DUTY AND POWER OF THE CITIZEN 163 



tary necessity that we should know the composition 

 and numerical strength of the enemy. 



As a sort of voucher for the character of my 

 statements regarding the army of destruction, I 

 desire to state that during the past twenty years I 

 have come in personal touch with thousands of men 

 who shoot and thousands of real wild-life protec- 

 tors. My personal acquaintance with the men who 

 kill wild creatures covers the best hunting-grounds 

 of two hemispheres, and from this acquaintance I 

 have learned the true sentiments toward wild life of 

 several thousand men. As this acquaintance has 

 progressed, I have met one surprise and shock after 

 another. My original, optimistic and too liberal 

 opinion of the sentiments of the men who shoot 

 game has steadily and rapidly gone down. To-day, 

 I know that there are in the ranks of the men who 

 shoot game a very few men, let us be very liberal 

 and say 5 per cent, who are noble-hearted, high- 

 minded, awake to their duty toward wild life and to 

 posterity, and willing to make real sacrifices in 

 order to do their duty. 



But the 95 per cent are utterly contemptuous of 

 their duty whenever the saving of wild life involves 

 a real, personal sacrifice. Twenty per cent of them 

 virtuously stop shooting and hang up their guns 

 when the game is so reduced that there is no longer 

 a good bag to be had! The remaining 75 per cent 

 will go right on shooting, down to the very last bird 

 of a species, so long as the law permits it! 



