BIOGRAPHICAL 13 



life took the woes of wild life seriously. Slaughter was 

 the order of the day. The sportsmen who advocated 

 game protection, and secured the enactment of protective 

 laws, were animated by a desire, not to stop killing, but to 

 preserve today in order to kill more abundantly tomor- 

 row. It is well within the bounds of truth to state that 

 even down to 1890, wild life preservation in America was 

 little more than a pleasing dream, a shadow without sub- 

 stance. Excepting the Yellowstone Park, there were not 

 then in existence any large game preserves in which kill- 

 ing was totally prohibited. Everywhere, without a single 

 exception, wild game was being killed far faster than it 

 was breeding. 



At the date mentioned, the killing of game was every- 

 where a ruling passion. The protection of our song- 

 birds had only just begun. Every member of Congress 

 was regarded by his constituents as a chore-boy, of whom 

 all kinds of personal service might confidently be demand- 

 ed. The number of pension-claim burdens that were laid 

 upon congressmen was very great ; and the measures of 

 the nation often waited upon the personal tasks of the 

 constituent. 



Acting under what may well be called an inspiration, 

 and in spite of other burdens and other causes, Mr. Lacey 

 deliberately elected to champion the cause of the vanish- 

 ing birds. We know not just when that call to arms first 

 was heard by him. It is in the silent watches of the night, 

 the still small hours of the new day, when the minds of 

 men are most free from surrounding influences, that our 

 mental vision becomes keenest, and we most accurately 

 measure the things that Were against the things that 

 Are. It is in the early morning watch, when sleep has 

 swept all cobwebs from the brain, that man's mental neg- 

 atives are most sensitive to great impressions. It is then 

 that the voice of Duty is heard in clear, bell-like tones, 



