Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1892 — A Country Without Fences. [ARTICLE]

A Country Without Fences.

South Carolina is a country without fences, writes a correspondent, and it is a vast improvement in the landscape, as well as a great saving in money. It looks odd at first on the big, level plain on which Aikon stands to soo a greut stretch of country unbroken by a single fence, and here und there a house or barn without .ny protecting walls or fences. Tho Legislature has abolished fences by declaring that evory man is entitled to enjoy his own land, without interference or damage from his neighbors’ cattle. T, at is, if I own two scrubby and hungry pigs and you have a thousaud-acro farm next door, I must keep my pigs at homo and not compel you to spend half your • substance in building a fence uround your farm. Life, liberty, and tho keeping of pigs and mules are all sacred under the South Carolina Constitution, but the man who owns the pigs or inules or any other amiinals must feneo them ia or otherwise confine them, if they run looso or brouk loose and do any damage, their ownor must pay for it.

This is tho most sensible solution of fence problem that I ever seen or heard of. It is entirely now to me, so I onjoy it all the more, and the more I think of it the more sensib e it seems. It goos right down to tho root of justice. Here you have in New York State or in New Jersey a thousand acres of land or a hundred acres, or any other quantity, and you are entitled to roap and enjoy tho fruits of your labor on tho capital invested in that land without let or hindrance. But ono of your neighbors may wish to keep a dozen sheep, and another cow, and a third a handful of chickens that probably that will not lay eggs, (I speak fioni experience hero,) und for that reason you must put a fonco of a certain legalized height and pattern arouud your whole plnce, or olso you cannot make your neighbors pay for any damage their cattle may do your crops. It would ho just as reaj sonab.o to, say that no man shall : bo convicted of burglary unless tho i house lie breaks into has walls so many ■ feet high and so many feet thick. South ; Carolina is fifty years in advance of the j North in tho handling of this fenoe j problem.—[New York Times.