76 First Annual Report 



"I can recall the kick of a pony, and a cow running over a child — shall 

 keeping of horses and cows be forbidden by ordinance ? And while bees 

 have been kept for centuries in towns, it is an argument in their favor that 

 Arkadelphia is the first on record to forbid them. I respectfully submit that 

 while the court must judicially know the habits of all animals, the 'little busy 

 bee' should have a chance with the cow, the horse, the sportive dog, the 

 gentle, purring cat, and even the festive chicken cock — on a par with coun- 

 sel's skunk farm story — a pure fiction of Bill Nye. 



"I may be allowed to refer to the fact that last year two instances are 

 given in newspapers, one authentic at Hot Springs, one elsewhere, not so 

 well established — -where children were killed by a chicked cock attacking 

 them. For this reason can the keeping of chickens be forbidden? The bee 

 has no such record of homicidal or infanticidal results. Will these instances, 

 or the fighting of mother-hens over their broods, make chickens per se 

 nuisances? Unless bees, under all circumstances, however kept and tended, 

 and in any quantities however small are per se nuisances — this ordinance 

 cannot be sustained; for it does not regulate the quantity, or manner of 

 keeping, or make the keeper responsible, as in case of other dangerous 

 animals, and punishable for consequences, but assumes to destroy property 

 in them in Arkadelphia altogether, or compel a man to leave his home and 

 buy another, or quit his business. 



"The provision of sections 751 to 764, Mansfield, does not give the city 

 of Arkadelphia power to take a man's property for public use, without com- 

 pensation, under the power to prevent injury or annoyance. Section 751 

 invests them with no such qida timet jurisdiction. 



"Because bees may sting or annoy, therefore we prohibit. It would fol- 

 low that because cows may gore, dogs annoy the sensitive by barking 

 or biting, or running mad we will also prohibit them. Because vehicles may 

 annoy, by raising dust or making a noise, or animals may run away in har- 

 ness, therefore we prohibit them. No such autocratic or despotic power is 

 necessary to preserve the citizen from real harm and annoyance; and the 

 legislature could not prohibit the keeping of bees, and could not delegate 

 such power under the bill of rights. For the right to acquire, possess, and 

 protect property is secured by Section 2, Article 2, of the Constitution, be- 

 yond legislative and municipal control, and bees are the subject of property. 

 Nor can the citizen be destroyed or deprived of his life, liberty or property 

 except by the judgment of his peers and the law of the land . 



ib. Section 21 . Nor shall property be taken or damaged for public use 

 without just compensation, ib. Section 22. This property-right is also 

 protected by the 14th amendment to the United States constitution. Stock- 

 ton laundry case, 26 Federal Rep. 611. The last cited is a case in point. The 

 general law regulating governments of cities does not give every town coun- 

 cil, when, in their judgment, they fear that the keeping of certain kinds of 

 property may annoy or injure, to declare it an annoyance and prohibit it. It 



