CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO 185 



existence, to be sent out of our country! There 

 are a number of small groups of buffalo and single 

 individuals scattered around the country, but none 

 of these are composed of enough buffalo to pre- 

 vent the danger of close interbreeding and gradu- 

 ally such small groups will die out and my young 

 readers will live to see the day when none exist. 



While editing Recreation, I formed a committee 

 composed of some of the most prominent men of 

 this country from all walks of life, for the pur- 

 pose of saving this herd of buffalo to and for the 

 people of the United States; I went so far as to 

 have Mr. Howard Eaton get an option on the ani- 

 mals, but to my great surprise, I found that many 

 of the people of Montana, where the herd was lo- 

 cated, were bitterly opposed to making a buffalo 

 reservation in their State, and some of the most 

 prominent politicians to whom I applied, some of 

 whom occupy seats in the United States Senate, 

 were unable to appreciate either the historic value, 

 patriotic value, and sentimental value there would 

 be in a national herd of historic animals. In our 

 work for the preservation of the bison we had the 

 enthusiastic support of our broad-minded President 

 and the editors of all the leading papers of New 

 York City, but neither the President, the commit- 

 tee of citizens, nor the editors of New York papers 

 can put through a move of this kind without the 

 support of the people themselves and the financial 

 part of my magazine became discouraged before 

 we had awakened the popular conscience. 



