Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-26
NO NEED OF FENCES.
Singular Condition of the Laws Of
Line Barriers in This State.
A REPEAL OF THEM is SUGGESTED.
Arguments Advanced BY Those Who Think
There is Nowadays
no REASON WHY FENCES ARE REQUIRED

A Connellsville gentleman asks The
DISPATCH to give him q synopsis OF the
present fence law of Pennsylvania. Had
he asked to be told who struck Billy Patter-
son there might be faint prospect of graft
flying him, as one would naturally like to
be able to do, but if there is even "Phila-
delphia lawyer" who can give synopsis of
the fence laws Of this State he is unknown
to fame. A legal fence has been decided by
Judge to be zone horse high. bull strong
and pig tight" but this was the law OF 100,
and that section of it was repealed by the
last Legislature and nothing substituted for
it in a general way. The request has been
referred to a number of lawyers, none of
whom would undertake TO say in the null
tiplicity of enactmeuts what is the law.
B. C. Christy said that for $500 ne would
undertake to make a synopsis of the laws on
the subject, some of them county and some
township laws. but that when made he
wouldn't undertake to guarantee any
opinion he might have on the subject to be
worth nickel With this view, Frank
Smith and Judge Fetterman coincided,
while William Reardon seemed to hold an
opinion similar to that expressed by Betsy
Prigg, respecting the much-quoted Mrs.
Harris-"there amt no sich law"
The statute books are plastered over with
special laws for counties and townships, and
in some of them no general law is of any
force. There are townships in this county
where. if cattle, hogs, sheep or horses are
found on the highway, they can be shut up
and advertised as estrays, while in others
they cannot be. unless they trespass on
private property. In some townships no
fences are needed, and in others they are,
as the repeal of the material portion of the
law of 100 is not regarded as repeating
special laws. Some lawyers say 1t may,
and others think it does moi.
THE CHEAPER WAY.
Not long since man came to q lawyer,
complaining that a neigh5or had shut his
stock up and would not release the animals
unless paid for, and asked what could be
done about it. The lawyer asked what
amount was demanded for the release, and
the client replied S. ''Well," said the
lawyer, you had better pay it, for would not
undertake to tell you what you can do for
less than S25, and don't know but that 1
would charge you $50 before we got
through" The man paid the 50 and got his
stock out of durance. n
1t is suggested by some, both lawyers and
farmers, that the next Legislature should re-
peal all fence laws, and either make gen.
eral one, defining what constitutes an in
| closure in the eye of the law, or decree that
no fences whatever are obligatory, and the
most enlightened opinion squints toward the
latter view of the case.
1t is beginning to strike people of average
sense that in the thickly settled portions OF
the country general fences are not only un-
| slightly, costly to make, and great waste of
land, but also a relic of barbarism that
should not outlive the last decade of the
nineteenth century. The ordinary worm
fences on 50-acre farm occupy AZ feet in
| width all around, with fully feet more
| that cannot be worked on account of the
contiguitY of the fence, and this, with cross
fences, not only takes up several acres of
space, but is breeding ground for br1ars
and weeds, and a harbor for vermin, and
to all these drawbacks its aspect
| is unsightly. Even wire fences are costly,
as we'll as dangerous to stock. There are
portable fences which are easily made, and
bv these each farmer could confine his stock
in small space, and not only save land for
| cultivation, but get twice as much benefit
| from his pasture as he does now, as only
| hunger will compel stock to eat grass after
| thev have fouled it. Farmers in closely
settled localities have found it profitable to
keep their stock in yards and cut fodder for
it as required, and these farmers generally
get as much return from 20 acres as the ave-
rage Pennsylvania farmer does from 100.
AN EVIDENCE OF DEPRAvITY.
According to the Bible, fences are an evil
dence of depravity-one, in fact, marking
the beginning of it. Before Adam delved
and Eve span and nowhere on earth was
found the gentleman, as defined by Black
stone-before the primeval parents of sin
and sorrow were expelled from Eden, and
before mans disobedience and its fruit
turned all things in the moral and physical
world opsy-turyy-iences were unknown.
But when the fg-leaf costume became the
fashion, tine tree of life was fenced with a
flaming sword, and when, through painful
experience, the first children Of the world
learned that SIN Adams fall we sinned ali" I"
and that 'In Gains murder we
sinned iurder,'' misery began to
multiply Itself, and lingual
fence, separating mankind into hostile
camps, was built as the outcome of an
attempt to build the Tower of Babel, ard
ever since then "nations separated by q
narrow firth abhor each other" and often 1
mountain or river constitutes fence
that makes nations enemies and the common
soldier in an army fires at the hell-houpds
of the opposition, simply because they wear
red, blue or gray uniforms, neither side
knowing nor caring whether either is in the
right. ,s
If nations were to cultivate the golden
rule spirit in their Intercourse with each
other, instead of radical pride, we would
soon have little heaven below, but this
must be done by first getting acquainted,
and Pennsylvania farmers should point the
way by the abolition of boundary fences.
1t might be hard for time on the chip
mucks, mice and snakes, but they could
find refuge in the leafy woods, and the
farmer could spare more food for them on
his increased output. It may be that the
ever-increasing cost of timber will effect, in
time, what philanthropy and moral teach
ing failed to do. When land was cheap,
woods extensive and needed for common
pasturage, there was excuse for fences, but
none at all at present, and some people in
the cities are beginning to realize it.
WANT TT sFTrTrn no