Chicken Inspector No. 23

Right now, I am just killing time before bed, and I came across a curious advertisement in an 1913 edition of The Billboard magazine:

It reads: 

BE A CHICKEN INSPECTOR

This is what you can call a real novelty sensation. The Chicken Inspector Badges have taken new York by storm. You can see them everywhere, and the only trouble the boys are having is getting back for another load. Badges are highly nickel plated and regulation size. Streetmen and and Novelty Men of all kinds can make enough money with this Badge during the holidays to keep them from worrying for some time. Be one of the wise ones and get it while it's new."

THE PASTIME NOVELTY CO.

Like, chicken inspecting badges? A craze? Sure. I shared it and made a snarky comment on @mstdn.social, where I spend my time studiously avoiding twitter. But then I googled. It really was a thing. 

(Source: https://23skidoopostcards.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/pins-chicken-badge.jpg) 

In a comment online, someone mentioned that Chicken Inspector 23 badges were being confiscated by the police, for some reason. What the hell? I thought. I only have one life, and if I must spend it investigating chicken inspector impersonators, so be it. 

The earliest relevant mention of a "chicken inspector" that I find in a public newspaper database, Chronicling America, comes from The Newark Evening Star from November 1913:

I know what all of these words mean, just not in this order. 

The first example of someone getting into legal trouble over a chicken inspector badge, as far as I can tell, god bless him, comes from New Jersey. In Jersey City, according to the Nov 11, Newark Evening Star:

Wag Gives Him Badge, He Demands Policeman’s Pay

JERSEY CITY, Nov. 15.—Peter Lottilaro, thirty years old, of 526 Grove street. was held yesterday by Judge O'Brien in the Second Criminal Court as to his sanity. For weeks Lottilaro has been haunting the City Hall and the Court House, buttonholing politicians and insisting upon being regularly appointed to the local police force.

Some wag gave him a New York “chicken inspector” badge. The number is 23, and, displaying the badge, he has on one or more occasions demanded that he be placed on the payroll.

This must be a reference to something; otherwise, who cares what the number is? Right? 

Chicago's The Day Book (Dec 8, 1913) has a report from D.C.:

"--Dealers in badges, inscribed 'Chicken Inspector No. 23,' warned by police they might run afoul of the law against impersonating officers. District of Columbia has chicken inspector who inspects poultry. No. 23."   

In the weirdest trade magazine I've come across, U.S. Egg and Poultry Magazine (Dec 20, 1913), we find a report of someone literally scamming chickens using this novelty badge: 

"A visitor wearing a humorous- reading badge—'Chicken Inspector 23'—visited farmers around Lancaster, Pa., told them he represented the state department of agriculture, under a new law, and that the law required every poultry raiser to send three fowls to Harrisburg for inspection. And the inspector took the chickens."

I've found another ad, in the Washington Sunday Star (Nov. 23, 1913), soliciting business partners in the lucrative Chicken Inspector credential hustle:

In the New York Evening World from Dec. 1, 1913, I find an example of the phrase "chicken inspector" being used as a synonym for a flim-flam man in what I believe is a fictional vignette:

It seems that even the people of the day didn't know what the crap "chicken inspector" meant, at least it seems so in this article from a Colorado newspaper:

In Chicago, a kid was arrested in the Loop for selling the little badges:

And here's a case of someone actually...impersonating a chicken inspector and getting in trouble for it:

And another person, this time in Albuquerque:

What does it signify, people? In June 1914, there seems to have been a movie released called The Chicken Inspector. 

See?

This was a short produced by Vitagraph, who I never heard of either. It starred Walty Van and Flora Finch. IMDB has a plot summary, but I don't see as copy of it anywhere:

He is the talk of Jimpsonville, a typical village cut-up, and his name is Willy Wildwave. He visits New York dressed in loud college style. A street fakir talks him into buying a "Chicken Inspector" badge. He explains the privileges of the badge and Willy says, "I'm on." He returns home with the badge and a rubber stamp reading, "Approved by Chicken Inspector No. 23," and proceeds to examine and stamp everything that looks like chickens, even to reviewing the "squabs'" and "broilers" in a young ladies' seminary. The principal sends for the constable to arrest him, hut when Willy shows his badge, they surrender. The seminary girls file out in caps and gowns and the "Chicken Inspector" gives them the "once over." Willy next decides to "Inspect" the burlesque show. The manager apparently "falls" for his talk, but in reality conspires with the company to "fix" him. The burlesque girls are lined up and, after Willy signifies his approval, march out. At the manager's signal, the actors and stage hands make a rush for Willy, armed with all sorts of weapons. He grabs a "prop" tree and it goes over with him, the whole crowd piling on top. Scrambling to his feet, he rushes out past the astonished audience. Followed by a big crowd, he finally dodges into a henhouse. The owner, hearing a suspicious noise, pokes a shotgun in and fires. Willy, with a shriek of pain, rushes out and is grabbed by the owner. He breaks loose, leaving his badge in the farmer's hand. He then dashes for freedom, nursing the perforated seat of his trousers.

Ah. Chicken. (When I mentioned this topic to my roommate, she said it sounded like a euphemism.)

And you see this 23 recurring on fake badges as late as 1947. (Actually I can't vouch for the date. The same advertisement has been represented as appearing across 3 decades.) If you look at the bottom, you see it in a "bathing suit inspector" badge. It's like having pervert certification: 

Who knows? It turns out that for a brief time, Chicken Inspector no. 23 was a thing. I would be really interested in seeing that short film, by the way. Just to have done so. If anyone finds a copy of it online, let me know. 

RJB