[Illustration]
[Illustration: Painted by F. Winterhalter.]
H.M.G. Majesty, Victoria, Queen of Great Britain,
IN THE ROBES OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER.
DAGUERREOTYPED BY THOMPSON,
From the Portrait in possession of Geo. P. Burnham;
PRESENTED TO HIM BY HER MAJESTY, THE QUEEN, IN 1853
[See Letter, page 130.]
THE HISTORY
OF
THE HEN FEVER.
A Humorous Record.
BY
GEO. P. BURNHAM.
[Illustration]
In one Volume.--Illustrated
BOSTON:
JAMES FRENCH AND COMPANY.
NEW YORK: J.C. DERBY.
PHILADELPHIA: T.B. PETERSON.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
GEORGE P. BURNHAM,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED BY
HOBART & ROBBINS,
New England Type and Stereotype Foundery,
BOSTON.
GEO. C. RAND, PRINTER, 3 CORNHILL.
TO THE
Amateurs, Fanciers, and Breeders
OF
POULTRY,
THE SUCCESSFUL AND UNFORTUNATE DEALERS,
THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES;
AND
THE VICTIMS OF MISPLACED CONFIDENCE IN
THE HEN TRADE, GENERALLY,
I DEDICATE
This Volume.
PREFACE.
In preparing the following pages, I have had the opportunity to inform
myself pretty accurately regarding the ramifications of the subject upon
which I have written herein; and I have endeavored to avoid setting down
"aught in malice" in this "_History of the_ HEN FEVER" in the United
States.
I have followed this extraordinary _mania_ from its incipient stages to
its final death, or its _cure_, as the reader may elect to term its
conclusion. The first symptoms of the fever were exhibited in my own
house at Roxbury, Mass., early in the summer of 1849. From that time
down to the opening of 1855 (or rather to the winter of 1854), I have
been rather intimately connected with the movement, if common report
speaks correctly; and I believe I have seen as much of the tricks of
this trade as one usually meets with in the course of a single natural
life.
Now that the most serious effects of this (for six years) alarming
epidemic have passed away from among us, and when "the people" who have
been called upon to pay the cost of its support, and for the burial of
its victims, can look back upon the scenes that have in that period
transpired with a disposition cooled by experience, I have thought that
a volume like this might prove acceptable to the hundreds and thousands
of those who once "took an interest in the hen trade,"--who _may_ have
been mortally wounded, or haply who have escaped with only a broken
wing; and who will not object to learn how the thing has been done, and
"who threw the bricks"!
If my readers shall be edified and amused with the perusal of this work
as much as I have been in recalling these past scenes while writing it,
I am content that I have not thrown the powder away. I have written it
in perfect good-nature, with the design to gratify its readers, and to
offend no man living.
And trusting that _all_ will be pleased who may devote an hour to its
pages, while at the same time I indulge the hope that _none_ will feel
aggrieved by its tone, or its text, I submit this book to the public.
Respectfully,
GEO. P. BURNHAM.
RUSSET HOUSE, _Melrose_, 1855.
CONTENTS.
Chapter Page
I. PREMONITORY SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASE, 9
II. THE "COCHIN-CHINAS." BUBBLE NUMBER ONE, 14
III. THE FIRST FOWL SHOW IN BOSTON, 21
IV. HOW "POULTRY-BOOKS" ARE MADE, 26
V. THREATENING INDICATIONS, 32
VI. THE EPIDEMIC SPREADING, 37
VII. ALARMING DEMONSTRATIONS, 41
VIII. THE FEVER WORKING, 47
IX. THE SECOND POULTRY SHOW IN BOSTON, 52
X. THE MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY'S SECOND SHOW, 58
XI. PROGRESS OF THE MALADY, 65
XII. MY CORRESPONDENCE, 70
XIII. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION, 85
XIV. "BOTHER'EM POOTRUMS." BUBBLE NUMBER TWO, 90
XV. ADVERTISING EXTRAORDINARY, 98
XVI. HEIGHT OF THE FEVER, 104
XVII. RUNNING IT INTO THE GROUND, 111
XVIII. ONE OF THE FINAL KICKS, 119
XIX. THE FOURTH FOWL SHOW IN BOSTON, 124
XX. PRESENT TO QUEEN VICTORIA, 129
XXI. EXPERIMENTS OF AMATEURS, 137
XXII. TRUE HISTORY OF "FANNY FERN," 147
XXIII. CONVALESCENCE, 155
XXIV. AN EXPENSIVE BUSINESS, 160
XXV. THE GREAT PAGODA HEN, 165
XXVI. "POLICY THE BEST HONESTY," 176
XXVII. A GENUINE HUMBUG, 182
XXVIII. BARNUM IN THE FIELD, 190
XXIX. FIRST "NATIONAL" POULTRY SHOW IN NEW YORK, 198
XXX. BARNUM'S INNATE DIFFIDENCE, 204
XXXI. A SUPPRESSED SPEECH, 213
XXXII. A "CONFIDENCE" MAN, 220
XXXIII. THE ESSENCE OF HUMBUG, 224
XXXIV. A TRUMP CARD, 229
XXXV. "HOLD YOUR HORSES," 237
XXXVI. TRICKS OF THE TRADE, 243
XXXVII. FINAL DEATH-THROES, 252
XXXVIII. THE PORTE-MONNAIE I OWE 'EM COMPANY, 259
XXXIX. A SATISFACTORY PEDIGREE, 263
XL. DOING THE GENTEEL THING, 273
XLI. THE FATE OF THE "MODEL" SHANGHAES, 279
XLII. AN EMPHATIC CLINCHER, 288
XLIII. "STAND FROM UNDER," 294
XLIV. BURSTING OF THE BUBBLE, 302
XLV. THE DEAD AND WOUNDED, 307
XLVI. A MOURNFUL PROCESSION, 312
XLVII. MY SHANGHAE DINNER, 318
THE HISTORY OF THE HEN FEVER.
CHAPTER I.
PREMONITORY SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASE.
I was sitting, one afternoon, in the summer of 1849, in my little
parlor, at Roxbury, conversing with a friend, leisurely, when he
suddenly rose, and passing to the rear window of the room, remarked to
me, with considerable enthusiasm,
"What a splendid lot of fowls you have, B----! Upon my word, those are
very fine indeed,--do you know it?"
I had then been breeding poultry (for my own amusement) many years; and
the specimens I chanced at that time to possess were rather even in
color, and of good size; but were only such as any one might have
had--bred from the common stock of the country--who had taken the same
pains that I did with mine.
There were perhaps a dozen birds, at the time, in the rear yard, and my
friend (_then_, but who subsequently passed to a competitor, and
eventually turned into a sharp but harmless enemy) was greatly delighted
with them, as I saw from his enthusiastic conversation, and his
laudation of their merits.
I am not very fast, perhaps, to appreciate the drift of a man's motives
in casual conversation,--and then, again, it may be that I am "not so
slow" to comprehend certain matters as I might be! At all events, I have
sometimes flattered myself that, on occasions like this, I can "see as
far into a millstone as can he who picks it;" and so I listened to my
friend, heard all he had to say, and made up my mind accordingly, before
he left me.
"I tell you, B----, those are handsome chickens," he insisted. "I've got
a fine lot, myself. You keep but one variety, I notice. I've got 'em
_all_."
"All what?" I inquired.
"O, all kinds--all kinds. The Chinese, and the Malays, and the Gypsies,
and the Chittaprats, and the Wang Hongs, and the Yankee Games, and
Bengallers, and Cropple-crowns, and Creepers, and Top-knots, and Gold
Pheasants, and Buff Dorkings, and English Games, and Black Spanish and
Bantams,--and I've several _new breeds_ too, I have made myself, by
crossing and mixing, _in the last year_, which beat the world for beauty
and size, and excellence of quality."
"Indeed!" I exclaimed. "So you have made several new _breeds_ during
_one_ year's crossing, eh? That _is_ remarkable, doctor, certainly. I
have never been able yet to accomplish so extraordinary a feat, myself,"
I added.
"Well, _I_ have," said the doctor,--and probably, as he was a practising
physician of several years' experience, he knew how this reversion of
nature's law could be accomplished. I didn't.
"Yes," he continued; "I have made a breed I call the 'Plymouth
Rocks,'--superb birds, and great layers. The--a--'Yankee
Games,'--regular knock-'em-downs,--rather fight than eat, any time; and
never flinch from the puncture of steel. Indeed, _so_ plucky are these
fowls, that I think they rather _like_ to be cut up than
otherwise,--alive, I mean. Then, I've another breed I've made--the
'Bengal Mountain Games.' These _are_ smashers--never yield, and are
magnificent in color. Then I have the '_Fawn-colored Dorkings_,' too;
and several other fancy breeds, that I've fixed up; and fancy poultry is
going to sell well in the next three years, you may be sure. Come and
see my stock, B----, won't you? And I'll send you anything you want from
it, with pleasure."
I was then the editor of a weekly paper in Boston. I accepted my
friend's kind invitation, and travelled forty miles and back to examine
his poultry. It looked well--_very_ well; the arrangement of his houses,
&c., was good, and I was gratified with the show of stock, and with his
politeness. But he was an enthusiast; and I saw this at the outset. And
though I heard all he had to say, I could not, for the life of me,
comprehend how it was that he could have decided upon the astounding
merits of all these different _breeds_ of fowls in so short a space of
time--to wit, by the crossings in a single year! But that was his
affair, not mine. He was getting his fancy poultry ready for the market;
and he repeated, "It will _sell_, by and by."
And I believe it did, too! The doctor was right in _this_ particular.
He informed me that he intended to exhibit several specimens of his
fowls, shortly, in Boston; and soon afterwards I met with an
advertisement in one of the agricultural weeklies, signed by my friend
the doctor, the substance of which was as follows:
NOTICE.--I will exhibit, at _Quincy Market_, Boston, in a few days,
sample pairs of my fowls, of the following pure breeds; namely,
Cochin-China, Yellow Shanghae, Black Spanish, Fawn-colored
Dorkings, Plymouth Rocks, White Dorkings, Wild Indian, Malays,
Golden Hamburgs, Black Polands, Games, &c. &c; and I shall be happy
to see the stock of other fanciers, at the above place, to compare
notes, etc. etc.
The above was the substance of the "notice" referred to; and the doctor,
coming to Boston shortly after, called upon me. I showed him the
impropriety of this movement at once, and suggested that some spot
other than Quincy Market should be chosen for the proposed
exhibition,--in which I would join, provided an appropriate place should
be selected.
After talking the matter over again, application was made to an
agricultural warehouse in Ann-street, or Blackstone-street, I believe;
the keepers of which saw the advantages that must accrue to themselves
by such a show (which would necessarily draw together a great many
strangers, out of whom they might subsequently make customers); but, at
my suggestion, this very stupid plan was abandoned--even after the
advertisements were circulated that such an exhibition would come off
there.
Upon final consideration it was determined that the first Exhibition of
Fancy Poultry in the United States of America should take place in
November, 1849, at the _Public Garden_, Boston.