FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

231 

Here was one with a poor Starling; tied to his finger with a 
bit of string ; another with a small basket or tray of ground- 
sel; there a man with an odd rooster under his arm, others 
with Pigeons, and even down to a poor Sparrow. 
Last, but not least, the fanciers themselves; and, sad to say, 
did we require to find human beings the lowest in the social 
scale, I verily believe they are to be found in the scene I have 
attempted to describe. Dickens’s description of “‘ the young 
noblemen at Dotheboys Hall” occurred to me more than 
once, and as I write I see again the ‘‘ pale and haggard faces, 
lank and bony figures: children with the countenances of 
old men, some young lives which from the earliest dawn of 
infancy had been one of horrible endurance of cruelty and 
neglect. There were faces which should have been handsome 
darkened with the scowl of sullen dogged suffering.”” And 
amid all this a banner with a scriptural text borne by a few 
supporting a street preacher, and as the various sounds catch 
the ear I find mixed with the hymn of praise the bitter curse 
of the drunkard and the foul oath of the blasphemer. It 
was a scene I shall not soon forget ; and as the carriage rolled 
along westward, and the contrast became greater, thoughts 
rose to me especially of the young children, children who, 
from the force of circumstances, and from no cause of their 
own, have been nursed in the lap of vice and misery, and are 
left there by those who are quarreling how they should be 
taught.—Journal of Horticulture. 


Ftems Huteresting and Amusing. 

p@s~ A kangaroo is a curious chap ;—when it’s wide 
awake it’s leaping. 
pas> A.J. Fox, Mascher Street, above Thompson, this 
city, has just killed the Holstein bull, imported and owned 
by the Doylestown Agricultural Society. Being too large 
for further service they decided to kill him. His weight 
was 2850 pounds. 
g@s> Said a great Congregational preacher 
Toa hen: ‘ You’re a beautiful creature!” 
The hen just for that 
Laid two eggs in his hat— 
And thus did the Hen-re-ward Beecher ! 
— Boston Advertiser. 
p@s> Frozen Eaos.—It often happens that eggs will get 
frozen so as to crack the shells in severe cold weather, and 
are of course unfit to sell; but if they are kept frozen until 
needed for use, and then brought intoa warm room and 
boiling water poured over them, then left till cool, the eg 
will be uninjured, and will heat as nicely asif it had not 
been chilled, and is just as good for any use. After being 
once thawed, it must be used immediately; if allowed to 
stand a day or two, it will not be fresh or nice. 
p@s~ The seventh annual report of the State Fish Com- 
missioners pronounces the breeding works on the Penobscot 
among the best in the world. The establishment is now 
hatching 2,225,000 eggs, and has a capacity of 4,000,000. It 
is patronized by all the New England and some of the Wes- 
tern States. The state has made its first experiment in 
hatching shad the past year; the number hatched is 100,000. 
About 15,000 salmon have-been caught on Penobscot River 
and Bay during the year. The Commissioners call for strin- 
gent fish and game laws, and state that the moose and other 
large animals are almost extinct. 


ga@s> Fifty thousand trout are to be placed in Ossipee lake 
and Six-mile pond in Ossipee, N. H. 
fes> A queer hog story comes from Salem, Oregon. The 
owner of the ferry at Buena Vista had two hogs which 
mysteriously disappeared about three months ago, at which 
time they weighed about three hundred pounds apiece. 
about that time a new warehouse was built near the ferry at 
Buena Vista, and filled with wheat, which was shipped a 
week ago, when the temporary structure was removed, and 
under the floor were found the missing swine, alive, but not 
weighing near so much as when last seen. They had evi- 
dently gone under the warehouse to find wheat which leaked 
through the floor, and were detained there by the settling 
of the building. They lived on what wheat leaked through 
a crack, and occupied a circular place they had worn for 
themselves, but during all that time they must have been 
without water. 
ges The Turf, Field, and Farm says: Inasmall town 
near the Alleghany mountains, in front of a tavern, there 
was a pump with a large trough, which was for watering 
horses. The handle of the pump, when not in use, was 
forced up, and all that was necessary was to draw it down 
to make the water flow into the trough. On a particular 
day, at the time the wagons reached the tavern, there was 
but: little water in the trough, not nearly enough to supply 
the horses. When one of the horses that was first unhar- 
nessed got to the pump, he laid his head over the handle, 
pressed it down, and made the water issue from the spout. 
As he raised his head, the handle would spring up; but 
down again he would press it, and force the water into the 
trough. In this manner that horse kept pumping with his 
head, until all the horses had finished drinking. He then 
left the handle, went round to the trough, drank as much as 
he wanted himself, and then deliberately walked into the 
stable and took his place in one of the stalls. 
Ras" SporTING IN TExas.—Sportsmen find an_agreeable 
abiding place in Texas. On the prairies almost every kind 
of wild animals abound. In the Northwest are the wild 
horse or mustang, and the fierce buffalo. The deer and the 
antelope, and the mountain goat are plentiful, not to mention 
the jaguars, the pumas, wildcat, black bears, ocelots, wolves 
and foxes, and such smaller game as peccaries, opossums, 
raccoons, hares, rabbits, and squirrels. A special feature of 
wild life is the prairie dog or marmot, dwelling in holes 
burrowed in the ground. Their numbers are so great that 
the traveller may sometimes journey for days together with- 
out losing sight of them. The feathered tribe are also abun- 
dant, including birds of prey, and birds of sport. There is 
the bald-headed eagle and the Mexican eagle, vultures, owls, 
hawks, wild turkeys, wild geese, prairie hens, canvas-back 
and other ducks, teal, brandt, pheasants, quails, grouse, wood- 
cocks, pigeons, partridges, snipes, plovers, red birds, and 
turtle doves. By the waters are also found the crane, the 
swan, the pelican, the water turkey, and the kingfisher. The 
smaller birds are numerous, and among them many of the 
most brilliant plumage, as the oriole, the paroquet, the car- 
dinal, the whippoorwill, and the sweet-toned mocking bird. 
Blackbirds abound, and the wood-peckers, blue-jays, starl- 
ings, red-birds, swallows, martens, and wrens. In the rivers 
and bays there are all the varieties of water-life from alliga- 
tors to perch, pike, trout, green turtles, and oysters.—Cor- 
respondence of the Baltimore American. 
