242 FANCIERS’ 
JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

that the participators in the deliberations would have given 
us something really new, useful, and acceptable to the fan- 
ciers of the United States. The chairman claims that the 
National Association which met then and there was ‘the 
strongest, most prosperous, and most dignified body of men 
ever assembled together for any honorable purpose ;’’ an asser- 
tion which seems to be rather steep, but the accuracy of 
which I do not propose to question, though I must say that 
this enthusiastic remark of the presiding officer reminds me 
of what P. T. Barnum, Esq., said at the last fowl exhibition 
of the old ‘‘ National Poultry Association ’’ I ever attended, 
of which Phineas T. was President, which took place at his 
Museum, in New York, and at which I was awarded twenty- 
one leading premiums for my Brahmas, Cochins, Shanghais, 
&c., 1 remember. 
‘«Gentlemen,’”’ observed President Barnum, ‘* we meet 
here to-day to discuss one of the most important subjects 
ever yet considered by the American people! And, what- 
ever topics we may elsewhere debate, I am confident you 
will all agree with me that no one affecting the social rural 
economy of this nation approaches in magnitude the dearest 
interests of ourselves, our wives, our sweethearts, and our 
children, in comparison with the pleasing and honorable art 
of rearing good domestic poultry.” 
The stunning plaudits that greeted this sentiment evinced 
the sympathy and belief of his listeners in its truth. Mr. 
Barnum was then a fresh convert, and he went into the 
chicken business with all the zeal and vim that characterized 
his prior shrewd manipulations of Joice Heth, the Fejee 
Mermaid, the Woolly Horse, and the famous ‘*What is it ?”’ 
I have no doubt he was honest in his declaration at the 
moment he uttered the above expressive sentence, and Mr. 
President Churchman, I can conceive, was equally honest 
in his assertion. But, if the gentlemen at Buffalo were 
really, as we will not dispute, ‘‘ the strongest and most digni- 
fied body of men ever assembled together for an honorable pur- 
pose,” and if, as a result of their convention, they force upon 
State Societies this faulty, imperfect, and unacceptable ‘ re- 
vision’ of the old tunes, with the fearful accompaniment of 
the arbitrary and senseless rules upon which judges must 
hereafter decide upon the merits of show fowls, the moun- 
tain has labored to bring forth a very small mouse; and, in 
my judgment, these dignified managers of our poultry exhi- 
hibitions have got American societies, breeders, and fanciers 
emphatically in the future ‘‘ where the hair is short !’’ 
There is a remedy for this evident mistake, however. 
Mr. Babcock, in his recent article upon the arbitrary and 
one-sided action of the Buffalo Convention, makes a strong 
point in his assertion that this standard of 1874 was adopted 
by a select few, with closed doors, charging three dollars 
admission fee, which, if unpaid, excluded those who would 
otherwise have joined in the debates. Anda writer in the 
American Rural Home correctly assumes that ‘‘no close cor- 
poration or secret deliberation on a matter that so affects all 
classes of American fanciers will be permitted.’’ This ex- 
clusiveness is all wrong, and the error should, as at may, be 
promptly set right. 
I am an old breeder, a constant friend to the best interests 
of the poultry fanciers of this country at large, and at this 
late day in my experience have ‘‘no axe to grind”? in this 
matter. I suggest that amass meeting of American poultry 
breeders from all quarters be called at once, at some con- 
venient central point in New York State, where, with open 
doors and amidst free speech, this whole subject may be 

fairly and fully discussed and voted upon; where a standard 
may be properly revised and corrected by the voice of the 
masses interested. To this general convention I would 
especially invite the presence of every member of the so- 
styled new ‘‘American Poultry Association,’ and I would 
give every man and woman who breeds poultry in this land, 
and who can attend, a fair chance to talk and vote upon this 
important subject of an ‘‘American Standard of Excellence.”’ — 
Let such a convention, through its openly-chosen com- 
mittees, report, after full deliberation, upon the details of 
the standard, and then adopt it in every State Society in 
the Union. Secure good, fair, impartial, competent exhibi- 
tion judges subsequently, wntrammelled by silly arbitrary 
‘instructions’ as to the performance of their rightful duty, 
and abandon the worse feature of all in this proposed new 
“ American Standard,” to wit, its monopoly by copyright. 
Such a convention will undoubtedly be called, if the 
general dissatisfaction that is now cropping out in this 
vicinity is any indication of this future disposition of the 
majority of New England breeders, who already note that 
the fatal rock upon which the early ‘‘ National American 
Society’ split is again within sight, namely, its attempted 
arbitrary exclusiveness and selfish monopoly. 



Pate DEPARTMENT: 
(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
THE PROGENY WILL TELL. 
NotTHin@ is more common when you visit your neigh- 
bor’s yard, or your neighbor visits your’s, than to have crit- 
icisms freely given and asked on the fowls. 
a point on such occasions, to point out all the beauties they 
see, while others who are accustomed to judge their own 
birds, severely point out the defects only; the absence of 
faults being the Standard of Excellence. Often it is better 
to remain quiet altogether, for if you pick faults, it is thought 
to be from motives of jealousy, especially if you happen to 
breed the same variety of fowl yourself, and if you speak 
well of them, your recommendation is given in the most 
unqualified manner to the first amateur who wishes to pur- 
chase. I once visited a yard, which, from its show and fla- 
ming advertisements, one would think to be in the front 
rank. It was stocked with fowls at a high price, from the 
most famous yards. No expense was spared «in any way to 
make the establishment a success, and as the owner led his 
visitor from one elegant run to another, he could scarcely 
repress the question which the look of pleasure on his face 
had already asked,— Did you ever see such runs, and such 
fowls?”’ It was the old story. Like Alnaschan counting 
his wealth in futurum, so our friend had caught the fever, 
and invested in first-class stock, determined to step to the 
front rank with six different varieties at once. He pictured 
the crowd of admirers around his coops at the great shows, 
Some make it * 
eat ee 
i a ee 
