The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 4

7 1 THE COURIER-JOURNAtTU tDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1982 Birdbrains Lovesick robins battle reflected 'rivals1 By LINDEL HUTSON Associate' Pru INDIANAPOLIS Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" didn't bother Mary Elliott until the robins started pecking at the windows of her two-story brick home. "Now I dream about that movie," she said yesterday. "It's Hitchcock rides again." Mrs. Elliott, 67, and her husband. J.

William "Bill" Elliott, 73, are stumped by the attacks on their windows, both upstairs and downstairs, by the robins. And it's not that the Elliotts don't like birds. They have two birdbaths, two bird feeders and plenty of sunflower seeds. -I love the birds, but this is for the birds," Mrs. Elliott said.

Apparently, only three robins are involved: One started pecking at a front window downstairs a month ago, and two others showed up Monday at the rear of the house, which the Elliotts have owned for 24 years. The birds crash into the windows, then flutter in front of them, pecking and clawing. They'll back away to the nearest tree limb for a breather, then return. Sometimes the birds sit on the window sill before returning to the trees. "I stare at them, and they stare right back at me," Mrs.

El liott said. "A couple of times I banged at the windows, but they just come right back. "Breakfast, lunch and dinner are their favorite times. The banging Is terrible. They leave dirty tracks all over the windows.

That's the thing that's driving me crazy. Afl of these windows were just washed." At first. Mrs. Elliott thought the robins were drunk from dipping Into berries on neighborhood trees. But Donna L.

McCarty, president of the Indianapolis chapter of the National Audubon Society, says this is the mating season for birds, and they're only lovesick. "They see their reflections in the window and assume it's another male they must fend off to protect their territory," she said. Ms. McCarty suggested that the Elliotts try putting tape over the windows to stop the reflection. Mrs.

Elliott said she's received dozens of suggestions from people who have had similar problems with birds. But the idea she said she plans to use is to "take strips of paper and make kind of a hula skirt out of it and hang it over the windows." Elliott said one suburban Car-mel woman "had the perfect solution a shotgun." But Mrs. Elliott said, "I won't allow that" Arcr' 'tx II 3 i Chest came with a curse that brought owners grief one of them would surely die when the leaves fell from the lilac bush under which the jug had been buried. Annie passed away that September. After Mrs.

Hudson died in 1954, her daughter donated the chest with a tuft of owl feathers in one of its drawers to the Kentucky History Museum in Frankfort, where it yet resides. Perhaps its macabre past is all an awful coincidence, magnified by superstition born of Southern folklore. Perhaps. But during the time Mrs. Mayne had the chest, she always kept it in her attic, and she would never store anything in its drawers.

Would you? WJ, in CurlrJournal Mrs. Hudson sought the advice of Annie, an aging black woman who was one of her dearest friends. Annie told her that the conjure could be broken. Someone would have to bring Mrs. Hudson a dead owl, without being asked to do so, Annie said.

By boiling the leaves of a willow tree from sunup to sundown and watching the owl at the same time, then burying the liquid in a jug with its handle facing east under a flowering bush, she could break the curse. Mrs. Hudson remembered a stuffed owl that had been given to her by a friend some time before. She hurriedly secured some willow leaves, and she and Annie performed the ritual Several days later Annie confided that if the curse had been broken. CJ T-ywJ Building 4812 U.S.

Highway 42 Louisville, Kentucky 40222 FRANKFORT, Ky. The wooden chest stored at the Kentucky History Museum in Frankfort is small, but it has a tragic and sinister history. Its last owner was Virginia Mayne of Pompano Beach, who was given the chest in 1946 by her mother, Virginia Cary Hudson of Louisville. Her mother sent with it a letter revealing its Incredible story. The chest was "conjured," she said.

It had carried a slave curse. After Mrs. Hudson died eight years later, many of her letters were published in book form. One of the books, "Flapdoodle, Trust Obey," contains a chapter on the conjured chest With Mrs. Mayne's permission, I have excerpted part of her mother's story.

The names and locations mentioned herein were changed to protect the identity of those other than the writer through whose unfortunate hands the conjured chest passed. Mrs. Hudson said her great-great grandmother was blessed with a large family of daughters. The oldest Ellie, married a wealthy Southerner named John Cooley, and they lived in a mansion overlooking a willow-fringed river. It was a grand place the way she described it with imported statues, splendid lawns and avenues.

But John Cooley's father, Jacob, "was the devil incarnate." Jacob instructed a slave named Hosea to build a hand-carved chest for Jacob's firstborn. The chest did not suit his whims, so Jacob gave Hosea such an awful beating that the poor old servant died. To avenge Hosea's death, the slaves cast a spell on the chest a "conjure" as it was called. Dried owl's blood was sprinkled inside the drawers, the dirge of conjure was chanted, and there was implanted within the chest an evil power, that would bring down the curse on every owner of the chest for countless From Hosea's workshop the chest was moved to the nursery. But the child tor whom it was made died.

First victim. A brother's child in whose room the chest was later placed was stabbed by a servant on his 25th birthday. Second victim. Jacob's daughter-in-law put the chest in the attic where it stayed for Byron Crawford Courier-Journal columnist a good many years. Finally it came into the possession of Mrs.

Hudson's great-grandmother, Jacob Cooley's youngest daughter, who had married and settled in Tennessee. Shortly after the chest arrived, her husband left her and she soon died. Fourth victim. Their many children were separated, and the wealthy planter, John Cooley, the children's uncle, took baby Evelyn, Virginia Cary Hudson's grandmother. Evelyn was beautiful and intelligent By age 16 she was teaching school, and soon she was married.

A good many years had gone by and the ominous reputation of the chest had faded. Evelyn took it and placed in it the wedding clothes of Arabella, an orphan girl who had lived with her. Soon Arabella's young husband died. Fifth victim. The baby clothes of Arabella's child were stored in the chest and it died.

Sixth victim. The wedding clothes of Evelyn's daughter-in-law went into the chest and she died. Seventh victim. An aunt Sarah, hid in the chest some gloves and a scarf she had knitted for her son's Christmas. He fell through a tressle and was killed two days before Christmas.

Eighth victim. Two other suspicious and heartbreaking occurrences visited Evelyn's relations who had stored clothing In the chest and the distraught Evelyn took her own life, bringing to 11 the number of victims. Finally the chest became the property of Virginia Cary Hudson herself, the progenitor of this story, who did not hold much with superstitions. Then separate tragedies, involving death, disease and injury, struck two of her children, a son-in-law and two acquaintances whose clothes had been stored in the chest bringing to 16 the number of victims. "I was hired to do it so I did," he said last night In fairness.

Bates also designed the new, sharper bow the Belle got in 1968 that made her as fast as the Delta Queen. "I love all three of them," he said of the contestants. But today Bates will be riding on and rooting for the Natchez. "She's a full 25 percent faster than either of the other boats." And although her greater number of passengers will add many tons of extra weight "I think the Natchez will win." Larkin earnestly hopes he's wrong. "This may sound corny," he said, but "more than anything else what I love to do is please these kids on the banks," many of whom have been his passengers on school field trips over the years.

"Some of them go into tears if we lose," he said. "I want to please them very much." A small group of New York state troopers operates a program in which toys are distributed to needy children at Christmas. They decided to send their surplus from last year's program to Allen County youngsters. Children who pick up the toys must be accompanied by a parent iioijsi LOUISVILLE KY. 83-7811 Steamboat race will leave two braggarts in its wake Semonin P.M.

SUNDAY 12 NOON to 7:00 P.M. want t0 kjwr fovwite store jf )w A 1J W9 OUR Ill UPRIGHT IBf ptE i l' SPECIAL! 1H IKipj Concept One Z7i Ktjul Hoover Convertible Bfji r'' '7 NewQoodrofleH'ogitolOf F)7lM7n5i I Upright vlliB iSfeS' lorgtl6qt. lop-fill Iffl II lllRl I I iC llPI Twin lamp headlight Wy Mrl 1 1 1 1 1 1 ft fe "JJ Edge cleaning ifflffflS 11 I ft 551 EFFORTLESS! c57UU u45 Sae ''5 j' Pr Sl YOUR CHOICE I win Cartons! yy iSiaE 11" aSCQuieT Series' IgTOTO 4 S3215 Canister Vac Shampoo- I mJJ -i I tochmenls Complete with all 1 Continued from Page 1 trip up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers-from New Orleans. Roddy Hammett first mate of the Belle from 1970 to 1975, is the Natchez's alternate captain. "We passed up every boat on the river all the way from New Orleans," he said.

"We didn't follow anyone." Steve Nicoulin, 27, the Natchez's first mate, grew up at 23rd Street-and Portland in Louisville and was a deck hand on the Belle. He said the Belle "looked gorgeous sitting there (at the Fourth Street wharf) when we came out of the canal." Bobby Heyn, 25, grew up in' Portland, too, and was a deckhand on the Belle three years. He's a watchman and acting mate on the Natchez. "I think we'll head back to New Orleans Saturday with the Golden Antlers." If Heyn is right there will be still another Louisvillian to blame: Alan L. Bates, the architect who designed the Natchez.

Fort Wayne flooded with toys Associated Press FORT WAYNE, Ind. Children who lost toys in the Fort Wayne flood are getting a gift from the New York State Police. A truck carrying 5,500 new and used toys is en route to the Indiana State Police post in Fort Wayne from New York, officials said. BUY 3 PACKAGES AT OUR LOW PRICE, GET 1 MORE iTSAI.E HOW IH PROGRESS BUY WITH CONFIDENCE! SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! REPLACDIEHT OR MONEY HUM REFUNDED SHOP DAILY: 9:30 A.M. to 9:30 BLUEGRASS MANOR CENTER 4900 Shelbyvill Road West of Wattereon X-way PLEASURE 10001 In Ckuqt ATWOOICO irr mail VISA' Leyewey Plane iih PurcheM eey wye to buy at Woeteo INDIAN TRAIL SQUARE 5607 Preston Highway Preston at Indian Trail VALLEY MANOR Dixie Highway Valley Station riixxis ski 4011 DUTCHMANS LANE.