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Show OceaYear He's THE M ATAOfcA A L R A R D .UKD1R.WOOO S-T1 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON I . I UK eagle may be the national ' IT I'll bird of America for 3G4 days 4 11 In the year, but there's one I ji day when he Isn't. That VJ jy day Is the last Thursday In f) November, and on that oc N1 J easion the "king of birds" Is N temporarily dethroned and his place is taken by another, "lie lengris Americans" is the name by which he Is known to ornithologists, but the average American, who is In. terested in him for gastronomicnl rath er than ornithological reasons, knows him simply as "the turkey." And on Thanksgiving day be is "King Tur key." The turkey is a true "native American" Amer-ican" and therefore it is appropriate that lie should be one of I he principal symbols of this typically American festival day. When the first whites arrived on this continent they found wild turkeys in great profusion That he was one of the "first Americans" Is proved by the fact that his hones In fossil deposits show thai he is ol prehistoric origin The Indians had partially domesticated the turkey, and what appears to have been roosting places for domestic- turkeys have been found attached to pueblos and cliff dwellings In excavated ruins of untold centuries of age. The turkey's association with the Thanksgiving dinner dates from the very first celebration of that event. Of that first Thanksgiving day, held in 1G21 in "Plymouth, the laud of the I'ilgrims," Edward Winslow, who participated par-ticipated In Ihe three-day celebration of thanksgiving proclaimed by Guv. William Bradford, wrote back to England Eng-land as follows: "Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speeiall miinner rejoyce together, after we had gathered In the fruit of our labours; they foure In one day killed as much fowle, as with a little help beside, served the company almost a week, nt which time amongst other recrea tions, we exercised our Amies, many of the Indians coming amongst us. and amongst the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some ninety men, whom for three days we enter tallied and feasted, and I hey went out 'ind killed five Deere, which I hey brought to the Plantation and be stowed on our Governor, and upon the Caplnine (Stanilish) anil others" There Is no doubt that chief among the "fowle" at this feast wjis the ua ' ' tive wild turkey. However, according to Mary Austin, writing In the New York Evening Post. "Our elevation of the turkej to the place of honor on the Thanksgiving dinner table Is not entirely owing to Its traditional Im pnrtnnce to the first American Thanks giving day; it is a tribute to the home-iiiaking home-iiiaking Instinct of the Puritan women who made the turkey brood a part of that association of men and their wild brethren which is Inseparable from the human idea of home. The Indians domesticated the turkey chiefly for his feathers, which they prized. Rut 1 have no doubt that the English housewife, house-wife, arriving chickenless. got her first feeling of being at home from the brooding cluck of the turkey hen about her door." It Is a curious paradox that this native American bird should come to our Thanksgiving" tables bearing a foreign name which gives the erroneous errone-ous suggestion that he came from the European-Asiatic country of Turkey. Yet such is the case and here Is how-it how-it came about. The Spaniards, who conquered Mexico, found turkeys, both wild and domesticated, in that country ns early as 1519. They began sending the strange birds from the New World hack to Spain and the Jewish merchants, mer-chants, who were the leading dealers In such commodities at that time, called them "American Tukkis," meaning mean-ing "American peacocks," from their habit of strutting. From "tukki" the word was corrupted to "turkey and It became a common domesticated fowl in Europe. It is probable that not one turkey in a thousand which will grace the Thanksgiving table this year will be a native wild turkey. For the original New England wild turkey (Meleagres Americana) is all but extinct in the part of the country where he first made his appearance on that festal board. The wild turkey of today (Meieagres gallapavo silvestris), according ac-cording to ornithologists, is found In greatly reduced numbers only from Pennsylvania and Ohio south to the Gulf states and west to Arkansas. There is a smaller variety, the Florida wild turkey, in that state; in southern Texas is another, the Uio Grande turkey tur-key and in the Rocky Mountain region, another, Merriam's turkey. All modern mod-ern domesticated turkeys are derived from the Mexican wild turkey (Meleagres (Melea-gres Mexicana) ot the earliest days. From him comes the exquisite pencil ing of the modern domesticated bronzed Mirkeys. Other varieties, bred up from "sports" of this wild progenitor pro-genitor are the Narragnnsett. the BufT, the Black, the Slate, the Bour bon Red and the White Holland. But whatever the variety of the tur key we eat on Thanksgiving, the truth of the matter is that he is an imnii grant, so fur as ancestry Is concerned, '''or he traces back to the Mexican inrUey which was carried to Spain spread through other European countries coun-tries and then came back across the water to a new home fan her north, In the range of the allied but distinct wild species which the Pilgrim and Puritan fathers hunted through the woods of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies. So perhaps it is appropriate appro-priate that a state which borders on Mexico, rather than a New England state, should now be the "turkey state of America." And that is what the state of Texas is. It produces one-tenth one-tenth of all the turkeys raised In the 4S states of the Union. Down in the "Heart of Texas" district, comprising 17 counties, the farmers have found that it is more profitable to raise turkeys tur-keys than it is to raise hogs. So they have gone into the turkey business on a large and co-operative scale. One year they shipped 2IM1 cars of dressed turkey l.OOO.(NK) pounds of drumsticks drum-sticks and wishbones and gizzards ct nl ! These are shipped all over the L'nited States and it is a curious "coals-to-Newcastle" proposition that some Texas turkeys are to be found on Thanksgiving dinner tables In New England. It was In Texas, too, that there originated orig-inated a unique event the annual "Texas turkey trot." Cuero, Texas, which is said to be the largest shipping ship-ping point for turkeys in the world, is generally credited with being the birthplace of this unique ceremony. Just before Thanksgiving a turkey day is set aside. All who have turkeys to sell drive them to the central market, sometimes for 20 to 30 miles, the Hocks consisting of as many as 8,000 to "10,000 fowl. Thirty men drove 8,000 turkeys 13 miles in two days. In a drive of this kind, a wagon is driven just in front of the turkeys and a little corn is scattered to the leaders to keep them moving. Those that become lame or tired are placed in the wagon and hauled to town. At nightfall, provision is made to stop under a grove of trees where the turkeys tur-keys may roost. When the harvest festival rolls around, this Texas community pays homage to its most famous and profitable prof-itable crop and celebrates the end of the season with appropriate ceremonies. cere-monies. The turkey reigns as uncrowned un-crowned king of the festival, and a parade Is held. A similar ceremony is held at Brady, Texas, another Important shipping point. A writer In the New York Times described last year's "turkey trot" at Brady as follows: The hour for the fourth annual parade pa-rade of turkey has arrived in Brady, Texas. Miss Carmen Anderson, the turkey queen, selected by a secret committee, com-mittee, sits smilingly on her float. The griant paper turkey on the chamber of commerce float seems about to come to life and the other eighteen floats are ready to swing into line. Fifteen hundred hun-dred live turkeys waddle, strut and gobble along the pavement, to die that the nation may live joyfully on Thanksgiving Thanks-giving day. In the line of march are turkeys for President Coolidge, Vice President Dawes, Speaker Longworth and Governor Gov-ernor Moody. And the paraders do not represent alt the t Hlteys in the heart or Texas, ive thouhniid Ere in buyers' yards, not far away and 20,000 birds already have been shipped to northern markets. Only the plump are selected for the Thanksgiving sale. Many are still on the farms, being fattened for Christmas, when the prices will be higher than at present The big birds receive more consideration considera-tion than those that took part In the Texas turkey trots before (he World war Then Tom and Jack drove their little herds to market, and buyers, assisted as-sisted by four or five boys, drove a herd of 1,000 ten miles In a day. Recently Re-cently the turkeys have been brought to town in trucks However they travel, they are not in a good humor for their triumphal exit from life. For turkeys are given nothing to eat for fifteen hours before the execution, although they can have an abundance of water. The band blares. Floats move. Old gobblers, young gobblers, old hens and pullets advance in loose formation. Most of them are the bronze variety. Here and there Is a White Holland. Occasionally one sees a black bird with hazel eyes. A few are buff or slate in color. They gobble gobble. Even the sight of the yawning doors of four slaughter houses does not silence them. They march inside and the doors close. In ten minutes they are dressed meat in a refrigeration plant, ready fcr shipment ship-ment to New York, Milwaukee or Dallas. |