40 



RECREA TION. 



times and in all places. Make it a mis- 

 demeanor to offer game, or game fishes for 

 sale, at any time or in any place, and we 

 shall have no more market hunters or 

 market fishermen. 



When the L. A. W. was first organized, 

 there were but a handful of bicycle riders 

 in the United States; and what that League 

 has done for the bicycle trade, for the sport 

 of cycling and for good roads, can be told 

 only by those who have been in touch with 

 the League for the past 10 or 15 years. It 

 had no influential magazine, such as Rec- 

 reation, to boom it. It had to get up its 

 own paper, and a paper was an essential 

 requisite to the success of the organization. 

 The L. A. W. tried several times to get 

 along without an official organ, and failed 

 each time. The membership dropped off 

 to a mere nothing, and at one time the 

 League became very nearly bankrupt; but 

 with an official organ, in the hands of a 

 good publisher and a broad gauged editor, 

 and a first-class business manager, the 

 membership of the L. A. W. jumped from 

 20,000 to 100,000 in the short space of 3 

 years; and this League is to-day a great 

 power in this country. 



Mr. Editor, I heartily agree to support 

 the L. A. S. If my long connection with 

 the L. A. W. can be any assistance in the 

 organization of a L. A. S. it is at your ser- 

 vice. I indorse fully and wholly what Mr. 

 Lydecker says, and believe that you, as the 

 editor of Recreation, with the assistance 

 of your valuable publication, can easily 

 start an organization of this kind, with a 

 large membership at the beginning. 



Sportsmen, as a class, are broad gauged 

 fellows. They are good fellows. They are 

 the kind of men we all like to associate 

 with. Even the narrow minded, narrow 

 gauged, penurious people, who take no in- 

 terest in field sports like to associate with 

 genuine sportsmen. They invariably ac- 

 knowledge that sportsmen are genial com- 

 panions, and intelligent gentlemen. There 

 are a few exceptions, perhaps, but very 

 few. 



Some time I want to tell you what I think 

 should constitute a reasonable bag of game, 

 or creel of fish. . 



N J. Elmer Pratt, Grand Rapids, Mich. 



Editor Recreation: I haveTead with in- 

 terest the communication in your October 

 number, suggesting a National League of 

 American Sportsmen. The plan is good 

 and I believe it feasible. What is most 

 needed to insure game protection is more 

 people who will interest themselves in the 

 enforcement of the game laws. There are 

 plenty of good laws and it is little trouble 

 to secure the passage of any that may be 

 necessary for the protection of game, but 

 to compel their observance is another ques- 

 tion. Appropriations for the enforcement 



of game laws are generally inadequate. 

 With the laws placed on the statute books 

 those who have secured their passage retire 

 from the field and leave the execution of 

 the laws in the hands of a few poorly paid 

 officers, who in many cases have no special 

 interest in game protection. With a na- 

 tional league every member would be in- 

 terested in having the laws respected. The 

 officers would be certain of a moral support 

 that is now often wanting. A sentiment 

 favorable to game protection would be 

 fostered, and very soon the man who killed 

 game out of season, or in an illegal manner, 

 or in excess of legal numbers, would be 

 made to feel that he had done something 

 unlawful and dishonorable. Public senti- 

 ment would accomplish what fear of pun- 

 ishment would not. I am in favor of the 

 League, will join in its organization and 

 will do all I can for its success. 



Wm. A. Richards, 

 Governor of Wyoming. 



Editor Recreation: I have read the 

 plan for a L. A. S. and am heartily in favor 

 of it. We must speedily adopt some means 

 of protecting the game from the indis- 

 criminate slaughter that is now going on, 

 or it will soon be extinct. 



I live in one of the greatest large game 

 countries in the United States. I have in 

 my possession photographs of thousands 

 of elk, taken on their open ranges. I have 

 succored starving bands of elk several 

 times, to the detriment of my own domestic 

 stock. Yet I see around me people specu- 

 lating in wild game — principally elk, 

 catching them to ship to Eastern markets, 

 and killing five for every one saved. 



Nor is this all. Many Eastern men 

 hunted here, last fall, who made no discrim- 

 ination as to sex. Others boldly announced 

 they feared no prosecution, by Deputy 

 Game Wardens, as they " had them fixed." 



I am a member of a local game protec- 

 tive association, owing considerable prop- 

 erty. Our efforts have so far been futile, 

 in the proper enforcement of the law. It is 

 estimated that 300 non-residents hunted 

 illegally in this locality last fall. There has 

 not been an arrest or conviction; yet 3 

 deputy game wardens were presumed to 

 patrol the country. 



From the looks of game interests in Jack- 

 son's Hole, this season, I imagine it is as a 

 friend of mine once said: 



" We are worse than Bannocks, because 

 we are white Indians." So, even in this 

 state, a League should gather into its fold 

 all those whose hearts are fair to the game 

 interests of Wyoming, and of the country at 

 large. W. L. Simpson, Jackson, Wyo. 



By all means add my name to the list for 

 a National L. A. S., and to anything else 

 that will tend to the betterment of our con- 



