2. This Was Hinsdale (Rooster)

"DIDN'T GO TO CHURCH

Nine young sports of Hinsdale and Dalton attended a cock fight in Hinsdale on Sunday, December 1 (1901) instead of going to church. They were in the district court Friday morning, pleading guilty to the charge of attending a cock fight, and were fined $3 each and costs amounting to $5.30. The young chaps were brought to Pittsfield by Deputy Sheriff D.J. Murphy."   -- Pittsfield Sun, 19 Dec. 1901

As Pittsfield librarian/historian Donald Warfield recently noted, area newspapers then carried these stories like they would cover town baseball games.

The Pittsfield Sun reported in 1904: "Two cock fights enlivened the evening in a Lanesborough barn last night. Both were between birds representing Hinsdale and Pittsfield....some three hundred dollars in bets was transferred to Hinsdale pockets. The roosters weighed four pounds four ounces in the first bout and four pounds and eight ounces in the second."

Pitting rooster against rooster -- town vs. town birds -- was outlawed in 1836, Massachusetts being the first state in the U.S.A. to ban the "sport". And while it is still very popular in places like the Philippines, it seen as cruel, barbaric, and is punishable by fines up to $150,000 and anywhere from nine to 24 months jailtime.

The "mains" as the Hinsdale "sports" (and reporters) called these fights, reared its head again in 2018 when about 400 birds were found in a "pit" in Northampton.