348 

CLARK RICH 
Warden of Essex County 
in general, with reference to the work we are 
doing, is necessary to the well-being of the 
cause in this State. 
I do believe that fish and game are an asset 
of the State, both directly and indirectly, and 
I think the best way to convince the public 
that our cause is worthy of their support is 
through the medium of the press. 
The way of the warden—aye, a- hard 
way itis. Not that they are wont to com- 
plain; but it is not pleasant to see a good 
man, naturally sunny dispositioned and 
brave, embittered by his work. I have 
left out the bitterness from the letters that 
precede the present lines, but it was there 
in every one. It is not counted to improve 
a man’s philosophy of life to engage in 
watching the wrongdoings of others, and 
such work is the less inspiring when the 
very ones who, according to all laws of 
honor and common decency should never 
be found erring, are the very ones that give 
RECREATION — 
the most trouble. The letters are given 
simply to. show the sincerity of the men 
who wrote them. 
None the less inspiring is it to go through 
the records of the office of a game commis- 
sioner, such as Vermont has; for such an 
undertaking reveals many contradictions 
of the accepted principles of sportsmanship. 
One finds the game laws are continually 
assailed by prominent “sportsmen” and 
test cases made and lost by obliging State’s 
attorneys, to the confusion of the game 
commissioner and his wardens. One finds 
instances where a whole community, headed 
by its representative ‘‘sportsmen,” abetted 
by the press, has faced down the game 
warden, even though, on the face of it, 
there could never have been any question 
of his being in the right. One comes 
across records of the most cold-blooded 
conspiracies to get good wardens out of 
office for no other reason than that they 
did their duty. One finds records of the 
most flagrant perjury on the part of wit- 
nesses; the bribery of juries, and even 
cases where offenders, punished, have 
sought to “‘get even with the State” by 
trumping up charges for damages, backing 
them with a sheaf of false affidavits. But 
when, having seen all these things, one is 
comforted by the knowledge that the law 
has not lacked a valiant champion in the 
game commissioner; when one goes out 
among the wardens and finds them, as I 
found the wardens of Vermont, to a man 
declaring that their inspiration lies in the 
fact that their commissioner is absolutely 
impartial and demands that the majesty 
of the law be upheld, be popular senti- 
ment what it will, one is well repaid. ‘The 
contact with that rugged honesty which 
permeates the system, radiated from the 
commissioner’s desk, is reassuring, and one 
even ventures to recall the humorous side- 
lights of the investigation. é 
One amusing case I unearthed in Com- 
missioner Thomas’s files was a claim for 
$50 for alleged damages to apple trees by 
the deer. The Commissioner sent a 
warden to secretly investigate the claim, 
and the warden reported finding a made 
salt lick, and arranged around it on 
sharpened sticks were some two or three 
dozen red apples; more apples were offered 
