Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1895 — It Rained Popped Sparrows. [ARTICLE]

It Rained Popped Sparrows.

One of the slickest men I ever saw was a young fellow out west who was selling baking powder and was up to all the dodges to advertise his goods. He happened to strike one little town in which English sparrows were a great nuisance, and the authorities had offered a bounty on sparrow heads. The baking powder man saw a golden opportunity to give his goods a big reputation, and offered to exterminate all of the sparrows in town inside of two weeks. His proposition was gladly accepted, so he began his work. Ho selected a large vacant lot as the scene of his operations, and every evening would go out there with several bushels of corn, which he fed to the spurrows, until they began to get acquainted with him and came to the lot in bigger droves every day. In the meantime he had sent east and bought a barrel of empty capsules, which he filled with the baking powder, and then put salt on the outside of them. When he saw that all of the sparrews in town were coming to the feed ground he had a large tank of wator placed there and was ready for the grand climax. On this eventful evening he took his salted capsules of baking powder to the lot instead of corn and threw them out to the unsuspecting sparrows. Of course the salt made the birds thirsty, and they immediately flew to the water tank and drank, and the result was something awful. The water melted the capsuleß and made the baking powder rise. The poor little birds tried to stay on the ground, but the baking powder was too strong and compelled them to rise straight up into the air and finally popped them open. The spectators could plainly hear the sparrows pop, and said that it sounded like thp popping of a paper bag. It rained poped sparrows all night, and the next day not a single live one was visible. It is needless to say that there is only one brand of baking powder for sale in that town.