Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1859-01-06
ICOMMUNICATED.7
lOC"i
PIGEONS.

Mr.. WELLS If the right of petition is an
blishcd principle of republican law, we claim
its protecting wing to-day, in behalf of the
Pigeons of this community.
Your paper of the I'd instant contains sweep
ing challenge to ''trial of skilP' at shooting
Pigeons; we come with the olive branch, peace
ably protesting against the match. In the name
|of bird, beast, and sinner, gentlemen, ground
your arms. Play chill Stalks, s'Huley Burley,"
"Leap Frog" "Socerer," "Puss gi' me corner"
"Shoo Turkey" and Chicken me, chicken me,
craney crow"-or, if you must Shoot blaze away
at an electric eel, soft crab, galvanized tad
pole, raw oyster, sea nettle-onything scarce
ly vital-but cross not, we pray you, the TIRES
tects the peasants cottage from the forcible entry
Of the king, SO let it be the peculiar province
and loftiest ambition of American jurisprudence
to extend its wall of protection around pigeon
house. Gentlemen, pause and ponder the
frelocks Craze thy cheeks. Token Christopher
Columbus was sailing restless and forlorn along
the coasts of America do we not bless the voice
that first cried out Gland no !" from the top
gallant of the ''Pinta 2" And farther back in
the worlds history, when that remarkable ark
with it's living freight was humping and bump
ing upon dreary sea, when all this world was
wringing wet, and father Noah sat, weather.
beaten, at the garnet window, waiting for ebb
tide, should we not bless and be kind to the bird
gfad emblem Of receding waters and promised
feothold? I anticipate you, gentlemen; you
say it was Dove not Pigeon. Sirs, Ornitho-
logists make no distinction in their classification:
columbia stands for both, and since the word may
signify either Dove or Pigeon, it follows that
father Noah may as likely have sent forth
Pigeon as a Dove. fla Pigeon, for the sake of
it's antiquity and past services to man, ground
your ARMS.
You may say farther, that zoe have nothing to
do with this Pigeon affair, which is to say, that
it is a matter entirely between yourselves and
the Pigeons in question mutually agreed upon,
no doubt, by both parties, that the one should
shoot and the other die. What delightful SEN
sation it must be to the birds themselves, this
transition from bondage to cruel death; sprung
aloft, to fall the next moment weltering in their
blood, naangzed, fofAaere postinae. Friends, is
this right? For mercys sake take back the
gauntlet you have thrown down. You have
precedent for this refined cruelty in old mother
St. Mary's, it is true; but, should precedent
establish wrong? The parent has eaten for
hidden fruit: shall the "childrens' teeth be set
on edge?" In conclusion, we appeal to you in
the name of Pythagoras to ground your arms.
The boldest and strongest of our modern think
ers have not as yet succeeded in exploding and
entirely vanishing from the mind of man that
grand old Pythagorean doctrine of "transmigra-
tion," or the passing of the soul into another
body Suppose, gentleman, Pythagoras was
right in his philosophy, land who hnoars to the
contrary?) then it may follow that he who shoots
Pigeons, is numbering perhaps the great uncle
of his great-grand father, or, may be, the ''old
gentleman" himself, who kao,os? But we wish
not to pursue this subject any farther, and we
sincerely trust that
No one will feel himself offended
When no offence was intended.
But take all in good part, and go forth doing
that better part-saving from naartyrdom Pigeon
dom, and thus oblige, TwEEDLEDUM.
Aliens Fresh, Dec 10, 1853