The Stork

1895

In Holland some bad boys presumed upon the absence of the stork from her nest to substitute hen eggs for her own. The mother never suspected the trick and conscientiously hatched out her false progeniture. But when the little pullets made their appearance father and mother were in consternation. They screamed in turn, flapped their wings, turned around their nest in great excitement, then together pounced upon the fraudulent children and massacred them without pity.

A similar story comes from a greater distance. At Smyrna a French surgeon, wishing to procure storks' eggs for some purpose, abstracted them from a nest in the vicinity and replaced them with hens' eggs, as in the preceding case. The mother faithfully hatched them out, but at the critical moment there was a conjugal scene, and the husband left home only to return very soon with a large number of his brethren. A court was constituted and a circle formed around the wife accused of adultery. The husband exposed his complaint, and the poor innocent, condemned to death, was immediately hacked to pieces. The nest remained deserted.

Like Caesar's wife, the female stork remains above suspicion. — French of Maurice Englehart.

Folks, Facts and Fancies

1916

Henry Wheeler, secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, predicts 75c. for fresh eggs in Boston this winter.

Henry Ford, the Detroit automobile manufacturer, announces that he and "his neighbors" will support President Wilson for re-election.

Horace White, for many years one of the Country's foremost journalists and an authority on financial subjects, died at his home in New York after a long illness. He was 82 years of age. Born at Colebrook, N. H., in 1834, Mr. White was educated at Beloit college and Brown University.

George W. Perkins finds that Maine progressives "almost unanimously" supported the republican ticket, and predicts that all progressives in the country will follow their example in November.

Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft, have accepted invitations to attend a reception in honor of Charles E. Hughes at the Union League club, Oct. 3. Elihu Root, president of the club, will preside.

The spire of the old Congregational church in Greenwich, Conn., whose peak is the highest point between New York city and New London, has been condemned. The church, it is said, is the richest in Connecticut. Its spire has been used for years as a steering guide by vessels.

With a crew of one man aboard, the 40-foot sailing launch Sir Francis, bound from San Diego, Calif., for the St. Lawrence River, cleared from Colon, Panama, for Jamaica and Key West.

"Mary" the big circus elephant which killed her trainer at Kingsport, Tennessee, Tuesday was hanged at Erwin, Tennessee. A railroad derrick car was used in the execution. The animal was forced to the tracks by other elephants, heavy chains tied around her neck and she was hoisted into the air. She was valued at $20,000 by her owners.

Ka-e-na-gi-wes, an Indian chief of Cass Lake, Minnesota said to be 128, and a heathen all that century and a quarter, won't be buried in the Spirit Land of the Chippewas' Happy Hunting Ground. He has taken the name, John Smith, and turned Christian.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 8.

Insures Prize Hen for $5,000 Policy

1919

Washington Chicken Holds World Record for Egg Production.

PORTLAND, Oregon. — It isn't every hen that can carry around a $5,000 life insurance policy, but that is the amount of insurance placed on one of the hens at the poultry show here.

This hen is a White Leghorn, owned by Dr. Tancred of Kent, Washington. She set a world's record for production by laying 300 eggs in 365 days, ended Sept. 16. This is about four times the production of the average hen, so her value in the poultry world can easily be seen.

Her owner consented to allow her to be placed on exhibition by one of the poultry feed companies, but stipulated that she must be insured for $5,000.

Snake Demands Its Eggs Fresh

1914

Species of South African Snake With a Dainty Appetite and Keen Sense of Smell

The South African snake called the eggeater has inherited from long generations of ancestors a sense of smell so acute that it appears never to be at fault. Professor Fitzsimons, director of the Port Elizabeth museum, gives in his book on "The Snakes of South Africa" an interesting instance of the wisdom of these serpents.

"Being short of fresh pigeons' eggs once, I went to my cabinet and took the clean-blown shells of a few doves' eggs. Beating up the contents of a fowl's fresh egg, I syringed them into the empty shells, and carefully pasted tiny bits of tissue paper over the holes. I put these in the eggeaters' cage, and watched, for I expected the snakes to swallow them as they did the other eggs. First one eggeater advanced. He touched each egg gently in turn with the tip of his nose or the point of his forked tongue, and crawled away in disgust. Another and yet another eagerly advanced, repeated the performance, and straightway retired. I began to get interested. Leaving the eggs, I returned in a few hours' time to find them still there.

"For two whole weeks those eggs remained in the cage untouched, although I refrained from giving the snakes any others. Then I procured some fresh pigeons' eggs and put them into the cage. The snakes approached, touched them with their noses or tongues, and instantly began to swallow them. I tried this experiment a second time with the same result. Frequently I have noticed that the snakes would eat some of the eggs that I gave them, and reject others. On breaking the latter open, I always found that they were either addled or else had a partially developed young bird inside. I could never induce an eggeater to swallow an egg that was not perfectly fresh.

"The eggeater is an expert climber, and his sense of smell is so sharp that he can discover birds' nests with the greatest facility. If you place an empty bird's nest in the cage of an eggeater, he will take no notice of it, except to use it occasionally for a cozy bed. But if you put fresh eggs in it, he at once detects their presence, although they are hidden from his sight." — Youth's Companion.

Rum Omelette for Him

1905

This is the true story of how a Mississippi editor kept his New Year's resolution not to drink vinous, malt, distilled or other variety of intoxicating beverages. On or about Jan. 3 he came to town with a small hand satchel and the good resolution not to drink aforesaid.

In a short time he found himself at a table in a restaurant with a party of congenial spirits. The congenial spirits were partaking of spirits equally congenial. Only the Mississippi editor was adhering to a glass of cold, repellant, unsympathetic ice water.

"Have something to drink," suggested one of the party.

"No; I've sworn off; don't intend to drink any more," was the virtuous reply.

"Too bad! Too bad!" was the sympathetic rejoinder.

The conversation became more lively, spirits grew high. The Mississippi editor keenly felt his aloofness. He began to understand how the mummy at the ancient Egyptian feasts used to feel.

"Have something more, old man!" suggested one of the party to him as the glasses were being replenished, forgetting he had declined before.

To the despairing and thirsty soul of the molder of public opinion came a flash of positive inspiration.

"By heaven!" he exclaimed excitedly, under the influence of a great idea.

"I swore I would not drink it any more, but I never said a word about eating it. Waiter, bring me a rum omelette and see you pour plenty of rum over it!"

At the sixth rum omelette, which the Mississippi editor ate with a spoon to lose none of the sauce, he grew visibly elate.

Which shows that love will find a way. — New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Hens Ate Deadly Dynamite

1910

Owner Won't Go Near Them, Afraid of Their Eggs

Winsted, Connecticut — A man who has a small farm a few miles from this town does not dare to trample on a small portion of it, and is afraid to eat his own hens' eggs. Heavy fowls he had been fattening for Thanksgiving are immune from death for the present, so far as his killing them is concerned.

Dynamite is the cause of his trouble. He opened two one-pound sticks of the explosive, into which a little frost had found its way, and after breaking the cylinders into pieces spread them on a flat stone in the sun to dry. He meant to use the dynamite in a lot he is clearing.

When he went to get the explosive after he had drilled holes in a big boulder, he saw a flock of his hens scratching in the dynamite, and eating it as they would eat small gravel. That's why the farmer does not dare to eat his own hens' eggs, for he fears particles of dynamite may lurk in the shells.

"Who knows where that dynamite they ate is now?" he said, sadly. "Suppose it's got into the shells? Think I'd run the risk of cracking one of those egg-shells? Yet how are you going to eat eggs without breaking the shells?"

And that's the story in an egg shell. The puzzled farmer cannot tell by the looks of his hens which ate the dynamite, therefore he doesn't dare eat any of them at Thanksgiving. As for swinging heavily on their heads with an axe he shudders at the thought.


Not Responsible

Nurse — What's that dirty mark on your leg, Master Frank?
Frank — Harold kicked me.
Nurse — Well, go at once and wash it off.
Frank — Why? It wasn't me that did it! — Punch.

The Garden of Eden

1911

Joking Around with the News

Now we are told that the Garden of Eden was located at the North Pole. Possibly we shall learn also that Adam and Eve were Eskimos and ate of the forbidden blubber instead of the forbidden fruit.

A Boston young woman has been visiting dentists' offices and stealing money and other valuables from the wraps of the patients in the torture chamber. Here's another excuse for not going to the dentist when you ought to.

The New York doctor who asserts that overripe eggs are as nutritious as the fresh kind will not meet with violent objections if he tries to get a monopoly of eating the ancient vintage.

The hobble skirt and high trolley car steps have clashed in Trenton. The steps may have the logic of the situation, but the hobble skirt has the eternal feminine end of the discussion, and all human experience is a unit on what happens when logic attempts to tackle the eternal feminine.

One of the worst things under the sun is a shady reputation.

The following testimonial was given to a servant girl: "This is to certify that the bearer has been in my service one year less 11 months. During this time I found her to be diligent at the back door, temperate at her work, prompt at excuses, amiable toward young men, faithful to her sweethearts, and honest when everything was safe under lock and key."

Sledgehammer Bandits Raid St. Paul Safes

1920

Also Steal 800 Quarts of Liquor From State Asylum

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — The band of "sledgehammer" bandits, after looting more than fifty safes in Minneapolis in the past month, evidently have begun operations in St. Paul by raiding three Como avenue business places.

The lock of a safe at the Great Lakes Coal and Dock Company was hammered open and $500 worth of Liberty bonds and $40 in cash was taken.

The same gang is believed to have hammered the lock from the safe at the Carnegie Dock and Fuel Company, and strong box in the office of a third Como avenue company.

That the "sledgehammer" bandits have a taste for good liquor as well as safes became apparent when nine of them in three automobiles made an informal call on the State asylum for the insane at Anoka.

Eight hundred quarts of liquor, used for medicinal purposes, packed in the refrigerator, were stolen.


Hens Laying for a Record

LINCOLN, Nebraska — Twenty-six hens laid 23 or more eggs each during February in the national egg-laying contest being conducted by the Nebraska agricultural experiment station. One hen laid 28 eggs. She is a Rhode Island Red, owned by M. C. Peters, of Omaha. Two others, both White Leghorns, laid 25 eggs each. Seventeen hens laid 22 eggs each.

Five Hens Lay Eggs in Deep Snow Nests

Feb. 1920

Fowls Dig Their Own Snug Roosts on Roof of Barn

HILERTON, New York — It being the warmest day of the winter, Chester Wasselton, a poultryman of this village, opened the door of his hen house to allow his hens to come out and enjoy the sunshine. Late in the afternoon Wasselton went to the hen house and seeing the hens were on the roosts closed the door.

Next morning the poultryman heard a loud cackling which came from the roof of the hen house. He secured a ladder, placed it against the structure and climbed to the roof, which was covered with three feet of snow. Wasselton says that when he reached nearly to the peak of the roof he was surprised to find five of his white leghorns buried in the snow. Furthermore, he says that when he removed the hens he was dumbfounded to find that each hen had laid an egg.

Wasselton placed the eggs in his coat pocket and threw the hens from the roof. He expresses the opinion that the hens flew to the roof the night before, dug their way down to the shingles through the snow and, as it was warm, made no effort to leave.


Cake 14 Years Old, Served At Wedding

First in Family to Marry Won the Fruity Confection

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — A wedding cake made fourteen years ago was served as a breakfast following the wedding her of Miss Geraldine Isabelle Buchanan, of California, Mo., to Lieut. Austin Smith Parker of Greenville, S.C.

The cake was made from a recipe for Chinese fruit cake and preserved in brandy to be served at the first wedding in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Buchanan, parents of the bride.

Twin Chickens from One Egg – Farmer Won't Sell Them

1899

Twin Chickens

Twenty-five dollars for a pair of spring chickens is a liberal price, yet a Massachusetts farmer rejected it. His pair of chickens, he thinks, are quite unique, for they are twins, five weeks old, and it is said that two chickens born from a single egg have never before been proved to live beyond eight days.

The buff brahma hen laid rather a large egg, yet no one thought much about it until one morning the farmer saw two bills instead of one trying to break out of the shell. He quickly removed the egg to the kitchen, extricated the two chicks, wrapped them in cotton batting, and placed them in the oven.

For three weeks the chickens were kept indoors on a diet of malted milk and brandy dropped down their throats with a medicine dropper. The twins are now hale and hearty, and run about the yard as vigorously as any of their comrades. One peculiarity, however, distinguishes them from their mates, They are exclusive little aristocrats and neither of them will associate with any other chicken except his twin. — Youth's Companion.

A Record Egg Yarn — I Don't Believe a Bit of It!

1909

A Record Egg Yarn

NEWTON, Iowa — The best egg story of the season comes from a farmer residing near Newton Iowa: "About a month ago," he says, "one of my hens got crazy with the desire of hatching a family of chicks, so, to please her, I secured fifteen choice looking eggs for her to set on. In selecting the eggs I noticed one unusually large, but of such symmetrical form that I decided to let it go as the fifteenth. This egg proved to be double and hatched two birds, one a duck and the other a turkey, and there they stood side by side, head and tail, for their wings were connected. I am sorry to say they lived only a short time, as neither would walk backward, both traveled forward in circles, each around the other, until both died from dizziness."


Marriage Law Sinful

NEW YORK, Oct. 6. — "Mrs. Stetson's belief that the marriage state is sinful and should be abolished, is the cause of her being deposed by the Christian Science church."

Such was the declaration of Mrs. Della M. Gilbert in her apartment at the Hotel Gotham. She is the leader of what she terms "the reform movement" in Christian Science. She will open a new church in the Hotel Gotham ballroom next Sunday.


Alfonso Ready To Flee

PARIS, France — The costly war in Morocco is rapidly precipitating a crisis in Spain which may bring about the overthrow of King Alfonso. Conditions in Spain are more nearly revolutionary than during the Barcelona upright. It is understood all arrangements have been made for a hurried departure of the royal family if the storm breaks.

A Woman's Finger Torn Off

1878

One of the most singular accidents which it has fallen to our lot to record occurred to Mrs. George Sweeley, who resides at the corner of Perry street and Central avenue, Albany, N. Y.

Mrs. Sweeley, it appears, went out to her hen-house to collect the eggs, and in order to reach one nest on a sort of loft, she was obliged to use a step ladder. She mounted the ladder, which was set against the side of the house, and while in the act of reaching out, slipped and fell. As she slipped, she endeavored to catch hold of a beam just above the ladder, but her hand slipped off that, and her heavy plain gold wedding ring on the third finger of her left hand caught on projecting nail. By the fall her whole weight was thrown on that one finger, and the nail being firm, the flesh of the finger was stripped from the bone by the ring up to the first joint, when that joint, with the stripped flesh, was cut off as clean as though amputated by a surgeon, and fell to the ground.

Strange to say, not a drop of blood flowed from the severed member. Mrs. Sweeley hastened into the house in a fainting condition, and Drs. Wm. H. Murray and T. H. Starkweather being sent for, amputated what was left of the finger close to the hand. The ring was subsequently found still hanging on the nail with the severed finger beneath it.

Boston Man Believes Eating Eggs When Angry Will Kill You

1897

ANGER AND EGGS.

A Boston Man Says the Combination May Result In Death.

"Never eat eggs while you are angry," said A. E. Stewart of Boston. "My attention was first called to this strange fact by the tragic and sudden death of a lady acquaintance in Boston several years ago. I accepted her husband's invitation to dine with them.

"Just as we were going in to dinner a servant did something that caused the lady to fly into a terrible rage. She had been irritable from some minor complaint for several days, and her husband calmed her ruffled feelings sufficiently for the dinner to be eaten in good temper. I noticed that she ate an unusually large amount of soft scrambled eggs. Fifteen minutes after we left the dining room she was a corpse. She died in frightful convulsions before the nearest doctor reached the house. The doctor was unable to ascribe the cause.

"A few months later I was visiting a brother in Connecticut, and one of his sons died under similar circumstances. Before breakfast one morning the boy, who was about 15 years old, had a fight with a neighbor's boy. Before his anger, had subsided my nephew was called to breakfast. He ate four soft boiled eggs. Had I known as much then as I do now I would have prevented it. In less than a half hour after breakfast the boy died with exactly the same symptoms that were present when my friend's wife died. This set me to thinking about the matter.

"It wasn't long after this before a Beacon hill friend of mine expired suddenly after a meal. The doctors, as usual, were divided in opinion on the cause of death. Some of them contended that it was heart failure, whatever that is, and others are still holding out that it was apoplexy. Inquiry by me developed the fact that my friend was very angry when he sat down at table and that he ate five eggs. With these developments I searched no further for the cause of his death. He was angry, he ate eggs, and be died.

"If these are not links in the chain of cause and effect, the human intellect is incapable of logical thinking."—St Louis Republic.

Honest Chicken Leaves Egg Behind As Train Fare

1921

HEN PAYS HER FARE; LAYS EGG FOR ENGINEER

DENVER, Colo., June 23.— Rather than beat her way on a locomotive, a hen laid an egg on the engine's pilot as payment, according to Paul Burkey, Colorado & Southern passenger engineer.

Burkey told railroad officials here that a hen boarded his locomotive at Trinidad, Tuesday. At Walsenburg, $1.25 by railway fare, the cackling hen flew off the engine pilot and Burkey found a new laid egg on the front of the locomotive. He intends to hard boil the egg and keep it as a souvenir of an honest fowl.

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, CA, June 23, 1921, p. 11.

Chickens' Deluxe Home Has Electric Elevator

Chicken's Deluxe Home Has Electric Elevator
July 7, 1940

MADERA, CAL.(UP)— "Nothing is too good for the chickens," is the motto on the W. A. Hemme poultry ranch near here, and it's a slogan which pays dividends.

Hemme puts his chickens up in a specially constructed chicken "hotel" equipped with electric lights, running water and an electrically operated elevator. The lights are kept on for a while at night in order that the chickens may stay awake and eat more mash.

Despite the expense, the elaborate layout is practical because the chickens lay more eggs in their comfortable quarters, according to their owner.


Quips

The fellow who proffers you a bargain and declares it is for your own sake, will bear watching. — 1929.

If the reports of the farmers are true the Lord invents a new bug with an increased appetite every spring. — 1901.

Horse Eats Eggs Fresh As They're Layed

1903

Horse Eats Eggs

"Our wife owns a horse and a dozen chickens. She has owned the chickens since last Christmas, but up to this week the hens apparently had not laid any eggs.

"The other day she discovered that when a hen cackled the old horse would immediately wake up, go to hunting for the egg, and eat it. Now she has a foot race with the horse every time a hen cackles in the barn lot. Sometimes the wife wins and sometimes the horse wins. But the funny part of it is, sometimes a neighbor's hen cackles, and when the wife rushes out to the barn lot the old horse stands demurely until she makes a futile search for the egg, then he gives her what is known as the horse laugh." — The Anthony Bulletin, Kansas.

Lightning Flash Picks Setting Hen's Bones

1921

Winchester, Va.—A marvelous freak of lightning was reported by Mrs. Coleman Lyne of Jefferson county, West Virginia, who declared that after lightning had struck a small pear tree near her chicken yard she went out to look after a hen whose eggs were soon to hatch. She found the lightning had run down the fence a short distance to the nest, and there was the skeleton of the hen in the exact position in which she had set upon the nest.

The bones were as clean as if they had been scraped, and the meat and feathers lay nearby not even scorched. None of the eggs had been cracked, but on close inspection a small hole was found in the end of each, and the inside of the shell burned out as clean as a new pin.

—Mountain Democrat, Placerville, California, October 29, 1921, page 7.

Mr. Behme's Hens Are On The Job

Middletown, New York, 1913

While the scarcity of eggs, due to molting and other hen nonsense, cause prices to soar, Henry C. W. Behme, the North street feed merchant, is proud of the record of 32 Barred Rock pullets are making at his hennery on Mills avenue. These pullets were hatched February 13 and some began to lay on August 16. Their record thus far is:

August—Two dozen and four eggs.
September—31 dozen and seven eggs.
October—25 dozen and three eggs.

He is now getting from 13 to 15 eggs daily. The pullets weight from eight to nine pounds and the cockerels ten pounds.

—Orange County Times-Press, Middletown, New York, November 13, 1913, page 7.

The Easter Egg Rolling on the White House Lawn

1906--

The Easter Egg Rolling on the White House Lawn

More than 20,000 children, varied in age and size and color, an aggregate of 100,000 brilliant-hued eggs and perhaps 30,000 adult male spectators -- these are the chief participants in the novel spectacle of the annual egg-rolling carnival which takes place every Easter Monday in the president's big back yard at Washington. There is no frolic anywhere in the United States, and probably none anywhere in the world, like this spring merrymaking on the 80-acre grounds of the presidential mansion.

The monster egg-rolling fete is a heritage which has been handed down from generation to generation of children at the national capital. Just when and how it originated no person seems to know, but tradition declares that this odd juvenile romp originated in a foreign custom, which was altered and elaborated in character after it was transplanted to the city on the Potomac. Years ago the annual egg rolling took place on the grassy slopes that fall away from the United States capitol building, but ere long the scene of the fun was shifted to the grounds of the executive mansion, at the other end of Pennsylvania avenue, and there has remained ever since. Indeed, the youngsters guard this privilege of playing in the president's yard once a year as a sacred right, and when, a few years ago, some official proposed that the custom be abolished there arose a wall of protest that shook the foundations of social and political Washington.

The egg is king of the carnival at the big gathering on the day following Easter, but this great "play time" is not devoted exclusively to the pastimes wherein the colored eggs are an all- important adjunct, for the president's lawn is open to all children, rich and poor alike, and many of the little visitors who have come unprovided with baskets filled with the fragile playthings spend the entire day skipping the rope, playing with dolls, sailing miniature boats in the great fountain basins or indulging in some other diversion dear to the childish heart, and for which exceptional facilities are afforded in the vast playground that is, under ordinary conditions, reserved exclusively for the use of the president's children.

However, as has been said, eggs decorated in many bright colors and employed in any one of a dozen ways constitute the favorite playthings for the occasion. The genuine "egg rolling" -- that is, the bowling of the eggs back and forth on the velvety lawn or down the gentle slopes in which the grounds abound -- has the preference over all other pastimes, particularly among the younger children. The older girls and boys manifest a special penchant for games of "toss and catch," which are likely to seriously deplete the stock of eggs, or for the sport known as egg "picking," which necessitates an even more prodigal use of the delicate souvenirs of the day.

"Picking." It may be explained consists of the striking of two eggs together, each held by a youthful champion confident of the solidity of his egg. The picking continues with gradually increasing force until the shell of one or the other is cracked. When the owner of the egg which has failed to stand the novel test must surrender the damaged egg to his victorious competitor, who goes on his way seeking new worlds to conquer.

--The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, April 15, 1906, page 3 of editorial section.

Beautiful Decorations on Easter Eggs

1906--

Easter eggs play an important part in heathen as well as Christian countries. Before the Christian era eggs formed a part of pagan worship and were symbolic of the awakening of nature after the long winter months. After the coming of Christ they were retained as tokens by the early Christians, and though not worshiped in that sense as the heathens did, eggs were used in decorations in the churches when the anniversary of Christ's resurrection was celebrated.

The first Christian church in Egypt adopted the egg of the ostrich as symbolic of faith, and the custom is still observed to this day in the East. Before the high altar, with its six silver lamps, ostrich eggs are suspended in the form of a wreath, one of them without ornamentation and others containing the most exquisite designs.

In the Orient ostrich eggs play an important part as an article of commerce, and the Soudan supplies hundreds for the market. In the spring of the year they are in great demand, and artists are kept busy covering them with beautiful designs. One of these eggs is on exhibition in the museum of art in Detroit, and on its shell are engraved representations of men and animals similar to the recently discovered works of art in the old ruins near Cairo.

In Japan a similar custom prevails, and the eggs of the Australian ostrich are made use of by Japanese artists for representing all the weird imaginings of their versatile minds. Many of them are beautifully painted, but as a rule the natural bluish hue of the egg is retained and the engravings thereon shaded accordingly. Beautiful landscapes are engraved on the shells, as well as portraits and scenes of daily life in Japan.

In the countries bordering on the northern coast of Africa ostrich eggs are also held sacred for purposes of worship, and they are regarded as of great value. They are ornamental in various ways and form a part of church and house decoration.

South America also follows the custom, and in the Argentine Republic every little store in the main street has on exhibition eggs of all colors and designs on the first spring day, as announced by the calendar. One particular design is usually adopted, showing a planter astride of his horse, with a young girl sitting behind him. Another popular design contains on one side a map of the republic, and on the other side two clasped hands, with a liberty cap below and the rising sun above. Small geometrical figures enclose the design. The designs are engraved rather deep, which is considered an art in itself.

This custom is centuries old, and the ornamentation of Easter eggs is regarded as a great work of art in the countries of the East. In fact, the history of the art in those far-off lands really had its birth in the crude designs which embryonic artists first etched on the shells of ostrich eggs. Strange to say, however, the United States has not as yet followed in the footsteps of other nations in this regard, though the day seems not far distant when some of the prettiest designs by the artists of the day will be found on egg shells when Easter comes and will form a part of our home decorations.

--The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, April 15, 1906, page 2 of editorial section.