May 5, 2017
This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.
Do you know
it is against the law to turn your chickens loose to rampage in your neighbor’s
garden? If you didn’t know this, you’d
better brush up a bit as the local police force is into the law and intends to
enforce it! So read the headline in the
Junction City’s “Daily Union” newspaper in May of 1912. Two or three parties were said to have
already told their tales of woe to his honor, the city court judge, and as many
more had been warned. Residents were
advised to get out a hammer and nails and look for “leaks in the coop”. If they
couldn’t stop the chickens from getting out on account of a poor pen, the law
would not be too sympathetic. Anyone
without chickens was naturally proud of their garden and the law would be on
their side if they took out their shotgun to protect their plants.
When riders of horses came to town,
they were also reminded that they should use the iron hitching posts put up for
the express purpose of tying their horses. The city authorities insisted on
keeping its shade trees out of the grasp of underfed livestock and had ordered
the police force to keep a sharp lookout for the careless horse owner. The city was said to be a “tolerable jealous
guardian” of its property and it hated, above all things, to have young trees
that had just been set out devoured by either horse or cattle.
No comments:
Post a Comment