The Lehi banner. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1891-1917, 1898-01-11

Eight Thousand Birds Killed in
One Afternoon.
Ohio Farmers Get Together Every Year
and Devote Day TO the ESter-
mination of the Little Eng
lish Pests.

and to this day the hunt is conducted
on a 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 Koko'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:
1.-THE annual sparrow hunt will be
held tomorrow. All are invited. Please
be on hand not later than eight o'clock
a. NJ, 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. II
doesn't take long to circulate such an.
announcement in a 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 60 con.
spicuous Immediately after the war.
was no longer noticeable. City foil:
hez done il ALL" croaked Elder Paine.
"They've come out here N shot quail
with brich leaders N now nuthin will
do but that ev'ry boy in the neighbor.
hood must be armed with a new-fangled
gun wuth more'n q 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
1T doesn't require much skill to shoot
English sparrows. They are so tame
tlatanyone 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 a stipu-
lated time in the afternoon, all sparrows
TO count up TO the time that the con-
testants should report to the score
keeper at the center.
In five minutes from the time that the
men started on their way the guns
tegan to bang. All up and down the
valley during the entire afternoon the
reports filed the air until the inhab-
itants might have been excused for be-
lieving that war skirmish was going
OH 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 to
eat the farmers out of house and home.
One peculiar fact about shooting spar
rows is that the noise of the guns seems
20 brighten them only temporarily.
They rapidly become accustomed to
the report, as they do to everything
else. They are the most compliment
lttleupstarts that ever immigrated into
the country. On Fourth of July the
same Characteristic is noticeable. In
early morning, when the first few fire.
crackers OF miniature torpedoes are dis
charged, the sparrows will fly away
to the topmost branches of the trees
or to the caves of the barns and houses,
where they build nests, but before
nightfall they are back again on the
streets as clipper as ever and only
mind a tirecracker long enough to fly
few feet away and sputter like the
mischief when it bursts. So il is
when hunting. The first discharge OF
weapons early in the morning sent
the sparrows away to their safest re-
treats, but by noon, between hunger
and the fact that they no longer
dreaded the noise, they were out on
the roads, in the fields, about barnyards
and stealing the grain away from the
chickens, as though they never had
heard n shotgun.
SENATOR BRIcE, some time ago, walled
up the front door in his house so as to
have nothing but a carriage entrance.
In 1891 President Andrew jackson
appointed Mr.. w. Ii. Wallace to the
post office at jefferson, o. Though
eighty-four Yeas old, the postmaster
ntill holds the ofiioe.