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RECREATION. 



A GOOD WORKING PLAN. 



Clarksville, Tenn. 

 I enclose herewith a letter received from 

 a gentleman in East Tennessee, also copy 

 of my answer to his letter. 



The publication of these 2 letters in Rec- 

 reation might set other people to work 

 and the membership of the League might 

 thereby be increased. 



P. W. Humphreys. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 

 P. W. Humphreys, Clarksville, Tenn.: 



I see your address in June Recreation 

 as one of the members of the L. A. S., and 

 I write to ask you if we can not in some 

 way get the Legislature of our State to 

 pass a law forbidding the sale of game. 

 Tell me your candid opinion in this matter. 

 If there is any way to stop this market 

 hunting let us try to do it. 



H. Woodward. 



Clarksville, Tenn. 

 Mr. H. Woodward, Knoxville, Tenn.: 



I have been for several years much in- 

 terested in this matter of better laws for 

 protection of game and fish in Ten- 

 nessee, as it is a broader question than 

 the average person seems to understand. 

 There is one sure way to accomplish 

 this end, and that is through the League 

 of American Sportsmen. Our only hope 

 is to do the ■ work ourselves, by getting 

 together a rousing big membership in 

 the State. There should be a chapter of 

 at least 50 members in each of the 96 

 counties. That would give a membership 

 in the State of 4,800. Even if we had only 

 half that number of members, we could 

 secure all the legislation needed; and 

 backed by the co-operation of each mem- 

 ber, in a few years our streams would be 

 teeming with fish and our fields alive with 

 game birds. We need uniform game laws; 

 that is, laws applying alike to all counties 

 in the State. At present, almost every 

 county in Tennessee has a game law dif- 

 ferent from that of some other county, and 

 such lack of uniformity in laws is not con- 

 ducive to the end sought. 



All the laws on earth will do us no good, 

 however, unless we have a large represen- 

 tation of gentlemanly sportsmen and land 

 owners banded together, to see that the 

 statutes are enforced. As you are evi- 

 dently interested in the matter of game pro- 

 tection, like myself, suppose we undertake 

 the matter of arousing the interest of 

 sportsmen and farmers in this movement. 



I am a busy person, and my pocketbook 

 is not overflowing with lucre, but I believe 

 that even 2 persons can start the ball roll- 

 ing, and finally work up one of the most 

 effective bodies of game protectors in the 

 United States. We especially wish land- 



owning farmers as members. They would 

 be our best and strongest allies,. Moreover, 

 they will be the ones most directly bene- 

 fited, for as quails and like birds are great 

 insect and weed seed destroyers, with the 

 increase of quails the raising of crops 

 would become easier and surer. 



After we have worked up a good mem- 

 bership of the League, we can then secure 

 passage of certain laws, something after 

 tlie following, which should apply to all 

 counties alike : 



Specify all kinds of game to be protected. 

 Make open seasons short. Name penalty 

 at so much a head for killing out of season. 

 Prohibit selling game in the State, or ship- 

 ping it out of State. Have a State gun 

 license, with reasonable fee per annum, 

 money so derived to be used by State in 

 employing a State game and fish commis- 

 sioner, who would co-operate with League 

 members ; or otherwise use the gun license 

 fees to further game and fish protection. 

 Tax non-resident hunters who come into 

 State to hunt, and use money so obtained 

 for same purpose as gun license. Limit 

 number of game birds, animals, or fishes 

 to be killed or caught in any one day or in 

 the open season. Prohibit night hunting 

 of water fowl or any other game with jack- 

 light or reflector. 



This rough outline could, of course, be 

 enlarged and improved on, but it about em- 

 braces the gist of what we need. 



It will be a good idea for us, as a start, 

 to get the names of 2 or more gentlemen 

 in each county in the State and take up 

 the matter with them direct. We can get 

 any quantity of literature from the League 

 to help out. We can write an appeal, and I 

 believe we can enlist the good will of near- 

 ly every newspaper in the State to publish 

 free our appeal to farmers and sportsmen. 

 One good way to get the appeal circulated 

 will be to first get names in each county 

 as mentioned, write them a personal letter, 

 with earnest request .that they remail the 

 appeal to some other sportsman or farmer 

 in their county, and so on ; the endless 

 chain scheme, you understand. This will 

 make the work lighter on the promoters 

 and is really the only effective plan which 

 I can suggest. Of course some will not 

 remail the letters, but I am convinced that 

 a majority would gladly attend to the mat- 

 ter at once. Tennessee should have not 

 less than 5,000 League members. What 

 do you say? P. W. Humphreys. 



IMPORTANT MEETING OF MINNESOTA 

 DIVISION. 



At a meeting of the executive officers of 

 the Minnesota division of the League of 

 American Sportsmen, a number of im- 

 portant questions were discussed. The 



