By JOCK HATFIELD
Of the Emerald
Saturday evening two organizations held conventions at
the fairgrounds, the National Evangelical Team, and the
Northwest Pigeon breeders. While the evangelists
preached of the perfect man, across the street breeders
preached their own religion: pigeon.
They preached of the pacific Jacobin, the tumbler, the
African, the English Trumpetor, the Norwitch cropper, and
the value of vitamin E, of natural selection and color and
feather size, of sunflower seeds and hemp and flax.
Eight hundred pigeons sat around the building in various
states of evolution, cocking their heads and looking sur
prised.
They stood as the product of eight hundred years of
selective breeding. Dozens of breeds all mutated by man
from a single breed. It had taken 800 years to change the
original wild Rock Pigeon into various kinds of feather
dusters, cripples, gargantuans and feathered cantelopes.
Photo* by Patrick St
Mutant
pigeons
delight
fans
Pigeon connoisseurs gathered at the Lane County Fair
grounds Sunday to show off their favorite freakish birds.
The superpigeon award went to a feathery fellow who
does backward somersaults when he tries to fly.
These experiments have feathers sticking out of their
heads, and lumps coming out of their necks. Some can’t fly.
Others can’t move. In the wild these breeds would have
been cancelled because of low ratings.
But pigeon lovers over the years have managed to pre
serve the Rock Pigeon’s creative genetic efforts with care
ful help and care and feeding. Here at the pigeon show the
mutants receive prizes for their lumps.
Glen Julien, head of the local pigeon chapter, has done
his part for the pigeon effort. His breed, the English
Trumpeter, has strange things coming out of its legs. Left
alone it falls over itself. But in a small cage, with support
beams, it survives admirably.
“They have to be kept in a small cage, and cleaned
regularly," he says. Julien started pigeon raising when was
little, some thirty years ago. He trapped pigeons in a barn
and started breeding them. Now each of his sons has his
own breed to mutate.
In the evening, after work, Julien heads out to the coop to
commune with his pigeons. He replenishes water, mixes
grain and itinerizes body parts. “It’s soothing to go out after
1
work,” he says. “I enjoy breeding colors or mixing birds to
see what comes out.”
Glen Reeder, another dub member, admires the pigeon
for its personality as well as its mutations. "Pigeons are like
people," he says. "They stay mated for life usually. But just
like people a cock will go after any hen that comes along
and a hen will go after any cock."
The dub awarded prizes in two classes, Champion
sporting and Champion show. Champion of show needs
the corred amount of bumps and bulges and feathers for its
breed, but it needn’t move. Champion sporting, however,
must perform the crippled movements as sod at ed with its
breed. Partor rollers, for example, are judged on how well
they roll across the ground.
The show conducted Sunday with the selection of a
super bird, a pigeon who does its particular brand of de
viancy particularly well. The award went to a man who has
over the last 14 years spent approximately $14,000 on his
pigeons. The winning pigeon was a particularly well done
Roller, a super pigeon which does backward summersaults
when it tries to fly.
Semitism still issue in France
PARIS (AP) — An unrepentant
French Nazi collaborator who
claimed "only lice were gassed at
Auschwitz" has sparked a na
tional furor over anti-Semitism
reminiscent of last century's
Dreyfus affair.
The remarks were made by
80-year-oid Louis DarquierdePel
lepoix, who was commissioner for
Jewish affairs in France’s war
time Vichy government, in an in
terview published Oct. 29 in
L'Express magazine.
In the interview, Darquier, who
lives in exile in Spain, said the
Jews had plotted to control the
world, making Jerusalem the capi
tal. At one point, he denied that the
■ i ..
Nazis had exterminated 6 million
Jews.
"This figure is an invention,
pure and simple-an invention of
the Jews, of course,” he said.
"The Jews are like that: they’re
ready to do anything for publicity. ”
He denied charges that he sent
75,000 Jews to Germany, and he
said the Germans used gas
chambers only to delouse people
before internment.
Giscard d'Estaing issued a
statement saying freedom of the
press should include respect for
"truth and decency."
L'Express, in its issue released
Sunday, defended publishing the
interview, saying: "Far from mak
l
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ing racism indecently commonp
lace, this document, on the con
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talitarianism, a permanent
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On Friday, government pro
secutors began assembling in
formation to see whether there is a
case against Danquier for glorify
ing war crimes and inciting racial
hatred.
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