Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1895 — REFUSED TO FLY. [ARTICLE]

REFUSED TO FLY.

A Carrier-Pigeon Evidently Saw ti Storm Many Mtlea Away. It was not often, during the weeks that followed the inauguration of th* carrier pigeon dispatch, that the bird* lit on the hotel or elsewhere upon bolng released. When the weather wa* fine they usually started for the opposite shore without delay; but if tho mainland was obscured in fog they always circled about the town, rising higher and higher, until they were able to peer over the fog bank, and thus determine the direction in which their food and shelter and comrades lay. It was very seldom that a messenger was dispatched alone. There is danger of attacks from hawks, and a hawk will not molest two or more pigeon* traveling in company. F’dr nud sometimes three and four times, per day, as the demand for private messages required, the carrier pigeons were dispatched from Catalina, and with such success that the service will be renewed this year. The steamer left Avalon at 8 a. m., and about the middle of the afternoon a chronicle of the day's events was sent over by the birds, and published the following morning in a Los Angeles paper. Once only the messengers refused to go. It was about the time of the great railroad strikes, and of course somebody hnd to suggest that the birds had Joined the union. They started oft promptly, went out for half a mile or so, and then, to the amazement of all, suddenly veered round and returned to the loft on the wharf It proved afterward that a curious electric storm was In progress at the time, In the region round about Los Angeles, and the Intelligent homers wisely concluded to take no chances. Tlio next day the same dispatched, and went off “without a word." Every youngster In either loft Is duly numbered as soon as he Is able to stand alone. The number, with the Initials of tho bird’s owner, Is stamped on a little brass ring, which Is clasped about the pigeon's leg. Each number refers to a corresponding one in a register which records tho (late of hatching, pedigree, description, and so forth, of each pigeon.—St. Nicholas.