376 



RECREATION. 



way of birds, animals and fishes. A great 

 many photographs, of these classes, were 

 shown that were truly remarkable in com- 

 position and execution. I should like to 

 be able to describe many of these, in de- 

 tail, and to give proper credit to the mak- 

 ers, but space will not admit of this. The 

 pictures in which I am personally most 

 interested are those made by A. G. Walli- 

 han, Charles I. Rice, W. L. Underwood, 

 J. E. Stone, C. H. Pray, J. H. Wheeler, 

 V. W. Manson, G. P. Douglass, E. B. 

 Holmes and-H. L. Sturtevant. These men 

 have shown special aptness and skill in 

 their work, and I shall hope to publish 

 some specimens of it in future issues of 

 Recreation. 



Mr. LaFayette W. Seavey, of New York, 

 the well known scenic artist, provided this 

 magnificent setting and managed the en- 

 tertainment on the stage and in the lake. 



The St. Augustine Cadet Band furnished 

 the music for the main hall, and their per- 

 formances were thoroughly appreciated. 

 The leader showed his good taste by play- 

 ing " Recreation March " every afternoon 

 and evening. 



THIS IS WHY. 



Denver, Colo., March 7, 1898. 



Dear Sir: Why don't you roast E. H. 

 Litchfield for being a game hog? He 

 boasts in Recreation of having 80 elk and 

 15 moose in his park. Is it because he is a 

 wealthy Wall Street man that he escapes 

 your scathing pen? 



Are you aware those 80 elk represent 

 more than double the number injured and 

 destroyed, yet this man is ready for more. 



The Jackson's Hole people have sat on 

 this jobbing business and if you don't give 

 Mr. Litchfield a wast many of your friends 

 here will lose faith in you. Defend Litch- 

 field if you can. L. E. Wylie. 



The question you raise, regarding Mr. 

 Litchfield, is a serious one and one that has 

 been widely discussed and considered by 

 thousands of interested people. Mr. L. is 

 one of a class of Eastern men who are creat- 

 ing large game parks and stocking them 

 with game from various portions of the 

 country. 



This game is not enclosed and bred in 

 these parks for the purpose of being killed, 

 as is the case in European game preserves, 

 but is simply bred for the pleasure these 

 gentlemen and their friends experience in 

 seeing and studying these animals, under 

 domestication. 



As you know, the large game is rapidly 

 being exterminated everywhere, and it is 

 a question of but a few years when it will be 

 entirely extinct, in its wild state. These 

 gentlemen are, therefore, certainly to be 

 commended for creating these large parks 

 at a cost, in most cases* of hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars, and stocking them 



with game. Thus these wild animals are be- 

 ing preserved and bred. These parks will, 

 undoubtedly, be permanent institutions and 

 centuries hence people may then see elk, 

 moose, caribou, deer, etc., when all these 

 species will be unknown in what little tracts 

 of forest may then remain on this conti- 

 nent. 



It seems to me it is better that say 10 elk- 

 should be shipped East alive and placed in 

 a game preserve, where they may increase 

 and multiply, than that they should have 

 been killed on their native range by hun- 

 ters. The 10 elk that are brought here alive 

 may increase to 100 in 10 years, while the 

 10 that are killed in the mountains are gone 

 for all time to come. 



I am not in favor of the unlimited catch- 

 ing and shipping of game to the East, and 

 it is not necessary that this process should 

 be kept up indefinitely. Mr. Litchfield's 

 herd of elk is increasing so rapidly that he 

 may soon begin to supply young animals 

 to his neighbors, who may be starting new 

 preserves. Not so the victims of the sports- 

 man who goes into the mountains. He 

 may supply some one with a piece of meat 

 from an elk he has killed, but posterity will 

 never see any good of his work. I claim 

 that Mr. L. while at present collecting for 

 his own amusement is, at the same time, a 

 public benefactor. So was Austin Corbin, 

 and so is Dr. Seward Webb, and others of 

 that class. 



If Mr. L. had gone into the mountains 

 and killed 50 elk, or 20 elk, or 10 elk, he 

 would have been condemned and excori- 

 ated by Recreation as the veriest pot 

 hunter and butcher that ever shouldered a 

 gun. Recreation is no respecter of per- 

 sons on account of wealth, poverty, race, 

 color, or previous condition of servitude. 



From its standpoint a man who kills- 

 more than a reasonable quantity of game is 

 a hog, whether he be a millionaire or a 

 pauper. 



I am aware this statement will incur the 

 displeasure of many of my Western friends. 

 This I regret exceedingly, but I am con- 

 scientious in my views on this, as on other 

 subjects. I trust, therefore, I may be 

 judged fairly. 



A STRANGE SHOT. 



The mysterious manner in which Mr. 

 Warner killed an antelope, as told in Feb- 

 ruary Recreation, reminds me of a shot I 

 once made. I started out for ducks, tak- 

 ing my 12 gauge double barreled Wesley 

 Richards' gun. loaded with Ely's wire shot 

 cartridge. I saw a flock of geese, with an 

 old gander in the lead, and while he was, as 

 I thought, too distant for me to reach him, 

 I gave him a shot and down he came. I 

 picked him up, found his wing broken 

 and did not give a thought as to how I had 

 killed him. When I returned home I gave 



