation of the public, and we have ever considered 

 him as strictly honorable in all his business transac- 

 tions ; but we cannot help thinking that ' a screw was 

 loose ' somewhere in the matter. His statements are not 

 very flattering to the judgment of the judges, and show 

 that some of them, at least, were not competent to dis- 

 charge their duties properly," etc. ; while, in Tny opin- 

 ion, than this, a more barefaced piece of mush was 

 never yet perpetrated, in the details even of the hen- 

 trade. ' 



This was emphatically among the " death- throes " of the 

 mania. And ca^ds like the following found their way into 



