Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1911 — HAPPLNINGS IN THE CITILS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAPPLNINGS IN THE CITILS

Crow Heads Puzzle the Officials

INDIANAPOLIS IND. 4 —Here is a pretty kettle of fish. The offices of the county clerks in Indiana are being filled to oversowing with the heads of dead crows, and the result is not pleasing to the sense of smell, to say the least. Came about this way: At the last session of the legislature of the state succeeded in having a law enacted which placed a bounty of ten oents upon the head ,of every crow. The farmers argued that the crows destroyed much of their crops by eating the seeds after they were scattered on the ground and were a nuisance in general. Everybody thought it would be a good scheme to abolißh the pest by killing off a large number of the prolific crows/ And so it came to pass that the law was enacted and ’most everybody thought the question way solved at once and for all time. But it wasn’t. The county clerks are the sufferers and complainants now. The farmer boys spend their

“off rainy days” hunting crows. They are bringing them to the county seats by hundreds. The heads are strung like so many beads or pearls, and often the strings measure four or five feet in length. In communities where the crows are plentiful—and that seems to be all over Indiana —the gunners can bag enough crows in a day to realize a good compensation for their work. Here Is where the rub comes in. The county clerk who receives and pays for the crow heads muss keep them until his books, stock and office materials are audited by the county commissioners, which is once a year. Now what is the county clerk going to do with the hundreds and hundreds of crow heads brought to his office? Surely he cannot put them away in the safe with other valuables. Neither can he throw them away, for in that event he would have to stand the bounty money,, from his own pocket. The result is that hia office smells to high heaven, and even the sale of marriage licenses has suffered . a slump. v i-',-And that is the reason the county clerks of Indiana have signed a round robin and forwarded it to Governor Marshall, praying him to offer a solution, or at least appoint a commission for that end.