226 



RECREATION. 



GAME AND THE L. A. S. IN THE SOUTH. 



Greenville, S. C. 

 Editor Recreation : 



I have just finished reading the fourth 

 annual report of the President of the L. A, 

 S., in April Recreation, and must admit 

 that all he said of the Southern people is 

 true. 



I saw 2 men of this city, who call them- 

 selves gentlemen, come in from a few 

 hours' shooting with 2 quails, 6 robins and 

 8 or io small sapsuckers. Some of the 

 latter were not larger than canaries. 



The Western Carolina Game Protective 

 Association, a local organization, is doing 

 all it can to enforce the laws. Our game 

 laws are rigid enough, but as we have no 

 one whose duty it is to prosecute cases, they 

 are constantly violated. We have a law 

 forbidding exportation of quails and other 

 game birds from the State and the selling 

 of quails killed in this State; but as it 

 permits the sale of quails brought from 

 other States, our pot hunters shoot and net 

 our birds and smuggle them in to the res- 

 taurant keepers, who claim to have received 

 the game from Georgia or North Carolina. 

 The burden of proof not being on them to 

 show where they got it, they go free, to 

 continue to buy and sell birds as before. 



This morning, as President of the W. C. 

 G. P. A., I directed Mr. Chas. Schwing, 

 Secretary of the Association, to swear out 

 a warrant for the arrest of William Sewing, 

 a restauranter for offering quails for sale 

 after the 31st day of March. Sewing came 

 at once to beg off, saying he had the birds 

 left over from those bought during the open 

 season. I asked him if he was not ashamed 

 to ask for mercy after having violated the 

 laws the whole winter, and told him he 

 could not expect leniency. He will be ar- 

 rested this afternoon and we will see that 

 he is punished to the full extent of the law. 



In no other State are game wardens more 

 needed than here. Thousands of birds 

 winter with us and need protection ; but as 

 our Legislature is composed chiefly of po- 

 litical cowards, it is afraid to pass laws 

 taxing worthless dogs out of existence and 

 creating the office of game warden. What 

 are we to do? This would be one of the 

 greatest sheep and goat raising States, were 

 it not for the dogs, as the mountains are 

 practically worthless except for pasturage. 

 The grass is knee high all over them and 

 not a sheep or goat to be seen. Numbers 

 have tried sheep raising, but dogs got • 

 all the lambs. 



I would like to join the L. A. S. if it 

 would benefit this State in any way, but as 

 it has no members here I see but little use 

 for me to join. If you, or the L. A. S., 

 can advise us or help us in any way, we 

 shall be glad to do what we can. 



A friend just returned from Georgetown, 

 on the coast, reports that on the last day of 

 March a party of men from New York ar- 

 rived there to shoot ducks. One man ad- 

 mitted that he had brought 3,000 10-gauge 

 shot shells with him and had got 1,500 

 from a friend. There were 6 in the party; 

 if each had an equal number of shells, the 

 ducks must have suffered. Those men were 

 not market hunters either; they own a 

 steamboat and electric launches and are 

 fencing several thousand acres for a game 

 preserve. 



C. F. Dill 



ANSWER. 



As a matter of fact it would not do any 

 practical good for you alone to join the 

 League, but would it not be possible for you 

 to induce a considerable number of your 

 friends to join? Our constitution provides 

 that when we have 25 members in a State 

 we shall organize them into a division. 

 While we have done an immense amount of 

 work on the people in your State, trying to 

 get them into the League, strange to say we 

 have only 3 members in South Carolina. I 

 believe if you should join and then begin a 

 systematic canvass of the sportsmen of the 

 State you might soon enroll the necessary 

 number and enable us to organize a division 

 there. After you once get such a branch 

 organized and get to work with the news- 

 papers and through the mails and by per- 

 sonal solicitation, you can in a few months 

 enroll several hundred men. Then when 

 your Legislature meets again you can bring 

 pressure enough to bear on it to procure 

 the enactment of suitable game laws. Mean- 

 time I would render you all possible assist- 

 ance from this office. 



I fully realize the necessity of earnest 

 work in your State as well as in the other 

 Southern States. If you decide to take up 

 this work you can make a great many 

 friends among the educated and cultivated 

 people and especially among the progressive 

 women by including in your crusade the 

 song and insectivorous birds. Millions of 

 these that nest in the North, winter in the 

 South, and I am working day and night to 

 induce all the Southern States to enact laws 

 to protect them from the slaughter they are 

 now subjected to during the winter months. 

 — Editor. 



HOT TIMES AHEAD FOR LAWBREAKERS. 



Urbana, Ohio. 

 Editor Recreation : 



The Champaign county, Ohio, local chap- 

 ter of the L. A. S., was organized June 6. 

 Henry F, MacCracken, attorney, was 

 elected rear warden, and Chas. H. Oonk 

 secretary-treasurer, both of Urbana. The 

 meeting was enthusiastic and was marked 



