Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1883 — The Owl and the Farmer. [ARTICLE]

The Owl and the Farmer.

An owl who was reconnoitering a Farmer’s hen-coop, was caught by the leg in a steel trap, and held fast until the toil-hardened agriculturist came out in the morning to finish him. “Sir! What is the meaning of this outrage!” demanded the Owl. “You were after my Poultry,” was the reply. “We will let the law settle that point. I will see if a free-born American Owl is to be treated in this lawless manner 1” Being taken into Court, the Owl put in the defense that no farmer had any legal right to keep Hens, and the Judge closed the case by saying: “While the presence of the Owl in the vicinity of the henery goes to show that he would prefer Fowl to Hash, the Farmer has failed to prove whether the trap was bought of a man with a squint in his left eye or a wart on his nose. The Owl is entitled io SIOO damages for his injuries, and the Farmer is jugged for thirty days for unlawfully obstructing the United Staimt Mail- ”1 r ■ : a ♦.. >.. Moral: Keep Otfls, instead of Hens.