Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-11-05
How Dorm THE LITTLE BUSY Bee

How DoTH THE LITTLE BUSY BEE
A lawsuit came up for trial at Rlchland
Center last week that possesses, to say
the very least, features. A. j. Powers,
until recently a well-to-de sheep-raiser,
sometime ago brought suit against S.
j. Freeborn, bee-keeker, for trespass,
laying damages at the market value of
one flock of sheep. Brooks g. butcher
appeared as counsel for the plaintiff,
while the defendant was represented by
Black & Burnham and Burr w. Jones,
late candidate for congress in this dis
trict. 1t appears that last spring Mr..
Powers was the happy possessor of a
flock of mild-eyed sheep, and it was the
delight Of his life to sit beneath the ivy
of his farmhouse porch and watch the
innocent lambkins disport themselves
in the sunlight amid the apple blossoms
of the orchard and along the green and
grassy slopes leading gently down to the
purling brooklet, bordered by the gold
en- cowslip and the toothsome water
cress. 1t was peaceful pastoral scene
and Hope, enchanted, smiled and waved
her golden hair. But even as Satan, in
the gmse of pretty serpent, entered
the valam brosia of Eden, SO the bees of
Frsebern, actuated by fiendish malig-
nancy, and armed with the fiery darts
of Tophet, winged their remorseless
way from the Freeborn heritage 20 the
| clover blossoms of the said Powers as
| aforesaid. and slipped, and slipped, and
slipped. Mark the result Deprived OF
the nectar OF the clover blossoms by the
rapacity and spoliation of Freedom :
bees, and worried in mind at the loss OF
| the very cream of the meadows, Pow
| ers' sheep were broken of their natural
rest, and became nervous, dispirited
and melancholy. So deeply did the in.
! famous sacrilege and loss of nutriment
prey upon the minds of the sheep, and
| so intense were their mental sufferinos
under the cruel wrong, that they began
pining away, broken-heart aud one
after another lay down its burden and
closed its eyes upon earth and all its
beauties, to sleep that last long
sleep, the dreamless sleep of death
| Callous and cold the brutal bees still
| fitted from flower to flower, and it i.
believed that Freeborn secretly encuur.
aged them in their scoundrely work
Powers stood it IS long as his nature
was capable of control. One after an
other he saw his pets fall by the way.
side, turn up their clear. gazelle-lik,
eyes to the floating cloudlets in tn,
azure sky-clouds as light and fleecy al
their own downy ceats-and then tn,
iron entered his soul. He did not strik,
Freedom dead at his feet, but brough
suit against him for the trespass of the
sheep upon his premises, and entered
court prepared to prove all he assever
ated-prepared to prove the loss Of nu
triment, the mental strain to which tn,
bees had been subjected by the preda
tory bees, their grief, humiliation anC
repinings. But the attorneys for tn,
defense raised the point that no law ex
listed defining the exact number of bee
necessary to constitute trespass. On,
solitary little bee could not justifiabl,
be termed a trespasser within the full
meaning of the law, should he wander
away into by and forbidden paths and
pack his grip with surreptitious saccha
rine; and if one bee could not constitute
a trespasser, how many bees, they de
sired to know, must invade prohibited
pasture in order to commit felony
Judge Clementson said in effect that il
was too fine print for him, and declined
to hear evidence eliminating the little
bees. or proving an alibi in their behalf
The case will probably go to the
supreme court, where some law may b,
laid down covering this novel case.