The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-03-22
4 Nuisance.

Keeping hens in thickly settled town,
where the owner has perhaps quarter of
an acre of ground and no enclosure at all
for the fowls, which. must roam at large
picking up sprecarious living upon neigh
boris premises is q curious illustration of
excessive liberty and unblushing intrusive
ness.
One cannot plant tree or shrub but its
life Is Immediately in jeopardy through
the industry of the neighbors fowls deter
mined 10 dig it up. A delicate plant or
vine has no chance at all, and bed of an
nuals or greenhouse plants set out for sum-
mer bloom is luxury not to be thought of,
unless you have the leisure to stand guard
from daylight till dark, for the hens do not
wait for any seven-o,clock whistle to be-
gin their days work. The donkeys on
Betsey Trotwood's green did not return to
their grazing with greater persistence than
these vsgrant hens. There is no discourage
ment In their make up. The insurance
agent, lightningrod itinerant and profes-
sionsi beggar might take lessons in impor-
tunity from these small-brained miners.
The bafnyard fowl viewed from an asthe-
tic point may be not an unpleasant feature
ofthe rural landscape. It's habitual cheer
fulness and inveterate good-nature is SER
mon in itself, and its gratitude reproach
to human discontent But this being COM
peiled to- make o constant study of the
habits and prochvities Of the invaders of
your garden, the despoilers Of your lawn
the pirates that prey upon the wreck of all
your Horticultural efforts, the Growing and
cackling vampires that disfgure your
door steps, is an improbable diversion
when you have no time for it and have a
multitude of other things you must do.
1t is q monstrous imposition on neigh
borhood 70 turn loose upon their yards and
gardens lot of dirty and destructive crea-
lures that you cannot fence against or
keep away, or protect your property from
their depredations-
A notification Of the injury they are
doing makes no perceptible impression.
A note of warning is treated with like in
difference. A proposition to treat those
hens as wild animals and bag them is met
i by demand for their value and not a CON-
mon value either. Their paternal ancestor
was q regular fighting cock worth four or
five dollars and the chickens have all a
like fabulous value and If you take the
law into your own hands and slaughter
those irrepressib,e fowls you are IN danger
of having bill for damages presented that
would soon extinguish your title to that
little quarter acre which you are supposed
to own, and so though living in land in
which all men are accorded the inalienable
right to liberty and the pursuit of happi
ness, you find yourself suddenly deprived
Of the right to the pursuit Of happiness by
an unregenerate brood of game chickens
who through savage instinct destroy every
living thing and make themselves nuis
aace generally. o how you wish the
rocks and mountains fly at and fall upon
those hens, and bury them out Of your sight
OF for some enterprising street gamin to &c
cunning for wild fowls on your premises
when you are away, or for a streak of chain
lightning to waltz around and singc the
hair of those insufferable bipeds which
you can neither coax or frighten into a
human regard for the rights of others.