The 1877 headline was directed at little boys who might be tempted to kill the English (house) sparrows that had been imported to Utah earlier that year.
"Boys, let the sparrows alone, otherwise you may get into trouble before long," the newspaper warned. "Insect destroyers are needed in this region to help preserve fruit when it comes onto the trees."The Salt Lake City Council reinforced the warning by passing an ordinance protecting the birds.
That was before the real nature of the English sparrow had manifest itself. Less than a decade later, by 1886, little boys were being offered a quarter-cent bounty for each sparrow head they could turn in. Snares and slingshots were encouraged, and the boy who showed up at the local country clerk's office with the most sparrow heads was awarded a medal.
The sparrows were introduced to Utah by some successful early Salt Lake merchants, the Walker Brothers, but ultimately proved to be more harmful than helpful to local agriculture.
A Walker Brothers employee, in fact, had tried to deter the merchants from freeing the birds in Utah. The employee, a Mr. Batt, later told others that he was in the basement of the Walker home and saw boxes containing the sparrows, which had been shipped via New York.
A recent emigrant from England, Mr. Batt knew something about sparrows.
"Before you turn them loose, you had better chop their heads off. They will be an everlasting nuisance and damage to the country," he reportedly told the Walkers.
They chose to ignore his advice. They had spent $100 to bring the birds to Utah and this was their third attempt to establish the English sparrow in the state. They were determined to set the birds loose as planned, according to a recollection in "Utah Birds: Historical Perspectives and Bibliography" by William H. Behle.
The expectation was that the sparrows would control codling moths that had severely damaged territorial fruit crops for several years. The birds were prolific breeders, the Salt Lake Tribune reported: "In short, it is believed that they are better breeders than the Mormons themselves."
They were. By 1886, the headlines had reversed themselves. "Sparrows must go," they proclaimed. The Territorial Legislature passed a bill declaring a cash bounty for sparrow heads.
Utah was experiencing the same consternation that was evident in many parts of the United States as imported sparrows outstripped their welcome. It was an era when there was little understanding of the delicate ecological balances in nature and several countries were learning the hard way what happened when the balance was destroyed.
As the sparrow problem grew, in some areas of the United States hawks were specially trained to target the little brown birds. In others, poison campaigns were undertaken to trim their numbers.
Belatedly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had looked more closely at the habits of English sparrows. Researchers found that the birds tended to pass up the insects they were imported to eat in favor of the crops they were supposed to be protecting.
"The sparrow has increased and multiplied amazingly and has waxed fat and saucy, but not on a diet of worms. He has lived on grain and fruit, to the great disgust and cost of the farmers and orchardists. More than this, the sparrows have proved the friends and protectors of the insects by driving away the birds which live on worms," an official report said.
Frustrated, one anonymous writer to the Deseret News suggested that sparrows, along with jack rabbits, be killed, canned and shipped to the East for sale.
The birds had some friends. A Deseret News writer in 1895 noted that the birds had been so decimated in New York that the city was being plagued with caterpillars, lightning bugs and beetles, suggesting that Utah should not be so quick to destroy the sparrows.
However, a fellow Salt Laker responded that Utah couldn't expect any help from the sparrow in controlling insect populations. The English sparrow had as much interest in eating insects "as a tramp does for a saw and woodpile. He doesn't disturb them except it be by accident."
Even so, in 1914, a study on the food habits of birds in relation to the control of the alfalfa weevil in Utah showed the sparrow was doing its share in eating up weevil larvae.
Despite the anti-sparrow sentiment, the immigrants ultimately became part of Utah's roster of "native" birds. Their chirping is common music even in busy downtown areas, where gregarious colonies congregate in trees and bushes. They are found in every city in the state as well as on farms and ranches, nesting in every nook and cranny and attracting little notice from either detractors or fans.