Pigeons In Peoria

In the modern world, pigeons serve small purpose.

Electrical communications have made carriers, with freak exceptions, obsolete. The lively sport of live-pigeon shooting is now generally illegal. The decline of the pigeon's utility has stimulated pigeon breeding as a sport. Leaving out pigeon racers, who breed, train and fly homing pigeons, and professional squab farmers, who rear pigeons for the table, there are more than 17,000 pigeon fanciers in the U. S. whose hobby is raising pigeons for shows. Last week, 8,000 fanciers and spectators and about half that many birds, worth $50,000, were in the State Armory at Peoria, Ill. for the 18th National Pigeon Show, most important of the half dozen major pigeon fiestas held in the U. S. each year. First event of the show was nose drops. Because pigeons are susceptible to influenza, their owners dose them before big shows with cod-liver oil for prevention, Epsom salts if they develop sniffles. Before going to Peoria most of the entrants had been given warm baths, rinsed, flown in the sun to dry. For weeks their owners had trained them to handle tamely. When the judging started last week, the pigeons were taken out of their coops, examined minutely by judges, most of whom were specialists in one or two of the 300 breeds represented. To winners went ribbons, trophies and cash, furnished out of the entry fees of 50-c- a bird. Noteworthy entrants: P: Biggest bird in the show was Ramon, a giant Runt* from Dallas. For his 3-c- lb., he had an 18-in. body circumference, wing spread of three feet. P: Unhappiest breed were Parlor Tumblers. Equipped with the determination of homing pigeons but utterly unable to fly, their efforts to get off the ground cause them to somersault backward. Single Tumblers flop over once, Double Tumblers twice. Parlor Rollers will roll 75 ft. backward without stopping. P: Most numerous were 600 Kings--large, white birds with big, bright red feet. Handsomest were varicolored, round-breasted Modenas. Rarest were white Frill-backs, a breed recently restored to standards of show excellence, with small up-curling feathers on wings and back. The National Pigeon Association's meet usually goes off without squabbles but it includes much shrewd bargaining. Individual sales ranged from $5 to $250. Biggest price ever paid in the U. S.

was $1,500 for a fine pair of English racing homers, imported from the estate of an English fancier and bought by Charles Heinzman of Louisville. P: Best bird in the show was a Blue African Owl, weighing 1/2 lb., which received a fountain pen, a plaque and $11.50 in cash for being judged the best bird of his breed, the best old Owl and the best old African Owl. Had the Parlor Rollers in last week's show been capable of reversing their situation instead of themselves, they would doubtless have picked, as the best pigeon judge in the U. S., a precise mild-mannered expert who, unlike the rest of his breed, judged not one or two classes but about 100, or one-third of the show's total. He was Jacob Justin Keifer, only professional pigeon judge in the U. S. who knows enough about pigeons to be capable of judging any variety that exists. The No. 1 pigeon judge of the land has spent most of his 48 years cooped up in an office as a clerk in the Louisville office of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Jacob Justin Keifer got his start in pigeon breeding at 13, when he invested savings of $5 on two pigeons of which one was a "coaxer"--handsome cock capable of attracting stray females to his cote. For a few years after that Jacob Keifer tried raising and racing homing pigeons and at 19 went to Texas to make his fortune. When he went home to Louisville, he married and settled down to pigeon-rearing in earnest. He got into judging about 20 years ago, rose quickly on his reputation for absolute knowledge and complete fairness. Judge Keifer's lofts now contain about 700 birds. His position usually makes it impossible for him to exhibit them but pigeon fanciers give him most of the credit for restoring the white Frill-back, until recently a decadent breed, to its old prestige. He now judges some 30 shows a season, handles 50,000 birds, travels 30,000 miles a year. His fees for judging roughly cover his traveling expenses and the L. & N. is generous about leaves of absence because pigeon fanciers on the way to a show make a point of riding on the same train as the judge, usually take their stock with them in the baggage car. Judge Keifer has no time to write answers to the hundreds of requests for advice he gets from breeders every year but most of the letters stick in his head. He answers them verbally when he meets their senders on the pigeon-circuit.

*Runt is pigeon English for Ront, name of a German breed.

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