The Poultry Aristocracy of 1895 Seattle

The steady attendance and the interest shown in the birds on exhibition at the Sound Poultry Club's show yesterday testify to the enterprise and liberal policy of President Joel Lakin and the other officers of the club.

As one enters the hall he is struck with the variety and quality of the premiums, which are tastily displayed on tables to the right and left and directly in front of the entrance. On the right are a beautiful pair of pigeons, with ruffled plumage and faintly iridescent feathers. Next to them came a number of coops of pigeons belonging to Fred S. Meeker of Puyallup, many of them of more than local celebrity. There is also a cage full of canaries, exhibited by Mrs. Seigler, including a Norwich canary of a deep orange color with fine points. Mr. Docking thinks the world of this bird, which took first prize at last year's show, and declares that a finer specimen in its class cannot be found.

Among Mr. Meeker's pigeons are those that have made themselves famous as bearers of letters from the Mount Rainier explorers. One is homer No. 7,084, who flew from Pensacola, Fla., to Philadelphia in 1892, a distance of 1,000 miles. He was also a prize-winner at the World's Fair. Two others were able to cover 510 and 420 miles, respectively, inside of a day, but “Gambrinus” has a record of 920 miles in nine hours and fifty minutes, and is believed to be the fleetest pigeon in the world. For a feat of endurance, however, it would be hard to match the performance of Cyclone, who covered the 220 miles between Grant's Pass, Or., and Puyallup in a violent rainstorm. His mate made the same trip with him.

All day Mr. S. Tyler of Pasadena, Cal., was busily passing about the double ranks of coops, handling and judging the various specimens. Mr. Tyler was worn out with labor, but spoke in the highest terms of the show, and declared that, taken as a whole, he considered it quite the equal of any that he had ever attended on the Pacific coast. His duties are exceedingly onerous, however, and he referred gratefully to the hospitality of Mr. Lakin, which he was enjoying at his home on Florence street, and the relief he found in the evenings.

The incubator contest between the Queen City and the Friggins Daisy incubators was also in full blast yesterday, and chicks were ushered into the world with amazing frequency, as the faces at the glass and the heap of empty shells on top of the machines show. It was interesting if for nothing else than to see the little fellows in their yellow feathers and to note how well art has supplanted nature and to realize that except for laying eggs hens are no longer necessary. Perhaps it may at some time be interesting to learn whether the filial instinct is transferred from the mother hen to a particular brand of incubator.