158 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



penalty too heavy, you practically kill the law. It is a 

 good idea to provide that the fine shall go to the public 

 school fund of the nearest municipal subdivision to which 

 it can be legally applied. It will enable the prosecuting 

 attorney to paint the game-butcher in dark colors, while, 

 on the other hand, he can hold tip before the jury the 

 bright-eyed little children who will be benefited by the 

 fine assessed. Sportsmen should impress upon their law- 

 makers the necessity for game laws. The ambitious 

 young aspirant for the legislature is ever open to argu- 

 ments of this sort. Sportsmen, as a rule, are active, 

 intelligent, and influential men, and they can do much in 

 this line. I don't mean that the sportsmen shall organ- 

 ize a sportsmen's political party that is not necessary; 

 but look after your candidates in nominating conventions 

 and primary elections. In a certain county, there was 

 an officer who had for years paid undue attention to the 

 views of certain poachers. He was otherwise an excellent 

 man, but he was not educated up to the proper standard 

 on the subject of game protection. The sportsmen proper 

 had generally supported him with their votes and influ- 

 ence, but finally they wearied of his diplomacy, and he 

 was speedily convinced that the votes of a score of 

 poachers were not equivalent to the active, intelligent 

 opposition he would meet from the sportsmen of his 

 county, some of whom could control alone more than a 

 score of votes. Game protection is practical, and we 

 should look at it as practical men, not as sentimentalists. 

 If we throw the proper safeguards around our game birds, 

 they will be with us for many years to come a constant 

 source of delight and pleasure. Rewards offered for the 

 destruction of vermin and birds of prey, would conduce 

 greatly to the protection of our game birds; but our 

 legislatures are slow to adopt such measures. Sports- 

 men's clubs can, however, do much good in this Direction, 



