Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 33, Number 14, 29 February 1908 — Page 6

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THE PIGEONS OF PEKING

TIIK Chinese hare made pigeon-flying the decoying game that it. Is because they like any kind of "playing for keeps." E'ven in kite-flying, they fix little hooks to their kite-strings and try to pull in ach other kJte, and count It fair to keep any kite that drops into their yards. They will tell you that a kite or a strange pigeon that comes to your place. If giTen up, takes away your "family luck. So you must tear the kite and keep the pigeon. But when you see the town da.ndiea sauntering out with their fans and bird-cages to watch the noon kite-flying criticising the flocks and their tactics, and arguing the line points of decoying, you guess that "far.oily luck" has very little to do with their game. T To decoy strange pigeons, pigeon-keepers 4oust first train thair flocks to "fly in spirals" that is, to rise steadily in circles without straying far from the home roof. Pigeons naturally fly together in circles. Even wild pigeons wheel about in flocks before straggling off to the fields. Chinese make their birds eager for circling by keeping them shut up in a wicker house built on the ground around the dovecote; and they cure their birds of straggling by pelting them with pebbles when they try to alight anywhere except on one spot the ridge-pole of the roof facing their wicker house. The flock must alight here In a bunch, and immdiateiy walk down to the eaves. This is done to bring any strange pigeon among them down within sight of the grain, which Is then scattered on the floor of the wicker house, pigeons are fed only after flying, for unless hungry they are lazy and unmanageable. In Peking, flocks are sent up at sunrise, at noon, and just before sundown. Neighboring flocks always Join, and their keepers then try each to draw apart his flock with call-birds, so as to bring with It any unwary pigeons from the other flocks. If a stranger la brought to the roof, the keeper coaxes it down with his own birds by throwing millet into the wicker cage. No one ever demands back a pigeon lost in this way. Two friends will sometimes "play live pigeon," that Is, give back each other's birds that may be captured from the flock during the game; but the rule la to "play dead pigeon," or, as boys say, "for keeps." THES CAPTURE AND RECAPTURE OF "MU WHA TOU." Every morning, when the crows were all back from the cemetery pines, and the sun rose upon the polished housetops that stretched unbrokenly for miles to the blue-black city walls, "Little American" had watched small clouds of white-winged pigeons circling high overhead so high, sometimes, that he would not have found them but for the faint singing of the reed whistles at their tails. Mu Wha Tou was one ot Little American's first ten pigeons. They were all tientses white with bla(k tails, and each with a black spot like a watermelonseed on its forehead. On all of them, as high-bred pigeons must have it, the white and black met in regular lines (without a straggling black feather among the white or a white among the black), except on Mu Wha Tou, whose name, meaning "She Speckle-head," was given her for some rings of black on her neck. These rings, which grew out mysteriously some weeks after Little American had bought her, very much cheapened her in the eyes of Li. Loo, the old gatekeeper, who had charge of the flock, and who taught Little American the secrets of pigeonkeeping. But the rings caused no loss of caste with the other pigeons or with Little American, and he was sorely grieved when on her very first flight she was dscoyed into captivity by his sly old nelgh- , bor Kao Chun. "NOr. DOLLY. IT'S TIME YOU BEGAN TO TALK. I'VE SEEN A WAX DOLL NO OLDER THAN YOU. AND SHE SAYS "PAPA' AND "MAMA.' EVEN TOWFER CAN SPEAK FOR A LUMP OF SUGAR."

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U LOO, STEPPING UP NOISELESSLY AS A CAT, The enemies of the pigeons are three the weasel, the hawk, and the cat. Of these the weasel is deadliest, for it can work into a pigeon-house by the merest crack, and its rule is to kill all. The hawk is a gallant robber, for he takes but one, and that by fair strategy in the open sky. The slyest enemies of the pigeons, however, and those they most dread, are the cats. They will spring into a pigeon-house at sundown, when the pigeons have gone to their cells to be shut in for the night. When this happens the flock is stampeded and numbers are lost, for pigeons are blind in the dark, and cannot be called dowu. So when, one dark night, several months after the flight, of Mu Wha Tou, Litile American was wakened by the 3udden screech of a pigeon-whistle passing overhead in the darkness, and saw from his window a red glow over Kao Chun's roof, he knew that some cat had scared out his rival's flock at roosting-time, and that Kao Chun was tryhig the ' fire decoy" burning corn-stalks soaked in oihto draw down his panic-stricken birds. He knew, too, that after a nightflying. Mu Wha Tou might be tempted to a!ight with his flock again. The rule is that after lur?e alighting a sirang pigeon will never be drawn down epaiu. and Mu Wha Tou had twice been brought ;u root' hy Little American's pigeons without hclns take::. The first time she had followed them to the caves, and had just poked over her head and drooped her wings to join the birds feeding in the wicker cage, when one of Kao Chun's call-birds, cleverly thrown over the house, startled her up and led her to its home. The second time she alighted was by a misleading flurry at the splitting of the two flock;-. This time she knew her mistake, and could not be eoaxed from the ridge-pole. But ihero was now a chance that by morning she would be scared and hungry enough ;o alight on the ground if she saw pigeons feeding ;a 'lie open court 'a front of the wicker house espc ia'iy if sho saw : e J orn: for sorjaust-fed pi;sor.s arc gluiionou-s . after red corn. At daylight Little American saw by ike waving trees that it was a morning of west wind. The yellow edge of a great dust-cloud was moving up the sky, threatening a day of closed windows and larnpiifh;. Already the copper sky wss ugly for flying. Little American's Seek struggled up in sJamiug c;rfles, whirling hisli in-.o Uie air when it stemmed the

RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND ST7N-T

By Alfred D. Sheffield NABBED HER FROM THE GROUND. wind, and dipping to the very housetops on the turn. The whistles sounded out only at the dipping, because in the teeth of the wind they beame choked; but they sounded enough to call back .some of K;;o Chun's stragglei-s, whi-wh. could be seen rising ar.d falling in the storm, as they cut their way towa d the flock. Little American would not stop for those, and chased his flock back from the roof again and again, until he saw, as they mounted from a long sweep behind the great temple, that a new tientse was among his birds, one with the long wings and spotted neck of Mu Wha Tou. Li Loo knew her at once. He had climbed the wall 10 watch for her, ani now ran tor tae cornbag, shouting to Little American to hold back the call-birds until the flock should careen directly over the brick-paved yard by tho pigeon-house. On they came, laboring over the housetops, keeping together in perfect order, but whipping their haif-shut wir.s unwillingly, and turning down their hungry little eyes as ihey drew close overhead. This was the moment. Little American chased out. the call-birds just as Li Loo threw a handful of big red kernels dancing upon the pavement. The greedv call-birds flung themselves upon it, and the flock, Mu Wha Tou and all, dropped straight between the house.; to the ground. Mu Wha Tou stood a-tiptoe as she touched ground, as if scared to find herself there, and re air to spring into the air at a movement. No or.: mo'-ei. however, so she bt-gan warily tn fnatch up th : kernels wiihiu reach. Li iio held his hands together without svirrin?. and Little American now saw Mme ntw-fledged squals poking out their heads from his big sleeves, il- k p. his eyes on a little heap of corn, arouud which ha had scattered the handful which the flock were ea--ing. The birds, quickly pecking up every stray corn, now began to draw into a close circle around this lit'le pile, Mu Wha Tou even forgetting to look up a L: Ix)o, who quietly set the young pigeons loose u:-n the ground. Seeing the corn? the eager squabs ran Vouealing and shaking their wings among the o;htr birds. Then Little American saw what was to happen. Squabs always spread their wings when thev squeal to be fed. Even when thoy can rick up f ir iiu:..-t-elves. they begin hy squealing and fannine at ih oiher pigeons. So these squabs pushed anions th unr.fe.r.ruT feed-"-?, clumsily shaking their ; Kiv a itr . Lead.;. In a nionioat Mu Wha Ton was " vow! berwet-n two of th'ns. and as ;f blindfold".!: uben uyon Li L j. s-ttppiug up behind tits three, -.o-acb-ly as a cit. nabbed her frcm the ground. Little American was so happy at the "babr-p!geon trick" that he gave Mu Wha Tou as a present to Li L.- who dipped out her speckled feathers, and glued m proper white feathers so neatlv that no one knew her for wl a tou. or "speckled head." And she vvas sold for a big sum to a farmer, who tooK her to Miamung, so that nobody knows wfaai he said when the black feathers T?w out again.

ELFOXl AM f

II I Ml I IK I !? JINGLE. Ty ,)cl Stacy. There once was a knowing raccoon Who didn't believe in the nioen. "llvrry month don't you sec? "There's a new one," said he. "No real moon cculd wear out so f'oon!' cA DEER ON

By WILLIAM J. LONG

The title sounds queer, I know; but. if you ever have the chance to examine a caribou's feet you will see what is meant in a moment. In the first place, li! hoof 1.3 very large, and the -left between thf halves is very deep, bo that the feet spread widely when the caribou's weight ii on them. The hoof of a large, bull that I saw once on the Renous Barrers measured five and one-half inches across; and when (with far le.ss force than the caribou's weight would have exercised) I pulled apart the halves, the spread was nearly ten inehe3. Besides this, the caribou's ankle-joint is exceedingly flexible, so that the large dew-claws, which are five or six inches above the hoof and behind, bend down easily and rest on the snow, spreading like the hoofs when they touch. This gives to the caribou a broad supporting surface on which to travel very much wider than that of his great cousin, the moose.

The "Soap-Babblers' " First Reception By MEREDITH NUGENT

r H "Soap-Bubblers'" reception was a suc cess irom me siatt. The Soap-Bubbler.s but recently organized, with Phil Thompson as Head Bubbler. Harry Raker as Chief Cornucopia, the minor Bubblers occupying minor odd-titled positions, as well as Bubblers occupying no positions at all had resolved that the ancient and honorable amusement of blowing soap-bubbles was eadly in need of reformation; and, further, that it was their mission to reform it, Thus it came to pass that on this late blustery 'winter evening th interior of Masonic Hall presented sucti a scene of brilliancy as had rarely been equaled within its historic walls. The magician's wand had hardly fallen when there arose forty-seven large bubbles from forty-seven golden cornucopias, held in the bands of forty-seven rosy-cheeked boys and girls standing by twenty-four little oblong tables. A cry of delight swept round the hall, and forty-seven more bubbles arose, and still another shower of the iridescent spheres glittered in the surrounding brilliancy before the Bubblers settled down to the business of the evening. For this occasion every member had promised to perform at. least one bubble trick, and to perform it well. Eddie Stark showed a top spinning within a bubble, and Minnie Sargent seated opposite a beautiful rose within another. Freddie Wilder did fully as well at the table allotted to him. while "Ijttle Victor" cleverly dropped all sorts of objects through some beautiful bubb'es blown by Frank Burt. Then Phil, the Head Bubbler, stepped on the platform and was uproariously greced. He announced lie wo'tl 1 show tee Bubblers how to make large bubbles without blowing them!

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FIHi-T KITTEN E.ER INSIDE OF A SOAP BUBBLE.

Th? pandemorium Increased when six Bubblers, with Harry Bak- r i- ati'ng. formed in procession, and walked on to i'.:t p';:trf-rm. carrying between them two large gaivanix-'!-iron pans teach m a-uring nine feet in circumference), flve children's woockn hoops, a number of copper and brass rings, two shining pails full of soap and water already inixe.d, andthink of it! net u pip-3. t be, or cornucopia ct" any i.lnd! After a few words expIarctoT of the evolution of the soap-b'j'o!;le from the c:ay-p:p- tt.g- t its presr.t one. Phil uippt'd a wire ring into the wol -.-i- n. and, u-rptiv sweeping it lA-fore Lira, cast off a bubble fttl'.y twice" the o." r.is b.id. Ev.-ry Babbler ! y nv? a cry of sati.-'fii.tx.n at t.his, ar- ! it looked c- !hrr-'i ;.:t the EubbUr.- mlht ttin& th-".r gold-:t c-.iiiucjyia..'i ..n to the "tage. when the ma ;r rf tb-? sj.. , ai wa-er io?se'! oil five large ubb:es in hUcee-sou. i:o only f:xiu uht fata-i. rias. bLit !:xa: ib.- iiiiao il.tu'. Almost, irnmeciatlr Phil's a-irtants there were five of them followed his example, and from that time on the stage was continually agiow with the brilliant spheres. Harry Baker now came forward with rhe club's two kittens, and set them on a dry block of woo.' restiD" in the centre of one of the i?-rgi nine-foot nans now fllled .with soaov aty. Before A

THREE LITTLE RI LES. Thre little rules we all should kcp To make life happy and bright Smib in th morning: smile at noon; And k"cp ou smiling at night! Stella George Stern. SNOWSHOES It is indeed a kind of natural snows'aoe, not unilk that which grows on the grouses foot every winier to help him over the snow. i The result of this wise provision on the part of nature is to give the caribou an enormous advantage over the rest of his family. Whilw deer and moose are half prisoners in their yards, unable to leave the paths which they have made in the snow, the caribou wanders where he will, kept from sinking too deep by his wiileapreading snowshoes. There is another curious thing about a caribou's hoofs. The edge:-, in winter, are sharp and convex, like a bell's rim, so that he can navel on the ice without slipping. He likes this kind of traveling, and is often seeu trotting far out on the northern Jakes, in pure fun apparently, for there is nothing to eat on the ice, and he drinks no water in winter, contenting himself with a little j-now when he is tb.ir.sty. mais could move, Phil quickly lifted a hoop from the pan, and in a twinkling covered both kittens over with a glorious bubble. "First kittens ever inwide of a soap-bubble!" Harry Baker announced. Just as the little kits started to wade about within the Iridescent dome. Phil sphered them over a second and even a third time, wheu the pussies, excited by their uproarious surroundings, offered decided objections to being Imprisoned any more. Then Bubblers and audience were treated to an exhibition of what were perhaps the largest bubbles that have ever been made. Harry Baker was especially fortunate, and, at the end of a very exciting contest with Phil, stu-ceedrd in pphering the pan over from brim to brim! Realize, if you please, that this bubble measured over nine feet tu circumference! Phil now turned his attention to the hoops and rings again, and drew forth storms, of applause by some wonderful "tilm tricks." One in particular, the giant letter S. was especially brilliant. It looked like a serpentine tongue of flame, and th manner In which Phil whirltd tin' flashing light above his ha 1 fairly thrilled th audience. "Leroy Kimball!'' now shouted out Harry Baker, ' U-roy Kimball!" And a minute lat r there walked on to the stage the youngest, shortest, and jollleht Bubbler in the club. Everybody knew Roy. and i the little fellow blushingly stepped on to the squars block of wood set fast in the middle of the Mg pan. he was greeted with loud cheers and cr'es of "What ar you going to do there, Roy?" Phil promptly began to answer this volley of questions by lowering a hoop over the little Bubbler until it lay immersed in the pan of soap mixture. "Oh!' cried the Bubblers in univm. 'Phil's going to put Roy in a soap-bubble!" And the excited audience rose to their tiptoes. Amid a profound silence Phil started to lift th Loop; but. .fter raiding it a short distance, the film broke with a peculiar noise, founding like "w-h--e-p." "W-h-e-ep" went the film again, w-b-e-e-ft w-h-e-ep." Suddenly there was a swi.b. a flashing gleam of silvery light, and Leroy Kimball, the jolliest of th Bubblers, looked smilingly upon the audience from within a soap-film house! A FIGURATIVE TALE. By Grace Eraser. Once an Elfin, 1-drous cote. Cam un-2 my cottage door; Thore he played wi-2-d and lute. As no f tai played be-4. "If-5 pleased thee, lady Iarr Speak," siid he. "Thy mu- grand! Ni-7-ts like this are rare J" This, as with i-enter hand On the youth be-9, I r-poke. 1 oh- l'-y fa I!)-awoke!