The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-04-28
ORR PHILADELPHIA LETTER.
PHILADELPHIA April 25, 1882.
T Regular Correspondence Of THE FREEMAN.

DEAR FREEMAN Betty and the
Baby'' are getting dimes faster than
the Garfield monument. They prefer
that pop Mason should remain IN the
penitentiary. They are doing better
without him.
If it is true that Hayes contributed
$3.50 to the Garfield fund, still retains
S199. $50 of Tilden's salary.
The weather is not warm enough for
Watterson to let Tilden's Presidential
boom out of the inside pocket of his
white flannel vest, but gentleman Geo.
Pendleton has opened his Presidential
bar room in Washington city, with Jno.
Thompson as head waiter.
Old Alex Stephens is about to aban-
don soothsaying and retire to private
life, Such being the case, I will take
occasion to remark to the Presidential
boom makers that Alexander might be
doomed very considerably.
The COngressman-a -at-laIge boom seri-
Ously threatens to become boOmeTangy,
so to speak.
The latest aesthetic contributed to
this country by England is J. limbo,
Esq. He comes with only one trunk. =
limbo mOnopoliZeG the papers during
the past week. What a blessed thing
that Jumbo didn't Jumboverboard on
his ocean voyage.
sPARRows WORSE THAN THE CHINESE.
If giving relief to few people on the
Pacific coast by driving away the Chi
nese labOrer is an important American
issue, how much more important is it
that the great bulk of the American
people should be relieved of the English
destroyer. Unfortunately, the Ameri-
can people have a more damaging and
dangerous foreign element in their
midst than the Cinnamon. Mr. Page,
Mr.. March, and other distinguished an
ti-Chinese statesmen, do not appear to
have taken into consideration the dan
ger threatening us through that foreign
bully, the English sparrow. In their
patriotic zeal to check immigration from
the FlOwery Kingdom they have over
looked our most grieviOus foreign foe,
that British bully, the sparrow. Upon
reading the evils. that have been so elo-
QuentlypOrtrayed by eminent statesmen
as arising from Chinese immigration,
have looked up some scraps of history
upon the evils resulting from the impor-
tation to our shores of the English spar
row, and L propose to lay them before
the readers of the FREEMAN, that they
may know how unfortunate for Ameri-
civilization and prosperity it was that
in an ungaTded moment we permitted to
enter into the very citadel Of our liber-
ties-a foreign bully. Disregarding
George WashingtOn'S farewell admOni-
tiOn to avoid entangling alliances with
! foreigners, we opened our homes and
hearts and invited the alien sparrow to
! become one of US. He came, he saw.
and it is only a question of time and, l
fear, a very short time, when he shall
Z have conquered. He is on us, and a
/ greater than the Chinese problem is,
/ what are we to do with the sparrow
/ There is no ray of hope that [ can q is
/ ceTn on the horizon of she future, unless
/ it is in the united massive intellects of
/ our National and State legislators clos
ing with the sparrow for the mastery.
/ In different parts of the country he has
! been Outlawed, declared an intOlerable
/ nuisance. Upon this grave and impor-
| tant subject, the Macon, ga. Telegraph
I and Messenger says:
In the olden times Of large plantations,
7 crowded corn cribs ard smoke houses. fat
mules and hOmeSteadS whose hOspitable
/ doors swung wide open at the approach of
3 stranger or friend, the cotton worm was an
insignificant creature. 1t he ate up the pro-
ductiOn of MANY broad acres which Welded
a staple worth from four to eight cents pei
( pound, the deficit thus created was easily
met by hosting negro or two on the mar
/ ket block and the generous, thriftIess. kind
and prncsly Southern planter drifted along
for years, until his time came, and then his
son dTifted along after him pretty much in
. the same fashion. But after the storm and
wrecllaCe OF civil war; when Cuffee had be-
. come statesman. and the prince a pauper,
/ when cotton was worth 46 cents a pound,
the cotton caterpillar suddenly loomed UP
into vast and dangerous proportions.
luquIry-anXious inquiry was made as to
the means of destroying this foe that thrust
L.. s.HF =.
/ of restoring his broken fortunes, and exper-
/ iment after experiment followed inquiry.
( At such a crisis some evil genius bethOught
him Of the English sparrow. The thought
leaped into purpose as the electric current
daShes from the engine to the burner, purses
were smade up, and by the next steamer
pleNEKtTiug her course to Liverpool went or
, de4SCfotflte little bird which was to catch
I and devOOf every worm that dared approach
with vOracIous appetite and felOniOuS intent
/ a graceful and leafy stalk of cotton. Unhap-
pysuggeStiOn Unfortunate day
We might as well have imported a lot of
gutter-snpeS from the lanes and perlieus of
London to lead the Sunday-schOOl classes of
our children as to have imported this bird to
engage in the useful and necessary occupa-
tion of caterpillar killing. Bred for many
years in the streets of London, he had learn
ed to live by his wits, to despise honest la =
Dor and was accomplished in villainy and
trickerY."
The pugnacious red bird and the val
lent sap-sueker stood their ground for a
few rounds, but finally fled before the
sturdy blows of the belligeTant English
bully. But though masters of the field,
after having driven its rightful owners
away the sparrow did not occupy the
beautiful boxes made expressly for its
comfort and convenience, but immedi-
ately betook himself and followers down
to the bay. where he has lived in chin
ney cracks, crevices and cutters, and
increased with alarming rapIdity. And
to-day not a chirp of birds can be heard
anywhere within Forsyth park, which
was once melodiOus with song. This is
but a fail sample of his behavior else
where. He has beaten every bird away
from every neighbOThOOd where it has
pleased him to take up his abode, and a
native American songster can only he
found in the dim recesses and Businesses
of river swamps.
Domiciled in neat. tasteful houses i'll
the beautiful park of Savannah he went
to work iudustriously to increase his
numbers up to the war making point,
When this was reached, with note of
warming, he pounced upon the mocking
birds. the cat birds. the blue jays, the
iorees that had for many years made
lheir homes amid the trees and shrub
berry. and in a day they were driven into
an exile as terrible to them as was the
rude world to Adam and Eve when they
stepped out forever from the beauties of
the garden of Eden.
The New York Sun says of the Eng
lish sparrow:
"But in New York proper, of which he is
uOw naturaliZed citizen, he is the feathered