GAME PRESERVATION IN MINNESOTA FORESTS. 453 



GAME PRESERVATION IN MINNESOTA FORESTS. 



HON. W. B. DOUGLAS, ST. PAUL. 



In listening to the remarks by Prof. Green on the subject of 

 forestry and having in mind what the president has just said 

 upon that subject, and particularly because of my very tender 

 regard for this Itasca Park, I have been almost tempted to di- 

 gress from the subject that has been assigned me to discuss 

 for a moment the subject of forestry. I am afraid that would 

 not be tolerated here in the presence of Gen. Andrews and Prof. 

 Green and in the light of what has been said. I cannot refrain 

 from commending substantially all that Prof. Green has said on 

 the subject of the Itasca Park and particularly so with refer- 

 ence to his remarks made concerning game preservation. If I 

 should take up that topic and say all I wish to say in regard to 

 it, with reference to Itasca Park in particular, I do not know 

 where I would end. Some years ago it became my official duty 

 to have something to do with that park and being a hunter by 

 inclination, if not exactly by profession — and sometimes by pro- 

 fession — I took some little interest in the game preservation and 

 we issued some rules, which were somewhat rigid but were 

 strictly enforced with reference to game. A year ago last fall I 

 had an invitation to visit Itasca Park with the governor and 

 the attorney general, and the governor was "joshing" me some- 

 what with reference to the game that was to be found there and 

 promised in the event that I did not show him some deer to 

 throw me into the lake. The first afternoon Governor Johnson 

 had the pleasure of seeing eleven dee/ standing in the water and 

 all within a radius of three-fourths of a mile of the Itasca State 

 Park House. It only goes to show that game may be preserved 

 with very little exertion, if the rules are enforced along the 

 proper lines. 



This does not belong altogether to the subject I intended to 

 discuss, but a day or two since I read of an occurrence in the 

 life of Judge Lindsey. Judge Lindsey, as you all know, is the 

 originator of the "juvenile court" for looking after neglected and 

 delinquent children. One of the first cases brought before him 

 in the history of that court was a boy who was charged with 

 stealing a few boards, and the contractor from whom they were 

 taken appeared before the judge and testified against the boy. 

 The judge took the case under advisement and walked with the 

 boy to the backyard where he had used the boards. The boy 

 pointed out a house which he had constructed out of some old 

 lumber and with the boards he had taken. The judge said to the 

 boy in the language of the street, "Why did you swipe those 

 boards?" The boy said, "The girls could not make houses with 

 us boys, and we could not have any sand to play in, and I thought 



