The Lehi banner. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1891-1917, 1897-10-12
A SPARROW HUNT,
Eight Thousand Birds Killed in
One Afternoon.
Ohio Farmers Get Together Every Year
and Devote Day to the Exter-
mination of the Little Eng
n Iisb Pests,

to have originated in Summit county,
and to this day the hunt is conducted
on more elaborate scale in that part
of the state than anywhere else. Only
English sparrows are shot, and no mat
ter how many are killed. like KolSo's
victims, they never will be missed"
Early in the month of December the
farmers, having got everything stored
away neatly and safely, having pro
vided plenty of wood and having
boarded up the cattle sheds for the
winter, decided that il was about time
TO go on the warpath for sparrows. A
notice was posted up next day at Rich
field Center TO this effect:
THE annual sparrow hunt will be
held tomorrow. All are invited. Please
be on hand not later than eight o'clock
a. H., lothian Potter and Cyrus Hop
kins will be captains of the two teams,
respectively and will choose sides at
7:45 a. m"
On the following morning nearly 100
men were ready for the hunt. 1t
doesn't take long to circulate such an
announcement in farming commune
ty in Ohio. Especially is this true dur
ing the winter season, when there is
nothing that the younger people like
better than to visit around.
When the hunters came together it
was noticeable that nearly all of them
carried guns of modern make. Very
few old-pattern pieces were shouldered
by the stalwart sons of the county, and
the army musket, which was so con
spicuous Immediately after the war,
was no longer noticeable. CITY foil;
hez done it all" croaked Elder Paine.
They've come out here N shot quail
with brich leaders m now nuthin' will
do but that ev'ry boy in the neighbor.
hood must be armed with new-fangled
gun wuth more'n hull summers
work"
AS soon as the contestants could be
placed in line the captains chose their
men. 1t didn't take long to do that, for
it doesn't require much skill to shoot
English sparrows. They are so tame
shatanyone can get close enough TO pop
them over as fast as he can sight his
gun. The hunters with the guns that
can be operated with the most speed
are almost certain to be those to make
the largest scores.
One side went up the valley and the
other side went down, the agreement
being to hunt in circle and come to-
gether again at the center at n stipu-
lated time in the afternoon, all sparrows
TO count up 10 the time that the con
testants should report to the score
keeper atsthe center.
In five minutes from the time that the
men started on their way the guns
Logan to bang All up and down the
valley during the entire afternoon the
reports filled the air until the inhab
itants might have been excused for be
lieving that a war skirmish was going
ON in the neighborhood The spar
rows never had been thicker. In fact
they had been so thick during the sum
mer months that they threatened tc
eat the farmers out of house and home
One peculiar fact about shooting spar
rows is that the noise of the guns seems
TO brighten them only temporarily
They rapidly become accustomed Il
the report, as they do to everything
else. They are the most complacen'
littleupstarts that ever immigrated int
the country. On Fourth OF July the
same characteristic is noticeable. Ii
early morning, when the first few fire
crackers or miniature torpedoes are dis
charged. the sparrows will fly away
to the topmost branches of the tree
or to the caves of the barns and houses
where they build nests, but before
nightfall they are back again on TIN
streets as clipper as ever, and onl,
mind a firecracker long enough to fl.
a few feet away and sputter like thu
mischief when il bursts. So il il
when hunting. The first discharge o
weapons early in the morning sen
the sparrows away to their safest re
treats, but by noon, between hunge
and the fact that they no longe
dreaded the noise, they were out Oh
the roads, in the fields, about barnyard
and stealing the grain away from tn
chickens, as though they never ha'
heard a shotgun.
AS the sun began to sink in the Yves
the pile of sparrows began to accumu
late. Some of the hunters were lucky
and shot themselves out of ammunition
before they had been out two hours
Others were not so fortunate, an,
I.