Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1898-07-20
HUNTERS MUST QUIT.
Changed Conditions Greet Them in
Country Places.
An Army of stranE sportsmen In.
vades the Autumn Fields and
shows the Farmer Scant
COurtesy.

Shooting conditions in this country
are changing in no respect more rapid
ly than with these which govern the
privilege of entering upon fields for
shooting and fishing. In the old days
and they were not so long ago., either
the gunner who sought shooting
privileges was, for the most part, a
resident of the vicinity. known by sight
at least to the proprietor of the land
his neighbor, in fact, and the same
neighborly feelings prevailed here as
in other affairs. To GO at will upon a
farm and into woodlots for birds or
squirrels was a matter of course. No
one expected TO ask for any special
permission to do this, nor to have it
asked. There were even then posted
lands. but these were the exception and
not the rule. The notion of forbidding
free entry pom ones field was not
by any means commonly held Eor COM
monty sympathized with. The land
owner who treated shooters as intrud-
ers and trespassers was himself quite
likely to be LOOKED upon as a bit
cranky; the community tool it good
~naturedly and appreciated the humor
of the situation.
Moreover, the same neighborly feel
ing WHICH opened fields and meadows
and woodlands freely TO shooters and
fishermen governed those to whom the
privileges were extended. Thoughtless
boys who tore down stone walls for
woodchucks or rabbits might not stop
to repair the damage done, but the
elders were as r%egardful of the prop
-. ,1,,. ,-.,-lFA-- a.. II IL. 49,.
and the proprietor whose lands were
hunted over had no reason to interpret
the booming of guns in his fields as so
many signals that his property was be-
ing destroyed, fences torn down, tone
walls demolished and horses and cattle
disturbed. He knew that the sports
men were neighbors and that they were
TO be trusted.
In their incursion upon his land he
found no cause of alarm. no more than
they themselves would have when he
returned the compliment and went
armed and equipped upon their fields.
In some happy lands the old condi-
tons still prevail; but in very many Sec
tons a decided change of sentiment and
of practice has been wrought. 1t was
inevitable that this should be so. The
hosts of shooters have been multiplied
by tens and hundreds. They constitute
in season, and sometimes out of sea-
son an army of invasion. They are no
longer ones neighbors, nor the sons of
neighbors. They come from distant
towns and cities and states. The rail-
roads unload them upon the conrmuni-
~ for all the world Ike bodies of troops
for war. The booming Of guns. in
stead of being an inciIent of autumn
days, is continuous for weeks and
months, not emitting Sundays. And
when the farmer hears the reports he
may no longer say to himself, as for
merly: That's Tom Smiths gun. /
hope he'll drop in and see us on his
way home" For it is moi a neighbor
who is shooting, nor anyone with a
neighbours claim to the privilege of
shooting without permission; it may
be an entire stranger, devoid of the
courtesy which should prompt to a po-
lite request for permission 10 shoot, and
one who. having invaded the fields with
out so much as ''by your leave" as
IN to have a natural right to be
there, and resents any interference or
protest from the proprietor as a mani
festation of "crankiness."-New Haven
Comm Journal.