A LEAGUE OF AMERICAN SPORTSMEN. 



RALPH D. LYDECKER. 



When Recreation comes I begin at the 

 front and read it straight through, adver- 

 tisements and all, and I can say, with the 

 many hundreds who have already written 

 you, it is the best periodical of its class. 



Enclosed find $i for a year's subscription, 

 to begin with the September number, and I 

 shall never again be without Recreation. 



I have been thinking very seriously for 

 the past 3 weeks, of an important matter 

 and have determined to write you about it, 

 and ask you to give it your earnest consid- 

 eration. If you think well of my proposi- 

 tion publish it in Recreation, and in this 

 way place it before the sportsmen all over 

 the land. 



Here it is. One night, while reading the 

 letters " From Game Fields," in Recrea- 

 tion, I noticed that many of the writers 

 plead for better protection of our fish and 

 game. One gentleman writes that a certain 

 man killed over 300 squirrels in one season, 

 and that 2 others killed 105 quails in 10 

 hours. Another says: Wadleigh and 

 Wheaton (2 fish hogs) took 120 trout in one 

 hour; and so on. 



These reports disgusted me and I quit 

 reading, for a time, and began thinking. 

 " Is there not," I said to myself, " some 

 way in which this wholesale slaughter can 

 be stopped, and the killing of game limited 

 to a fixed quantity for each man? " Then I 

 happened to pick up a copy of the L. A. W. 

 Bulletin, and the idea came to me: " Why 

 not an L. A. S.?" The bicyclists have a 

 L. A. W. ; why can't the sportsmen of 

 America form a League of American 

 Sportsmen, the object to be the protection 

 of game everywhere, and to provide for an 

 increase of it. 



The more I think of this plan the more 

 certain I feel it is feasible. What we need 

 at first is a few good, honest, honorable 

 sportsmen to organize the League and start 

 the work. These should be men who would 

 use the money, placed in their hands, in the 

 right way; men who are heart and soul in 

 favor of game protection, and who would 

 do all in their power to promote such a 

 work. 



What next? Call a meeting. Get to- 

 gether, organize and go to work. Follow 

 the same general plan as the L. A. W. has. 

 Draw up a constitution, and elect a presi- 

 dent, one or 2 vice presidents, a secretary, 

 a treasurer, etc. 



Let Recreation, with your consent, be 

 the official organ of the L. A. S., as the L. 

 A. W. Bulletin is the official organ of the 

 L. A. W. Take in every State and Territory 



in the U. S. and form them into divisions, 

 such as the Maine division, the Montana 

 •division, the New York division, etc. In- 

 stead of a chief consul, for each State and 

 Territory, as the L. A. W. has, we would 

 provide a State Fish and Game Warden. 

 Under this State Warden one man should 

 be provided for each county, whose duty 

 would be to look after the protection of 

 game, and the punishment of game law vio- 

 lators. 



For instance, New Jersey has 21 counties. 

 Then the New Jersey division of the L. A. 

 S. would have 22 wardens — a State warden 

 at Trenton and 21 county wardens. 



For State warden I would suggest a man 

 living in the county the Capitol is in, so as 

 to be near the legislature. Then he could 

 work with this body in the interest of game 

 laws. 



All wardens, of course,- must be L. A. S. 

 members. What then? Suppose a man (L. 

 A. S. member or not) is caught by a war- 

 den, or an L..A. S. member, or any other 

 person, violating any of the game laws. 

 His case is reported to the Warden of the 

 county in which the deed was committed, 

 and it is the duty of that officer to investi- 

 gate. If the man be found guilty the War- 

 den shall prosecute and have him fined or 

 imprisoned, or both. His name shall then 

 be published in the official magazine, with 

 an account of the case. Should the culprit 

 be a member of the L. A. S. he must be ex- 

 . pelled. 



Should we organize such a League we 

 should need large sums of money Where 

 are we to get it? Again, do as the L. A. W. 

 does — charge a membership fee of say $2.00 

 a year. Issue a ticket to each member, 

 these to be numbered consecutively, as ap- 

 plications are received. 



From whence shall we get our members? 

 From among sportsmen and farmers, all 

 over the United States and Canada. No 

 true sportsman would object to paying so 

 small a sum, annually, if it would be the 

 means of protecting our fish and game, and 

 increasing the supply thereof. Many farm- 

 ers would join, simply from a desire to see 

 more quails, rabbits and other game about, 

 instead of having nothing but English spar- 

 rows, as now. We could not hope for so 

 large a membership as the L. A. W. has; 

 yet we can have many thousands of names 

 on our rolls within a year. 



Recreation has a circulation of 40,000. 



Each copy is read by at least 4 people. This 



means 160,000 readers. Nearly all these are 



sportsmen. We should get at least half of 



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