1.25 Million Chimney Sweeps, or Perhaps Blackbirds, Put on Show in Downtown Charlotte, Nov. 27, 1921

A million and a quarter chimney sweeps or blackbirds (there was some dispute among spectators as to which they were), flew over the city Saturday afternoon and circled roudn and round over that portion of the city adjacent to Trade and Poplar streets, where the new million dollar hotel is to be.

Several persons said they were blackbirds. Others said they were chimney sweeps, because no such flock of blackbirds had been seen in half a century in this part of the country. General opinion, therefore, inclined to the view that they were chimney sweeps.

Both sections of the big crowd of people that stopped to watch the birds as they circled about the city agreed that their behavior was augury of cold weather and said these harbingers of cold may always be depended upon to forecast a cold wave.

The birds suddenly appeared in two dense flocks, almost assuming the proportions of a black cloud when they merged and flew together. They swirled around the sharp spire of the First Presbyterian church in a close-up square and then elongated the figure into a rectangle stretching out eastward over the Selwin Hotel and over the city hall. They then came over Independence Square in another formation, formed a wide column and swept westward over West Trade street and eddied into a wide circle over the new hotel site, ascending at this point to a great height and then doing a spiral back toward the tops of the adjacent buildings.

Many people stood and watched the spectacle for some time and agreed it was an interesting sight. The statement that there were a million and a quarter of the birds is that of a prominent citizen, who does not vouch for its accuracy but believes the number could not have been much less than that.

From The Charlotte News, Nov. 27, 1921