The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1901-09-06
EASE UP ON CHICKENS
Preacher Wants to Give Prairie Chickens
a Chance to Destroy the Grass
hoppsrs Around Here.
Boys arc Liable to Get Hurt While Play
ins Around the Cars in Jumping
On and OF.
Some Suggestions offered Why the Home
People Should Patronize Their Home
Merchants in Everything.
DEFENDS THE CHICKEN.
A Hunter Wants the Prairie Chicken
Saved to Destroy the Grass
hoppers.
From Fridays Daily.

From Fridays Daily.
EDITOR REPUBLICAN:
During the last three years we have
heard rumors OF the increasing destruc-
tion wrought by the increasing hordes
of grasshoppers.
In the ages past the grasshopper was
regarded as Gods ayenging enemy sent
to punish men for their sins; indeed,
every calamity was looked upon as q
judgment from the avenging Almighty
who punished men for their transgres-
sions much as our mother used to punish
us for our naughtiness with her slipper.
That Is, the punishment was something
entirely distinct from the sin, connected
with it by no natural law of cause and
effect.
Today VIC are less prophetic and more
scientific.
II, as some think, we have less faith
in God, 1t is certain we have more faith
in nature. To some of us, it is difficult
to see how a man can lose faith in God
by an increased faith in nature. Nature
and God are distinct to the schoolman
and the theologian, but practically the
same to the average man.
This as a preface to the game lava
which provides that prairie chicken,
nay be killed next Sunday. Some men
who refuse to break the law of the state
viii. not refuse to break the law OF God
by hunting on Sunday.
The prairie chickens are the natural
enemy of the grasshopper. If they
could be multiplied uutil they were as
plentiful In the fields as the English
sparrows are in the streets we should
not hear of the destruction of crops by
grasshuppers or any other insect. The
prairie chickens would eat the no ,pers
by the thousand for meal, as soon as
they are hatched.
In the providence of nature race is
being run between the hopper and the
prairie chicken. If hunters would be
moderate in their sports, or better, Ii
the legislature would forbid the killing
of prairie chickens for three years, we
should be saved from the impending
plague of grasshoppers, but if the de.
struction of the prairie chicken goes on
as is now threatened, it is very doubtful
II anything can save the state from ser.
ious loss in the near future.
1t 10 true that experiments have been
made to inoculate the hoppers with a
destructive and infectious disease. II
| We should kill the prairie chicken ss
we have the buffalo and should be un-
der the necessity of protecting the
growing crops by inoculating the hop.
pers, is it not very possible that the
prairie chicken will eat the diseased
hopper, take the disease, and being
shot, may be eaten by men, who, in
turn, may die of the disease, and thus
the circle may be completed, when the
plague that was originated to kill the
hopper afflicts us.
The gospel, according to science,
writes large, "Be sure your sin will ind
you out"
Kill the natural enemy of the hopper
and the hopper will multiply and de.
YOUR the harvest. Seek to prevent this
by incubation and you may get the
deadly incubation yourself.
Let the people demand the protection
of the prairie hen for three years, or
failing of this, let the sportsmen be
moderate in pursuit of their fun-a,
least moderate enough not to hunt on
Sunday. Lacking this moderation, it il
certain that we shall defeat ourselves
and bring upon the community serious
loss, not by any vengeance of God
but by a law as natural, absolute, un.
changeable and unavoidable as gravita
ton. T. II. YoUNGMAN.
Mitchell, Aug. 80, 1901.
BOYS GROWING CARELESS,