130 RECREATION. 
absurd, hurtful to their business and of benefit 
only to the game warden. At the business meet- 
ing Nicholas A. Court, of Columbus, was elected 
President of the association. 
Nobody knows better than you how dif- 
ficult it is to get a good game law and one 
that will stand. The present law, which 
has stood the test of the supreme court, 
permits game to be in possession only dur- 
ing the time it may be hunted in this State 
(20 days), no matter where it came from, 
in or out of the State. Nobody but the 
hotel keepers and game dealers objects to 
this feature of the law. The sportsmen are 
satisfied to have and to hold for 20 days; 
but as the hotel men can not make enough 
money in so short a time to satisfy them, 
they will petition our Legislature to extend 
the season of possession; to allow them to 
handle, sell and serve game at any time in 
Ohio provided it comes from a State where 
it is legal at that time to kill game. The 
result would be that game would be on sale 
in Ohio during almost the entire year; also 
that game would be shot and snared in 
Ohio during the same period, as these sen- 
sitive citizens are not in business for their 
health, and would surely secure the quails 
with the least outlay of money, namely, at 
home. 
All quails look practically alike to you 
and to me, and it would be distressing to 
see a post mortem held on a quail by a 
hotel man or game dealer on one side and 
a game warden on the other, to establish 
its residence previous to its death. 
I understand the Ohio Game Dealers’ ’ 
Association is also interested with the ho- 
tel men in seeing that a long suffering 
traveling constituency is supplied with quail 
at so much per. The market and pot hunt- 
er has not openly appeared, although a shot 
in the direction of the surrounding brush 
would probably wing one. 
It would scarcely be possible for dealers 
to secure game from beyond the State with- 
out encouraging somebody to violate the 
law, so stringent are the laws of all States 
in the matter of the shipping of game out 
of the State. 
The arguments in favor of the present 
Ohio laws are so many and so forceful that 
it is unnecessary to refresh your or your 
readers’ memory with a review of them; 
but the fact that a powerful opposition to 
these laws is in the field and prepared for 
work requires more than discussion and 
expressions of regret; it requires work, 
now, and continued until the battle is won 
or lost. 
Let us all do our best to defeat this ef- 
fort and at the same time save our game 
from constant harassing and total exter- 
mination. Please press the button and 
start the machinery. 
F. G., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
AS TO BRANDING OF GAME AND FISH 
HOGS. 
I want to offer you a friendly suggestion. 
Your attacks on what you are pleased to 
term game hogs are, I think, frequently made 
in a way lowering to your dignity and to 
the dignity and effectiveness of ReEcREA- 
TION. You have a good magazine, and it 
is doing a great work, but I believe you 
would secure better results and greater sup- 
port from the better class of readers if your 
onslaughts against game hogs were couched 
in more temperate language. I know you 
mean well, but you ride too rough shod. 
W.H. Mullins, Salem, Ohio. 
ANSWER. 
I thank you for your frank letter. I 
always appreciate friendly criticisms of my 
work and you are not the first good friend 
who has given me the same advice. How- 
ever, I can not agree with you as to my 
methods of hunting game hogs. 
If you were to get into one of your duck- 
ing boats and go after a flock of geese, you 
would not use No. 12 shot. If you were go- 
ing after grizzlies, you would not use a 22 
caliber rifle. If you were going after Sa- 
tan, you would not use a squirt gun. 
When I talk to gentlemen I always try 
to use polite English, but when I talk to 
blackguards and ruffians, the kind of men 
who slaughter game, and then boast of it, 
and have themselves photographed with it, 
I use such language as seems necessary to 
penetrate their epidermis. These men are 
usually thick skinned, and it takes a sharp 
weapon to pierce them. 
As you probably know, some of the other 
sportsmen’s journals have been talking 
mildly and politely to such men 30 years, 
and not one of them has ever been re- 
formed by it. On the contrary I have had 
letters from thousands of men saying they 
had never realized the enormity of their 
offences until I went after them with my 
branding iron. They say my words have 
cut deep, that they have now reformed, and 
that they now quit when they get enough. 
Furthermore, many of these reformed 
butchers are now counseling moderation 
and decency among their fellow men, in 
the matter of shooting and fishing. 
It is impossible for any man to under- 
‘stand the many peculiar conditions that 
exist with regard to these matters, without 
being in such a position as I am in. You 
know how it strikes you and your friends, 
but you do not know how it strikes the men 
at whom it is aimed. Of course I have 
made enemies of thousands of these men, 
but I can afford to have their ill will. Many 
of them have, however, taken their medicine 
in good spirit and reformed. Meantime 
hundreds of thousands of other men and 
boys are fighting shy of my pig pen; and 
the game and fish are being saved.—Enrror. 
ea. ee ee 
