Document text
Forms to be Filled out for Etch Interview
FORM A
CirCumstanees of Interview
STATE Nom York
NAME OF WORKER A. Fitspatriek
ADDRESS
DATE
327 E. 145th St. Now Yo±
Doemiber 13, 1938
SUBJECT Tag 200828218 GHOST MD GVIENE88
1. Date and timel'o interviea Deoember 12, 1938
2. Place of interview
3. ?aae and address of informant James MO Guinness
218 2. 188th 8t. Now York Citr
4. Name and addretis of person, If any, who put you in
touch with.inforstant.
(8.4, previous interviews)
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description'of room, house, surroundings, eta.
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
(Use as many Additional ahiatt as nedelairy, for any of the forma, each
bearinorthe proper heeding and the di' to which the material refers.)
FORM C
'Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NAVE OF WORKER A. Pipatrick
ADDRESS 327 E. 145th St.
DATE December 13, 1938
SUBJECT THE ROOSTER'S GHOST MC GUINNESS
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
This is a story that is absolutely true, and one too, that
happened right here in New Yoric. It is about a rooster that had his
head out off and continued to crow for days afterwards. The end of
the story will satiety the curiosity.
"A. brother -in law of mine, living in Haat 225th St. in the upper
Bronx, occupied a little five room, one family house. In the rear he had
a garden where he grew, each year, a plentiful supply of vegetables. Bowan
a great lover of flowers, too, and at one time had as muoh as thirty-one
different varieties in bloom at the same time.
"At the rear of the garden he had erected a six -by -four chicken
coop and a forty foot long runway for the chickens to exervise in. Be had
forty chiokens, including a magnificient speoiman of a rooster, standing
nearly two feet in height. And how that boy could craw.
This brother-in-law of mine, that I'm speaking about, was a
taxicab driver. He arose every morning at fourA. N. aid left the house
at five to be at his work at six. He retired to bed every night at nine P. N.
The only trouble was that he could not secure a night's unbroken sleep due
to the crowing of the rooster.
He oonfided in his wife& adding *That rooster's got to go'. A
few days afterwards upon his return from a hard day's works he took the axes
grabbed the rooster& took him to the chopping block mid severed his head
from his body l The rooster ran around, headless, Dor a while and than
collapsed. 'Chicken Frioassee didn't taste bad that evening for supper.
'The nett night, the one following the demise of the rooster&
py brother-in-law was awakened in the early hours. He was not sure, so
he listened again. There it was -the rooster was still °rowing. There
was no mistake about it. He knew that he was not dreaming, because the
crowing was repeated while he lay in his bed.
Not wishing to alarm his wife, he told her nothing about his
experience of the night. He went to sleep again the next night and&
sure enough& the rooster woke him up again. He vented to tell his wife&
buts knowing how Ii superstitious she miss he kept his knowledge to
himself.
*However& the third night was too much for him. He was beginning
to get nervous. All he knew& and was sure of was THAT HE HAD KILLED THAT
DARNED ROOSTER and being over twenty-one he had sense enought to know
that dead roosters CANT crow. He had only one rooster at the time; he
A
had none now; so where was the crowing coming from?
*He hit upon a plan, He got up and dressed and, taking a flashlight
and an axe with him& vent out into the night and down to the chicken coop. He
placed his hand on the wire mesh enclosing the runway and waited, He wasn't
disappointed. Sure enough, there it was, and right inside the coop; 'Cook.
a-doodle.dol. He almost dropped the axe vhen his hair stood on end, but
gathering his courage& (or what was left of it), he rushed to the coop&
tore open the door and looked in. There were the chickens all asleep, huddled
up close to each other and woo ROOSTER. He closed the door quickly and bolted
for the house. When he was safely inside he woke his vita up and told her the
story.
.3.
"His wife looked at him to see if he had been drinking and said,
'Are ye losin' ye' re senses? /4 know that ye killed that rooster three
days ago and that we ate hin4 Now bold ye 're whisht and get back into
bed. Waking a body up with such a fool tale as that, Wwan, go back to sleep.'
He tried to convince her, but it was no use. Suddenly the rooster
crowed again and she sat up in bed. 'Mere ye are, There ye are, Sees
am I lying? Ye hear it ye're.self, dont ye?' said the brother...in-law.
He wife crossed herself and said, 'Glory be to odl, Bels oame
baok to haunt us. Oh, what'll we do, what'll we do'?
goint to go right damn agin and if I have to kill ivory wan
of this damned foul I'll get to the bottom av this's and away be went.
He went straight to the coop once more, opened the door and going
inside, closed the door after him. He put his flashlight out and waited,
"Suddenly the 'Cook-a...doodle-do' came again end he put thelight
on, and what did be see?, lie couldn't believe his eyes, ONE OF THE CHICKENS
*crowing. Ohl said he, 'That's its is it?' lie took his handkerchief
of his back pocket and, tying it around the legs of the culprit, slammed the
door. When he reached his wife he told her that be had solved the situation
and explained what he had discovered.
He killed the °blab= the next evening when he came home from work.
And a peouliar thing about it was, that when he cleaned it, he discovered
(whether it had apythire to do with the orawing or not, or maybe the chicken
was a morphodite) right through the gizzard was a nail about three inches long.
Figure it out for yourself. However, he got his sleep after thatm.and that
ends the story.
With the exception that, upon several inquiries afterwards, it was
found to be a oommon (neurones that chickens DO sometimes craw.
"The wife's mother, when told of the occuranoe, confirmed this and re-
marked that there was a fourmaine poem that was beard frequently in Irelands
appropos of this phenonemon, that vent something like this,.
111 whistling woman.
Or crowing hen
Is very unlucky
To single men'.