Daily Republican., 1886-11-02
AN OPEN LETTISR
TO the President and Members OF the
delaware Society for the Prevention
OF Cruelty TO Animals.


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: You may
have observed that by letter TO the
Every Evening of October 90 have
arraigned the agent and attorney of
your society before the bar of public
opinion for wrongful practices in the
case wherein my son, William 3
jackson, was tried before Squire Van.
degrift on the charge of transgressing
the laws Of the State bearing upon the
objects OF your corporate association.
1t behooves me to state the facts and
circumstances whereupon found this
arrangement, and In my efforts now to
do so | crave your patient attention.
do this with the more confidence
because both myself and son unite with
what we have heretofore believed to
be the legitimate aims of your society,
and have, more than any other per-
sons in this vicinity, endeavored to
actively cooperate with the objects
you desire to attain.
In fact, now advisedly make the
statement that this very activity of our
son in behalf Of your objects is the
main cause OF the unpopularity which
has led certain class into combina-
ton against him, which falls little, if
any, short of a guilty conspiracy. This
combination is largely composed of
low and incorporate characters, who
have little regard for truth and will
testify to positive talsehoods to attain
their ends, as we can prove.
Your agent and attorney co.operated
with that class alone, as the sequel
will show, giving our son no oppor-
tunity 10 state his side of the question.
Permit me now, in corroboration of
what is stated, TO relate an interesting
series of of notorious facts. We have,
on the eastern side of our valley, on
low woodland, the selected roosting
place of immense numbers of crow
blackbirds, known to ornithologists as
the Purple Grakle." In the even
ings of the autumn, after spending
their days helping the farmer TO rid
their lands of hurtful grubs, worms
and insects, thither concentrate these
interesting birds from miles in all
directions, by tens of thousands, with
their cheerful and continuous chatter,
to spend the night and rest from their
labors. They come, however, to meet
q cruel reception. Underneath the
trees stalk the thoughtless, if not
wicked. sportsmen, and from the bar
rels of numerous guns showers of shot
decimate their ranks and they fall in
unknown quantities dead, crippled and
NvfNn nd yh@ l.. LII
rise in clouds from their perchcs, W heel
few times around and over the val
ley, and again settle upon this favorite
woods, again to be met by the deadly
showers of lead. This process is re-
peated until the sportsmen become
weary Of their slaughter, or the dark
ness falls too heavily and drives them
to their homes. Soon, during the day
time, we see the manned and crippled
birds hopping around the neighbor-
hood, gaining precarious livelihood,
to be left behind (when their more
fortunate escaping comrades migrate
southwark TO more genial climes) to
perish amid the rigors Of winter to
which they are not adapted. Is it any
| wonder that the humane sense OF
many in this community was outraged
at this butchery and maimings, and
that they spoke to me as a. Justice of
the Peace to interfere'
Ladies and gentlemen of the So
ciety, designed to prevent such cruelty
as this, it is right you should know
that John Creeden, who made the for
NAL charge against VIM. B. Jackson,
is the son Of the late Daniel Creeden,
deceased, and Mary Ann, his wife,
who, while the father was living,
kept tavern. His mother The living
with herr is now keeping a tavern
and accused of transgressing the law,
at least in one point, of retailing to
minors; and that the same John Cree
den, who shed crocodile-tears over the
short lived pains of his trespassing
dog, is one of the active persons in
this wanton and ruthless bird slaugh-
ter; while VIM. B. Jackson is the
man who worked most industriously
in opposition to it, and he alone
amongst all who expressed to me
make the formal charge that would
enable me to prosecute under the law.
| Your honorable servant hac too
delicate sense OF judicial propriety to
i accept his willingness. and adopted
another course. Justice Vandegrift
does not appear to be troubled with
such scruples; since his son, your
agent, seems to be bis main detective
and carrier in OF 'grtsts to his MILL
The other course which | adopted
| did not bring in any fees neither to
me nor to your society; but seemed in
the whole more satisfactory. l
searched for pathological authority
and found in"Wllson andBonaparte's"
work where it is written of the bird in
question, as follows: They are par
ticularly destructive to almost all the
noxious worms, grubs and cater
pillars that infest his (the farmer's)
fields, which, were they allowed to
multiply unmolested, would soon con-
sumo nine-tenths of all the production
of his labor and desolate the country
with the miseries of famine"
The authors say this, after stating
that on the low grounds of our rivers,
they, at some seasons, become great
pests; yet, 1 found that, in their opin-
ions, the balance Of usefulness as in.
sectiverous birds, was greatly in favor
of all the several species of "black
bird"
l thereupon, instead of prosecuting.
had my son to copy and post in our
vicinity extracts from the laws against
cruelty to animals, and also those
against the shooting of insectiverous
birds, adding the statement that if
this wanton shooting did not cease, l
should deem it my duty to prosecute
under those laws.