

Game Protection for Oklahoma 
Just after the forms of our August number 
had gone to press, we were advised by General 
J. C. Jamison, of Guthrie, Okla., that, al- 
though his heart was in the work, owing to his 
crippled condition he was too much confined at 
home to give the movement we had started for 
an Oklahoma game and fish protective associa- 
tion the attention it required of a leader. And 
so, at his suggestion, we wrote to Judge S. H. 
Harris, of Perry, Okla. a leading citizen 
and prominent among sportsmen, asking him 
to take up the work. His reply, dated August s, 
was as follows: 
EpiToR RECREATION: 
Your recent letter and telegram came in 
during my absence. I am just now removing 
to Oklahoma City and very much pressed for 
time. I desire to take up the work you refer to, 
at least to a limited extent, and will avail my- 
self of your kind offices in the matter of sug- 
gestions at an early date. 
Very truly yours. 
S. H. HArrIs. 
We immediately sent a letter to every news- 
paper of any importance circulating in Okla- 
homa, asking them to give their aid and urge 
sportsmen to communicate with Judge Harris. 
In a letter to the editor dated July 13, Mr. 
J. F. Henry, editor of the Fort Smith Times, 
Fort Smith, Ark., said in part: 
“T will be glad to cooperate in any possible 
way with your movement for the protection of 
Territory game. 
“Of course, you understand there is really no 
close season on game in the Territory; the only 
restrictions are as to shipping game from the 
Territory, and that requiring nonresidents to 
procure permits to hunt, both of which are 
largely dead letters. To secure any support 
from local sportsmen, who are many and very 
influential, the law would necessarily be drafted 
to restrict shipments by professional hunters 
or for sale.” 
That is just the point we made in our edi- 
torial in the August number. We suggested 
that the first work of the new game and fish pro- 
tective association should be to arouse public 
sentiment against the practices of professional 
market hunters. That such a sentiment al- 
ready exists there is no doubt; the thing to do 
is to add fuel to the blaze, that at the first session 
of the Legislature of the State of Oklahoma the 
said sentiment may be so strong as to render the 
enacting of restrictive laws imperative. And as 
bearing out our contention that Oklahoma is 
being systematically robbed of her quail supply, 
apart from the drain caused by excessive shoot- 
ing both in and out of season by sportsmen, 
we need only point to the seizure, under the 
Lacey law, in Guthrie, in the middle of July, 
of a shipment of live quail, which were con- 
signed to a commission dealer in Wichita, Kans. 
A dispatch to the Chicago Record-Herald, dated 
July 22, gave the number of birds seized as 
being 2,000! 
That there is need of such an association in 
Oklahoma as we are working for there can be 
no question. It is needed to father a bill for 
the protection of the game and fish of the com- 
monwealth, to be introduced in the first session 
of the Legislature. With the collaboration of 
the best minds in the association Judge Harris, 
or any other who may elect, should be able to 
draft a bill which, on becoming a law, will work 
wonders for the future of sport with gun and 
rod in Oklahoma. 
We respectfully submit to the sportsmen of 
the State of Oklahoma that they have a duty to 
perform, a duty which they owe to themselves 
individually and to the future of shooting and 
fishing in Oklahoma; and that is to signify to 
Judge S. H. Harris, of{Oklahoma City, by 
letter their willingness to join an organization 
for the protection of Oklahoma’s game and fish. 
It is not enough that the first Legislature of the 
State of Oklahoma may enact a law concerning 
the taking of fish and game. The sportsmen of 
the State must organize and demand the enact- 
ment of an up-to-date game and fish law, with 
the necessary provisions for its proper enforce- 
ment. The Act of 1899 on the Oklahoma 
statutes has been, as Editor Henry has said, a 
dead letter, and Section 2137 of the Revised 
Statutes of the Federal Government has been 
literally useless for protecting the game and fish 
of the Indian Territory. Yet the sportsmen 
may look for a simple following of precedent by 
the first State Legislature of Oklahoma, unless 
they demand something better. 
