EDITOR'S CORNER. 



A DISASTROUS LAW. 



The New York Legislature has passed a 

 law which permits game dealers to store 

 game, under bond, and keep it through the 

 close season. Every worker in the cause 

 of game protection knows what this means. 

 We all know that the average game dealer 

 would just as soon swear to a lie as to the 

 truth. I had one of them up in court 3 

 weeks ago, charged with having sold quails 

 to 2 of my employees, on February 28th 

 and March 1st of this year. My witnesses 

 swore positively that they bought 'the game 

 of this man ; that they were absolutely cer- 

 tain as to his identity, and I produced the 

 birds in court. In the face of all this tes- 

 timony, the dealer deliberately swore he 

 had not sold nor had a email or a game 

 bird of any kind in his store since December 

 31st, 1901 ; and this man is only one of his 

 class. 



I had a restaurant dealer arrested 2 years 

 ago for selling and serving quails to myself 

 and several friends. We took portions of 

 the birds with us from the table, in each 

 case, produced them in court, identified 

 them ourselves as the remains of the birds 

 we brought, and had them identified as 

 quails by W. T. Hornaday. Then the ac- 

 cused restaurant dealer took the stand and 

 swore he had not had in his possession, or 

 served, a quail on his tables since the close 

 of the season. He put 2 of his waiters on 

 the stand, who swore they had not served 

 any quails and had never known of any 

 being served in that restaurant during close 

 season, though they had worked there sev- 

 eral years. 



The police justice believed these men 

 were lying, and held the accused to the 

 criminal court. When the case was called 

 there the dealer walked up to the bar, 

 pleaded guilty and paid his fine. This is 

 the kind of stuff New York game law vio- 

 lators are made of and this is the kind of 

 men the new law is made for. 



Under this cold storage law a game dealer 

 may place in a cold storage house a barrel, 

 said to contain 5 dozen quails, which may 

 contain 50 dozen. He can take out 45 

 dozen in close season and sell them. At 

 the opening of the next legal season for 

 selling he can call in a State warden, open 

 the barrel, show him the 5 dozen quails 

 therein, and have his bond canceled. 

 Dealers will devise many other ways of 

 beating this law, just as they have been 

 beating every law that has been enacted 

 for the protection of game in the last 20 

 years. 



This bill was evidently framed and passed 

 primarily for the purpose of saving the 



489 



Arctic Freezing Company from a certain 

 disastrous penalty to which it subjected it- 

 self. It will be remembered that Game 

 Warden Overton, of Long Island, went into 

 this company's cold storage plant last spring, 

 with a search warrant and seized about 

 55,000 pieces of game, held there illegally. 

 The officers of the company were arrested, 

 taken to court, gave bail and were released. 

 Then Governor Odell appointed Black, 01- 

 cott, Gruber & Bonynge, attorneys for the 

 State, to prosecute this company. I wrote 

 the Governor and these attorneys several 

 times, to know what was being done in the 

 matter, and urging that the case be vigor- 

 ously prosecuted. Some of these letters re- 

 main unanswered to this day. Others were 

 answered to the effect that the case would 

 come up and would be pushed in due time. 

 Now, a law has been enacted to authorize 

 just such traffic in game as these people 

 were conducting, and it is a well known 

 fact that no court or jury can ever be in- 

 duced to convict a man for an offence com- 

 mitted under a law that has meantime been 

 repealed. 



So the grand work of Game Warden 

 Overton goes for nausrht : and the Arctic 

 Freezing Company, and the 50 or more 

 dealers who o> ned the game placed in its 

 charge and held illegally, will go free, in- 

 stead of having to pay into the State treas- 

 ury some hundreds of thousands of dollars, 

 as they should have been compelled to do. 



Governor Odell recommended in his an- 

 nual message last fall that a law should be 

 enacted that would allow the placing of 

 game in cold storage, at the close of the 

 legal season for selling. Senate bill 151 was 

 evidently prepared under his supervision. 

 It was fathered and pushed through both 

 houses of the Legislature by the Governor 

 and the State Fish and Game Commission, 

 of which Lieutenant Governor Woodruff is 

 president. This is the kind of men we 

 have at Albany to protect New York fish 

 and game. 



There is another view to be taken of 

 this whole subject of game traffic in New 

 York. That is, that practically every pound 

 of game that comes into this market, aside 

 from water fowl, is stolen from the people 

 of other States. All the States of the 

 Union have laws prohibiting the shipment 

 of game out of their limits, except Virginia, 

 Kentucky, Mississipoi, Louisiana an^ Mon- 

 tana. The first 4 of these States may pos- 

 sibly contribute a few quails and a few 

 woodcock to the New York market ; but 

 not 5 per cent, of the . quantity consumed 

 here. New York itself does not produce 

 any ruffed grouse, woodcock ox quails for 



