Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-01-03


taliarion for the provocation OF iiieg'
Enclosure of lands and Illegal fence
WIS, essentially, communism. renee
emitting has been condoned, III NOS ac'
ually encouraged. until fences are cut
not because they are illegal or incios
any except the owners land, oul NC
cause of the pure deviltry that ha
been turned loose by the sentimen
which has condoned the evil in SOM
places ana encouraged ii in Others
The great evil to be feared is that mei
of SndN property who now, from 'ni
ill-conrealed spirit of communism
DESTROY the property Of richer men
may, by the spirit they invoke, hn'
themselves confronted with com
munism that recks not OF the size o
the pasture. the material of which the
fence is built, or the amount OF prop
erty man owns that ih'
spirit encouraged in the country may
extend to the town and the depreda'
ton on the property of the farmer OF
stockman become the depreciation on
banks and stores Every community,
rural or urban, has its idle and It's
vicious. ana crime is as contagious as
the small-p X. Already houses OF
men in Brown county who were
prominent in threatening property
destruyers with the law have been
fired and only saved from destruction
timely discovery. Now, where is
the evil to end? If men who own
property destroy property and thus
engeuder hostility t. property, thus
encourage cOmmunis how long
will it be before their own property,
no matter how small, becomes the OBJ
ect of the fell spirit they themselves
have evoked? Already the fences of
small pastures are being cut. How
long will the spirit aroused contine it.
self 10 property in fences? How long
will ii be confined to property in the
country? II his thing is not stopped,
how long will it be before protested
bills Will tell the wholesale merchant
of the city that he has an interest in
the maintenance of law in the country?
How long will II be- before all classes
of people in al sections will feel that
they have an interest in what concerns
OF al. Ia
parr is diseased the whole cannot but
suffer; and the disease may spread, il
is spreading, and the conservatism of
capital in sections at first remote from
fence-cutting has had it brought 10 it,
very doors! Aud this, perhaps, is the
one cause of the reaction now plainly
apparent. Fence-cutting has over
done the thing 1t started out to do:
and the provocation which impellcd
The honest opponent Of an illrgality to
right with the nippers what he did
not believe would be ever righted by
has become less venal than |
the extreme reached by the lawless- |
ness set in motion 10y misguided OPP |
position TO wrong Fencp-cutting has |
not stopped because the legislature is |
to meet, and it is AN open question
whether it will stop after that body |
cnnvenes. If the thing do not result |
in Il yet more exciting state of affairs
it will be lucky for all the state. Cer-
tainly property-Owners who hav. de- !
stroyed the property of richer men
than themselves have set u fearful ex- |
ample to men who have still less than !
themselves and to men who have
none at all. The spirit evoked has not
up to this time contented itself with |
fence-cutting and it can only be hoped
that it will not extend its operations
beyond that peculiar crime any further
than it has already" The GAZETTE |
commends these views to the anony-
NOUS correspondent of the News as
at least deserving consideration.
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