Laramie Red Combed Cock

The rug-thrower’s grandfather had been to cockfights in Quinto Di Treviso, Veneto, Italy, Mission Viejo, California, Granville, Ohio, Tehran, Iran Agrate Brianza, Lombardia, Italy, Newmarket, Suffolk, UK, Schenefeld, Schleswig-Holstein Germany, Chicago, Illinois, Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Herning, Ringkobing, Secretariat of the Sektornet, Denmark, Cedar Falls (University of Northern Iowa), Kingsland, Georgia, Huntington Station, New York, Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela, Laramie, Wyoming and Newbury, West Berkshire, UK. At each cockfight he wagered on a Rotterdam red-comb and lost. In each town, city and village he met another man who had wagered on the same cock, a Rotterdam red-comb, and lost, both men commiserating over drinks and gin rummy, the rug-thrower’s grandfather winning 27½ times out of a hundred, the other man, the man in each town, city and village, winning the rest of the time.

In Wyoming the rug-thrower’s grandfather wagered on a Laramie red-comb cock, the cock losing in the first round, its beak crushed in like a chesterfield spring. In Quinto Di Treviso he wagered on the same cock, who had been lent-out to an Italian locksmith, the Laramie red-comb going down in the third round after a valiant fight, its left eye coiling out of its socket like a lanced boil. At each and every cockfight, rain or shine, the rug-thrower’s grandfather made friends with a complete stranger, a fact that stymied the rug-thrower to no end.