Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1908 — Tom and Tabby Hit by Cruel Cat Law [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Tom and Tabby Hit by Cruel Cat Law

Rest-disturbing feline music of the midnight back fence variety : will be unknown In Washington, says i District Commissioner MacFarland, when congress enacts Into law a bill he has had prepared. Mr. MacFarland is president of the board of commissioners of the district and is preparing to submit to his two colleagues his bill for their approval. It exercises the taxing ( power to exterminate the cats of the national capital. The midnight Thomas cats are to be taxed $5 per year and anti-race-suicide tabby cats are to be taxed |lO. Cats to escape the

clutches of the pondmaster must wear tags, and it is distinctly provided in the bill that the payment of tax does not permit any cat to go upon private property other than that occupied by its owner. If the author and friends of the bill have devised a means of collecting non-taxpaying cats it is kept secret. It is rumored that a fence-scaling brigade, armed with ladders and butterfly nets, will be turned loose to gather In the taxdodgers. The crusade against cats is being led by Mr. MacFarland because of the disturbed state of mind caused him while en route home at nights by thoughtless, indiscriminatlng cats. It is not thought that serious protest will be entered against the proposed law on constitutional grounds that it is class legislation and is aimed at the poor cats of the backyard variety, while the cats of the well-to-do families will be safe from prosecution, because of the protection of a home.