EDITOR'S CORNER. 



399 



in a mass of mud and a small quantity of 

 water. A crowd of greedy men and boys 

 waded in and scooped up hundreds of these 

 fish after the water had become so warm 

 and so filthy that the fish were dead or 

 dying. Many people were made ill from 

 eating the fish, and an epidemic of sickness 

 is predicted. 



A farmer living near the site of the lake 

 said to a reporter : "The commissioners 

 have made another of their blunders. What 

 they claimed was a good thing is a curse to 

 us all. Their idea of draining is not prac- 

 tical, and $1,900 of the .people's money has 

 been squandered." The reporter spoke to 

 several landowners in the neighborhood, 

 and each declared the matter an outrage. 

 The only man in the immediate vicinity 

 who signed the petition admitted, when 

 pinned down, that the draining would do 

 no good on his farm, but "he didn't like 

 the boys goin' through his field." Yet 

 when the fish were being taken out he 

 managed to get his hands on more good 

 ones than anybody, and he got away with 

 them, too. 



It is easy to understand, now that it is 

 too late, that a lake of good clear water ad- 

 jacent to a city like Evansville was worth 

 a great deal more money to the people than 

 the small extent of farm land that has 

 been obtained by draining the lake. This 

 is another case of penny wise and pound 

 foolish. 



ANOTHER FERRET AD. 



A man in a small village in Wisconsin 

 writes me as follows : 



Dear sir. I like to advertise some Ferrits 

 in your Recreation, what will you Sharge 

 me fore my advertisment. Please let me 

 know at once. 



FERRETS. FORE. SALE 



young ferrets well bread and broke, redy 

 fore wark $2.00 a peace. 



The letter and ad are printed verbatim, 

 in order to show the illiterate, unthinking 

 quality of the man who engages in the de- 

 testible business of breeding and selling 

 ferrets. I have omitted the man's name 

 and address purposely. If I printed them 

 in connection with his letter it is possible 

 that some reader of Recreation might buy 

 some ferrets from him. 



I want all the legitimate advertising busi- 

 ness I can get, but I would not print this 

 man's ad and his name and address if he 

 would offer me $100 in cash for one inser- 

 tion. 



a game hog, pot hunter, etc. He also 

 claimed that he trequently acted as a gui^Le 

 for visiting sportsmen, and ridiculed the 

 methods of such men. 



Mr. E. J. Bauman, of Goodell, writes me 

 that there is no E. Bowman living at or 

 near that town, and that the readers of 

 Recreation therefore accuse him of hav- 

 ing written the letter. Mr. Bauman is a 

 well known merchant of Goodell and never 

 acts as a guide. He is a law-abiding citi- 

 ben, a thorough sportsman and an advo- 

 cate of strict enforcement of game laws. 

 His neighbors, therefore, have no grounds 

 whatever for assuming that Mr. Bauman 

 wrote the letter in question, and I am posi- 

 tive he did not. The signature to the 

 letter is probably fictitious, and I have no 

 knowledge of who really did write it. 



I receive a great many anonymous letters 

 complaining of game law violations or criti- 

 cising State game wardens or airing some 

 kind of a grievance. As a rule, no atten- 

 tion is paid to these letters. They go into 

 the waste basket, which is the only proper 

 receptacle for them. A man who has not 

 courage enough to sign his name to a letter 

 need not expect any attention from this 

 office. In all cases when so requested I 

 withhold the real name of the writer of any 

 communication ; but I can not act on 

 anonymous complaints or reports of any 

 kind. 



I am in receipt of a letter from a man 

 in Washington, signed "Spring Shooter," 

 which is intended for publication. All 

 intelligent men know that the editor of 

 a reputable journal does not print anony- 

 mous communications. Signatures may be 

 withheld on request, but must be appended 

 to all communications intended for print as 

 an evidence of good faith and moral cour- 

 age. If "Spring Shooter" will rewrite his 

 letter and sign his name to it, I will gladly 

 print it, appending in place of his real 

 name such nom de plume as he may choose. 



Bromo Seltzer, a domesticated lynx for- 

 merly owned by George W. Mathison, of 

 Chicago, died recently of pneumonia. The 

 animal was a great favorite among the 

 children in the neighborhood where Mr. 

 Mathison lived and was a constant source 

 of amusement for them. 



ACCUSE THE WRONG MAN. 



I printed on page 120 of August Recrxa- 

 Tiwt a latter #ign«& m. Itewmati, ®o©dell, 

 la., in whi«h the writ* b*ast«4 «f being 



The Pennsylvania Legislature has appro- 

 priated $9,000 for enforcing its game laws. 

 This is the first appropriation that State 

 has ever made, and we may now expect 



finch better results from the efforts of the 

 tats Same ^©mmiSsion's werk than ever 

 before. 



