JOHN F. LACEY x 



BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY 



It was the free, wild birds of the Iowa prairies that 

 once inspired a strong man to champion their cause in the 

 council chambers of our nation. To know our birds of 

 song is to love all birds. Fortunate indeed were the birds 

 who sang to John F. Lacey, during his boyhood and his 

 young manhood. It was the meadow lark, the white- 

 throated sparrow, the brown thrasher, the catbird, and 

 the whippoorwill that filled his great heart with love for 

 all birds, and nerved his strong right arm to strike in 

 their defense. 



Out of all the achievements of Major Lacey for the bet- 

 ter preservation of our bird allies, one fact looms up 

 prominently, and dwarfs all others. He was the first 

 American congressman to become an avowed champion of 

 wild life. It is true that even before he entered the lists 

 as the persistent, uncompromising, and permanent de- 

 fender of wild creatures in need of defense, other mem- 

 bers of Congress had manifested the spirit which later on 

 developed the pronounced game protectionists. But 

 Major Lacey, we repeat, was the first man in the Congress 

 of the United States to take up the new white man 's bur- 

 den, and make it peculiarly his own. 



The date of this new departure may be given approx- 

 imately as 1900. At that time, few large men in public 



i This biographical sketch was prepared for the Annals of Iowa, and is 

 published here, by permission of Mr. Edgar R. Harlan and Dr. Hornaday. 

 It is a splendid appreciation of Major Lacey 's work on the conservation of 

 wild life. 



