Up to Snuff.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 7, 6 December 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

Up to Snuff.

A party of gentlemen were sitting m the Plankinton House reading-room last Monday evening, discussing the result of the chicken dispute between Milwaukee and Chicago, on Sunday night, when a long, slim individual with a roman nose and a squeaky voice joined the group. He was a good listener for a few moments, and being a stranger to all of the gentlemen, no one seemed to pay any attention to him until he made his presence and interest m the subject under discussion known by remarking : " Milwaukee was a little too flip for Chicago ; that's a fact. I told the boys they'd get downed." " Are yon from Chicago ? " asked one of the gentlemen. " Well, as near as I can calculate I ani, and

a good ways from there just now," answered the slim man. " Was you a witness of this dispute ? " was asked him by several of the group. " Yes, I waa ; an' if it hadn't been for som of your Milwaukee ii^cs we'd a beat you clean out o' sight. We had a job that generally wins, but somehow you had a better one." "How was that?" asked one of the gentlemen. " Well, we had some steel spurs made- and painted so true to nature that you couldn't tell 'em from the real spurs that grow on a rooster unless you made a close examination. We bad our birds all fixed up before we went to the pit, ao as you wouldn't get on to the racket, a3 steel spurs had been ruled out. I bet every dollar I had on that trick, so sure was lof winning. When the birds were put to work I noticed the Chicago rooster make a rush at a Milwaukee rooster and then retire m a hurry, sort of bewildered, and stand looking at the Milwaukee bird for about a minute. Again he jumped in— those Chicago birds are grit, gentlemen— and again he retired all sort o 1 discouraged. The third 'time the Chicago bird struck Milwaukee the Milwaukee bird just give him a good slapping with his wings, an' I'll be hanged if the Chij cago rooster didn't light out of the pit, and, with tears m his eyes, he began to sneeze, and sneezed so hard he put his neck out o' joint. This was victory number one for Milwaukee. This sort of thing was continued right along, and every new rooster Milwaukee put m the pit against a new Chicago rooster seemed to have the same tactics. Of course Chicago got cleanod out of roosters ' and money. I haven't oven a postage stamp left. Well, now, a man that gets strapped on a game is generally inquisitive enough to investigate. I investigated." "Well, whatVas the peculiarity of these Milwaukee birds?" asked several of- the gentlemen. " Snuff," was the answer the slim man gave, and then he went on and said : " Yes, gentlemen, you Milwaukee sports had filled your roosters' feathers full of snuff, and every time they got to wrestling with a Chicago rooster they shook enough snuff on to him and into hignoseto make him sneeze fro m now till doomsday. It's all right for Milwaukee, but I'll bet ten to one they'wilt find Chicago up to snuff the next time they meet." And the slim man went out and struck a friend for money enough to pay his fare back to Chicago. — Peck's Sun.