From the Lawrence Daily World for August 13, 1910:

“A chicken is a wise old bird. Perhaps that is the reason the fowls in North Lawrence have learned to meet the motor train on the Union Pacific. Sounds a little odd for chickens to meet the trains, doesn’t it? But that is exactly what happens daily. With the first shrill shriek of the whistle, every chicken in North Lawrence does a Chanticleer slide for the depot. What is the answer? Grasshoppers. For several weeks the broad scoop-like fender of the motor train had come into town literally wiggling with grasshoppers. A bushel or two could easily be brushed off the guards. They are of all varieties and form a delectable repast for the hungry fowls. There are the big T-bone kind, the juicy porter-house cuts and the sirloin cutlets. The chickens have learned this condition, and apparently are able to distinguish the motor train’s whistle. Depot employees who have watched the gradually developing intelligence of the chickens, assert that they begin to loaf around the railroad yards half an hour before train time. When the train is still around the curve, its first whistle is the signal for a great running and flying among the chicks.”