Chicken Pen, Decorated for Newlyweds, Causes Near Riot

There are probably nicer ways to congratulate newlyweds than decorating their chicken pen with old shoes and tin cans.

But apparently the poultry-show crowd of Milwaukee in 1921 had their own ideas about romance.

According to The Milwaukee Leader of November 23, 1921, Frank Hinsenkamp and his new wife brought their Sussex chickens to the Greater Milwaukee Poultry Show.

Their fellow poultry exhibitors knew the couple had recently married.

That was all the invitation they needed.

The Newlyweds Arrive to Find Their Chicken Pen Decorated

Someone had thoroughly decorated the Hinsenkamps’ prize chicken pen.

Old shoes were hanging from it.

Tin cans had been added.

There were even specially rewritten nursery rhymes aimed at the newlyweds.

In other words, somebody had looked at a respectable poultry exhibition and decided what it really needed was a wedding prank.

Frank apparently did not appreciate the artistic effort. He started tearing the decorations down.

That was when things got even sillier.

Don’t Touch the Decorated Chicken Pen

As Frank began removing the decorations, a policeman stepped in and warned him to stop.

According to the newspaper, Frank was even threatened with arrest if he continued disturbing the display.

Imagine being newly married, arriving at a poultry show to find your chicken pen covered in old shoes and tin cans, and then being told you might be arrested for taking them off.

At that point, I probably would have just left the chickens in charge.

Frank finally gave up.

And that was exactly what the pranksters had been waiting for.

The people behind the decorations revealed themselves and showered Frank and his wife with rice.

Apparently the Greater Milwaukee Poultry Show came with both chickens and a reception.

And Then Someone Shrunk a Rooster

You might think that would be enough excitement for one poultry show.

It wasn’t.

Another exhibitor named Bill Strassen had brought an enormous Langshan rooster weighing about 14 pounds.

Someone decided that bird also needed to become part of the entertainment.

The big rooster was secretly removed and replaced with a bantam Cochin weighing only about 14 ounces.

So Strassen returned to discover that his substantial prize rooster had apparently lost nearly all of itself overnight.

Everyone around him played along. For a while, at least.

The missing rooster finally gave the game away by making noise from underneath a nearby desk, where it had been hidden.

There are practical jokes, and then there is secretly replacing a 14-pound rooster with one that weighs 14 ounces and waiting to see how long the owner questions reality.

Poultry Shows Apparently Needed Entertainment

Today, a poultry show sounds like a fairly straightforward affair.

Bring the birds.

Judge the birds.

Award some ribbons.

Go home.

The Greater Milwaukee Poultry Show of 1921 appears to have been operating under a slightly different philosophy.

One newlywed couple found their chicken pen turned into a wedding display. Another man briefly had a rooster that had somehow shrunk to a fraction of its original size.

And somewhere in the middle of all this, enough commotion was apparently generated for the newspaper to run the headline: “Chicken Pen, Decorated for Newlyweds, Causes Near Riot.”

Was it really a riot?

Probably not in the way we’d use the word today.

But “Poultry Exhibitors Play Several Elaborate Practical Jokes” does not have quite the same ring to it.

Some Old Newspaper Stories Don’t Need Much Help

This is why I love these little newspaper stories.

Nobody involved was famous.

Nothing historically important happened.

The world did not change because someone decorated a chicken pen with old shoes.

But more than a century later, we get a glimpse of a room full of ordinary people amusing themselves by tormenting newlyweds and swapping enormous roosters for tiny ones.

And honestly, that is enough.

The chickens probably had no idea what was going on.

They may have been the sensible ones.

Source: The Milwaukee Leader, November 23, 1921.