Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1884 — A Positivist Pigeon. [ARTICLE]

A Positivist Pigeon.

The Spectator says: “The present writer knows a pigeon of - exceedingly eccentric disposition, not unlike "‘the single gentleman’ in Dickens’ ‘Curiosity Shop’ in his habits. He keeps seven pigeon boxes all to himself, and perse-. cutes relentlessly, .any pigeons which propose to share his dwellings with him. He is as averse to the society even of the gentler sex as was fit. Anthony himself in the Egpytian deserts. Not a pigeon will he admit within the circle of his sway. And yet in spite of this resolute and inveterate bachelorhood, this eccentric pigeon is always endeavoring to build nests, and looking out, for objects of an egg-like form which; he thinks it is possible to hatch. He will accumulate twigs and straw now bore,* now there, at very great pains and labor. He will coo sometimes to inani-! mate objects, sometimes to captivate birds, sometimes to a kitten or a dog,: or even a flower pot, with the quaintest and politest antics. He will sit patiently on china saucers on the mantelpiece of one room, while he Accumulates the materials for a nest on the top of'a closet in another room. He does not even drive away the possible mother of a family with more zeal than he shows in seeking to be a good father to some imaginary chick w*hich he seems to expect to elicit from a ring stand or a letter wight. So far as the present writer can judge, he is a pigeon of strong Malthusian views, who hopes to inaugurate a new regime which may have the same relation to the ordinary habits of pigeons which the Positivist worship bears to the other religions of the world.”