186 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



beasts are all gone, and it is entirely too late, some 

 one will devote a really large sum to salvage work. 



Before leaving this branch of our subject, I 

 desire to reveal one fact that may be useful. 

 The college-graduate-with-a-keen-conscience never 

 knows when a public need will leap upon his shoul- 

 ders and settle there, to be dislodged only through 

 personal effort in the line of imperative duty. He 

 never knows when he will be seized and impressed 

 into service by a cause. The chances are that 

 the men of the forest schools will be driven by 

 conservation causes. 



It is a popular idea that to solicit funds by sub- 

 scription is a painful task. Carried out beyond 

 two digits, it does become so. Under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, there is no calling more honorable than 

 soliciting funds for good causes. The solicitor has 

 no occasion to apologize because he is asking. It is 

 the solicited who apologizes when he is unable to 

 respond. During the past five years I have raised 

 much wild-life money by subscription, and I have 

 received scores of letters (with checks enclosed) 

 thanking me for having given the writers an oppor- 

 tunity to join in good work for wild life! Write a 

 strong circular, state the case clearly and ask with 

 brisk confidence that the person addressed will bear 

 his share of the general burden. In a thoroughly 

 good cause, a strongly worded printed circular, 

 sent under seal, is a good method. For separating 

 the sheep from the goats, there is nothing equal to 



