Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1909 — MEN SCARECROWS. [ARTICLE]

MEN SCARECROWS.

Human beings as scarecrows? Why not? It may seem queer and brutal to an American, but here in England the human scarecrow is common.' As he stands out there, in the middle of the flat Suffolk field, there is little to show he is not the ordinary Inanimate scarecrow. He stands motionless for five minutes at a time, and Only when a bird is tempted by the fresh corn just appearing above the ground does he show any sign or life. From the road outside the field he looks exactly like the conventional collection of old clothes propped upon a stick. The ragged overcoat and the misshapen hat can be seen any day, at this time of the year, in almost any field in England. Even the crows are contemptuous of the figure, and every now and then a number of them appear leisurely above the hedge and settle on the field. But then it is that -tho sooroerow -moves;-he hits -an eld tin can with the rusty handle of a shovel and frightens the birds, and makes them fly quickly dut of sight. So he spends his day, this old bent man, and at the end he is paid 36 cents. He is the village scarecrow. Every morning now soon after the light comes, he leaves his son’s cottage in the meadow and walks through the village street to the fields, a mile away. And then, for nearly 12 hours, he keeps the birds from the corn Dy making a noise on his old tin can. Whatever the weather may be, he is expected to be there. In rain he may shelter under the nearest hedge, but he must watch the fields, and if the birds take advantage of his absence he must go out into the open and scare them from the corn. For this old man knows well that he is competing for his living against the clothes propped upon a stick or the dead crows scattered about the field, and it is necessary that he should take a certain pride in his profession. Unless he can show the farmer that he is more effective than the conventional scarecrow, he cannot make a living in the few months between the sowing of the seed and the appearance of the corn.

Fortunately for him he does not fear competition with the boys of the village. The days when they were willing to earn a sixpence by frightening birds from the fields have gone. In his day—that is, when he was young —any one in the village who was under 12 was glad to earn a penny a day pocket money and flvepence for the home; but now there are the schools’ and the town close by and the railway to London. So it is that he has almost a monopoly Ifi his profession. While the boys of the village are in school he can earn enough in these few months of the year to keep him from the worxhouse. He is still capable of scaring birds. His very clothes are a qualification. He looks exactly like a scarecrow, and he has the advantage of being able to hit an old tin can with the rusty handle of a shovel. At 1 o’clock he has his dinner of bread and cheese by the side of the hedge, but every now and then he gets up and looks around to see that the fields are free from birds.

Sometimes, when the day is colder than usual, his granddaughter from the cottage a mile away brings Dim a hot dinner in a basin covered with a cloth, and while he eats she talks to him about her school, and if a bird appears nfns carefully onto the field and claps her hands and frightens it. And when the dinner is finished she gayly says “Good-by,” and goes back along the road. And then the old man—this shabby guardian of the fields —is left alone. For the fields now are empty of everything except the growing corn. As far as thb eye can see there is nothing except old shapes by hedges and by roads. The only suggestion of life is a collection of old clothes propped up. on a stick In the field nearby a mile away. And when the old man looks at this silent competitor of his he is filled with new energy, and strides off to the field, making a great noise with his old tin can?—London Cor. Baltimmore Sun.