MR DODGE'S CHICKENRANCH.

Dunstan Times, Issue 949, 25 June 1880, Page 3

MR DODGE'S CHICKENRANCH.

Mr James C. Dodge, who recently emigrated from tbo town of Natick, Mass., to Laurelville, Ala., has signally refuted the popular Southern of the coloured man, and has succeeded not only in keeping chickens, hut in inducing 31 coloured men to work for him without wages. When lie casually introduced the subject of chickens Ids neighbours assured him that there was an African church within a mile of ids newly-purchased farm, and that he might as well try to keep icicles in aliot-house as to raise chickens in such a neighbourhood. Air Dodge was a stubborn man, and, withal, an ingenious one. H« determined to prove to the Laurel villains that he could do precisely what they said he could not do. Accordingly, lie offered to bet with Judge Siemens that he would cultivate his now farm, with coloured labour, and that he would raise chickens without losing a single one by coloured larceny. The bet was taken, and Mr Dodge went to Ids farm, and began operations With the aid of the Laurelville carpenter, Mr Dodge built a magnificent chicken-house, with accommodations for five hundred feathered guests. The windows were made so small that not even a consumptive coloured boy could pass through them, and the door was of unprecedented thickness and strength. In one side of the chicken-house Mr Dodge required tbo carpenter to leave a round hole of about two foot in diameter, for a purpose which he declined to explain. When the carpenters had finished their’work and had gone homo, Mr Dodge unpacked a large bundle which he had received from the North, and after dark he filled his chicken-house with 300 chickens, and, locking it securely, went to bed. About 11 o’clock that night a leading coloured citizen of chicken proclivities made his way into the chickcn-house through the hole which had been left open, lie chuckled quietly at the folly of Mr Dodge in locking the door, and at the same time forgetting to close the hole in the inside of the chickcn-honse. When he had selected a dozen of the largest chickens, he attempted to creep stealthily out of the hole, but found his egress impeded by a series of sharp and projecting spikes. He then realised the fact that he had been caught in a trap, of much the same general nature as that pleasing variety of mouse-trap r to

which the mouse readily enters through a wire-lined passage, the pointed ends of which prevent him from escaping. The leading coloured citizen’s estimate of white intellect underwent a sudden change, and he sat down gloomily in the corner of the chickcn-house to invent some plausible tale which would account for his presence when the inevitable moment of discovery should come. Half an hour later the minister of the coloured church entered the chiekeuhouse, and was warmly greeted by his predecessor, who was beginning to foul very lonesome. From midnight until dawn the arrivals were almost incessant. The fact that 300 chickens were in Mr Dodge’s chicken-house was known in every coloured cabin within a radius of two miles, and the oppressed race had risen as one man and resolved to have those chickens. At halfpast 3 there was standing room only in the chicken-house, and gentlemen arriving after that hour were compelled to return home disappointed. After a comfortable breakfast, Mr Dodge took his shot-gun and the key of the chicken-house,'and proceeded to ascertain what luck his trap had brought him during the night. To his great pleasure he found 34 able-bodied coloured men in the chicken-house and after the most careful investigation, he ascertained that not a chicken was missing. He put no unpleasant questions to the coloured men whom he had caught as to why they had crowded into his chicken-house, but ho merely informed them that ho supposed they had come to assist him in planting and that he was greatly obliged to them for their kind assistance. At noon Judge Siemens and a dozen white Laurelvillains arrived at the farm, and gazed with amazement at the spectacle of 34 coloured men working energetically ill the field. Vv hen the judge was convinced that no chickens had been stolen during the night he frankly admitted that he had lost his hot, and, borrowing the money from Mr Dodge, paid it on the spot. Since that day Mr Dodge lias never lost a chicken. He has, however, only caught a few sporadic ’coloured men, and has thus been obliged to hire most of his labour.