FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
599 
Friend Wade: 
If you consider the following worthy of your columns, 
perhaps it might put some of the fanciers, more especially 
in my section, on their guard against tramps, and that class 
of fellows who go it on the sly : — - 
Last Saturday afternoon, while at my place of business in 
Boston, a fellow called at my house, and, in the absence of 
my wife, informed the girl who was left in charge that he 
had recently purchased some pigeons of me, and that he 
wanted to buy some more ; and that I had told him to call 
at the house, get the key, and go into the coop to see what 
was there that he wanted. The girl informed him she knew 
nothing about my keys, and if he wanted to know anything 
in regard to pigeons, he would have to wait until I came 
home. To make a long story short, he staid around the coop 
for an hour or more, and I have no doubt but that he in- 
tended to break in, as he had managed to get the screen more 
than half off one of the windows, and had left just about 
room enough for a pigeon to get caught between screen and 
window, and was standing not more than 25 feet off when 
it was discovered how things were, whereupon the rascal 
made tracks, and a few seconds after was not to be seen any- 
where on the street. 
I don’t care a copper for the damage done, but would 
like to know what he wanted. He also had the kindness 
to break up a frame which I made and used for the hose 
to water in the garden, and used a part of it to hold up 
the window with. 
He gave his name as Rogers, and hailed from E. Lexing- 
ton, but I imagine that that was not his name, and that I 
wouldn’t have to go a great distance to find him. One thing 
I omitted to say, and that is, I never told him or any one 
else, and, it will be a good while before I tell anybody to go 
and get the keys, and go to see my pigeons. But any time 
when a responsible person would like, I will try and make 
some arrangements to show them what I have for birds, 
and I am confident that they will see a few nice ones. 
If not taking too much room, I would like to ask through 
your columns what is a preventive for canker, and also 
colds in squabs. 
Respectfully, 
D. Frank Ellis, 
Boston, August 17, 1874. Cambridge, Mass. 
[We are glad Mr. Ellis has penned the above. We have 
been so often annoyed in a similar manner, that we cheer- 
fully give the above publicity. No fancier ought to allow 
any one in his loft alone, especially where there are many 
compartments. — E d. ] 
1 J E JV1 S . 
In order to make our “Item ” column as interesting as possible, we 
would be obliged to our readers for contributions of original matter, how- 
ever short — yes, let it be condensed and to the point, in a variety of 
style — facts and fancies interesting to fanciers. 
Why are ladies the biggest thieves in existence? 
Because they steel their petticoats, bone their stays, crib their 
babies, and hook their dresses. 
The Chinaman who shot an American eagle near 
Sacramento, recently, is now in his grave. Patriotic citizens 
did it, and Chinamen have stopped carrying firearms. 
Jgfgp“ Two inebriates who had taken refuge in a gutter full 
of water, on waking one said to the other, “ I say Jack, guess 
I’ll change my boarding-house; this one leaks.” 
A spread-eagle orator of New York wanted the wings 
of a bird to fly to every village and hamlet in the broad land ; 
but he wilted when a naughty boy in the crowd sang out, 
“ You’d be shot for a goose before you had flew a mile.” 
Prolific Fowl. — I have a single pair of white- 
crested Black Poland fowls, and the hen laid fifty-one eggs 
between March 1st and May 1st, 1874. The eggs are as white 
as bleached muslin. — H. II. B., Appanoose Co., Iowa. 
Courage is always greatest when blended with meek- 
ness ; intellectual ability is most admired when it sparkles 
in the setting of a modest self-distrust ; and, never does the 
human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and 
dares to forgive an injury. 
Jg{§p“ A bill has been introduced in the California legisla- 
ture to prevent the wanton destruction of game and fish. 
Fish ladders are to be constructed in the rivers over every 
dam, more than two feet in height, and the shooting of game 
out of season is prohibited. 
$3?° A rising “ poic ” thus expatiates upon a prize light : 
And Isaac pitched into hymn, 
And hymn pitched into he ; 
The way they fytte it was a sin, 
And horrybel to see. 
The Massachusetts Anglers’ Association having be- 
come convinced from the result of their investigations that 
smelts during the spawning season are not healthy food, 
since they then are full of parasites have procured the pass- 
age of a law to prevent taking them at that time. 
The Somerville, New Jersey, Messenger, says that 
a ten-year-old boy of that place shot a fish-hawk a few days 
since, which measured five feet four inches from tip to tip, 
and when fired on he had a large sucker in his talons. This 
is the first time we ever knew that suckers were used for 
shot-guns. 
The birds do not come to our trees and sing. The 
brooks do not ripple over shining pebbles in our meadow. 
Our squirrel stays in a dark corner of his nice tin cage, and 
will not delight us by coming out into his wire wheel to 
whiz around so jolly. Our canary sheds his feathers the 
wrong season of the year and droops. Our beautiful gera- 
nium plant is frost-bitten by an unexpected cold snap the 
last of the season. Everything goes wrong, in fact the tea- 
kettle boils dry unless it is tended. — Elm Orlou. 
J8@s“ When the anaconda was on exhibition here, says the 
San Francisco Alta, it was customary to feed him with a 
rabbit every few days, and the reptile throve on his diet. 
When the snake was taken to Sacramento for exhibition it 
was uncertain how long the show would stay ; but the pa- 
tronage of the Sacramentans was generous, and the agent at 
once telegraphed for his showy posters to “bill the town.” 
The dispatch read : “Send 200 cuts immediately,” but when 
received it read : “Send 200 cats immediately.” It was a 
little bit of a surprise to the agent in San Francisco when he 
read the message, but he reasoned that rabbits were scarce 
in Sacramento, and it was necessary to substitute cats for 
the regular provender, so he started out an army of boys to 
catch all the stray cats. By the afternoon train he sent a 
crate of seventy-five cats, with a letter saying: “I send 
seventy-five cats by this train, and will forward balance to- 
morrow, but I am afraid that number of cats will eat the 
snake, if they get loose, instead of being eaten by him.” 
