State Audubon Reports 307 



this time, a list of available material; and a charter membership of 239 was enrolled 

 before the widely advertised Audubon Society organization meeting took place. 

 The week of the State Fair was selected as a favorable time for organization; 

 and through the National Association an exhibit was made at the Fair for more 

 than a week. Specimens for this exhibit were also borrowed from the Museum 

 of Tulane University, New Orleans. A register was kept of the visitors to the 

 exhibit, and reply cards soliciting membership were sent to them. This, how- 

 ever, met with little success; and most of the good accomplished was probably 

 through the literature distributed, setting forth the purposes of the proposed 

 organization. 



Without going farther into the details of organization than to say that it took 

 place on November 9, in Jackson, we will state briefly the work done. 



Reply cards have been sent to selected persons in all parts of the state, and 

 by this and other means the membership has been increased to 302. Circulars 

 for posting have been sent to about seven hundred and fifty Mississippi post- 

 offices, by permission of the Department; this work will be continued. Much 

 publicity has been given the work from its inception by articles of varying nature 

 in the Jackson daily papers, which have been in steady sympathy with us, 

 especially the 'Daily News,' whose city editor is chairman of our Committee 

 on Publicity. And of very great importance is the work now being undertaken 

 of sending out 10,000 circulars to state and county fairs during this fall, setting 

 forth the advantages to the farmer of the Audubon work, of publishing in every 

 paper in the state a regular publicity communication, and of combining in the 

 most intimate way possible publicity and popular education, by means of a series 

 of illustrated lectures by Special Agent Kopman. 



A series of articles by Mr. Kopman in the 'Farmers' Union Advocate', in 

 which he replied to attacks made on the proposed warden system, and on the 

 work of the Society in general, did good, it is hoped; they certainly reached many 

 farmers all over the state, and probably assisted in clearing us of suspicion 

 of 'graft.' 



Careful and persistent work was done by Mr. Kopman in Jackson, in pre- 

 venting violation of the laws forbidding the sale of game. One affidavit was made 

 and conviction secured, and we think the local trade was almost stopped. Presi- 

 dent Hemingway is memorializing the thirteen circuit judges to charge their 

 grand juries in regard to the game laws. 



No legislation was secured; but the bill providing for a state warden and 

 license system was favorably reported in House and Senate, and would certainly 

 have passed if adjournment had not prevented. Governor Noel is committed 

 to the cause and would gladly have signed the bill if it had come to him. 



The educational outlook is good. Mr. Kopman made addresses to teachers' 

 associations in five counties, and has talked in the schools of a number of im- 

 portant towns and cities. The State Superintendent of Education has given us 

 hearty support and our work has been endorsed in the Mississippi 'School Journal, ' 



