CUB-HUNTING 273 



Unfortunately, however, for the keeper, recent 

 discoveries, the result of strict examination, have 

 proved that the fox is far from deserving the 

 poaching reputation which he has earned. The trail 

 for these discoveries was first laid by the owner of 

 some of the best-stocked preserves in the South of 

 England. One of his keepers, a married man, was 

 ill, and thinking that he was on his deathbed, sent 

 for his master to ask him to invest his savings for 

 his family. Briefly, the dialogue was as follows : 

 " How much have you saved ? " "A bit over eight 

 hundred pounds, my lord." " Eight hundred pounds, 

 and I only give you a pound a week and a cottage ! " 

 "But the're the tips, my lord." "And my pheasants," 

 was the laconic answer. Now, if the keeper were 

 dishonest, a supposition of which there can be little 

 doubt, there must have been a second party to the 

 fraud, namely the game dealer, who in all proba- 

 bility was the tempter in the first place. We must 

 wait for the details of the transactions between 

 keepers and dealers until a reformed poaching 

 keeper preaches a sermon to his brother criminals 

 from the pulpit of a prison chapel ; but we can 

 check the fraud by the help of the co-operation of 

 all magistrates throughout the kingdom. In Ireland, 

 thanks to the indefatigable energy of Mr. J. Scott 

 Kerr, the Secretary of the Irish Game Protection 

 Society, of no, Grafton Street, Dublin, poaching on 

 the part of keepers and professional poachers has 

 in many districts been practically abolished owing 



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