3io 



RECREATION. 



of organizing a League of American 

 Sportsmen. I had the pleasure of telling 

 the 140 gentlemen assembled in that con- 

 vention, from 17 States, what we proposed 

 to do with this -League, when organized. 

 You honored me by placing me at the head 

 of the organization and it is with peculiar 

 pleasure that I have undertaken to tell you 

 to-day what this League has done in the 

 short space of one year. 



As you know, all of the 140 men present 

 at the convention joined the League before 

 leaving the hall. Many of them went out 

 into the vineyard to work, and have sent in 

 many other applications for membership 

 since that date. By the aid and co-opera- 

 tion of these 140 men, and of many others 

 who were not fortunate enough to be able 

 to attend the convention, and by the un- 

 ceasing labors of a few of the faithful, the 

 membership has grown until to-day we 

 number 1,376. We now have members in 

 36 States. Divisions have been organized in 

 11 States and the 12th is now in process of 

 organization. Several other States have 

 turned in nearly the requisite number of 

 members to enable us to band them tor 

 gether, and from present indications we 

 shall organize at least 5 more divisions 

 with the next 90 days. 



Thus far New York is the banner State 

 in point of membership and in point of 

 effective work really done by the officers 

 and members of its division. This division 

 has 2>77 members, and Chief Warden Pond 

 has appointed 38 wardens in as many 

 counties, the majority of whom are pa- 

 trolling their ground in search of law- 

 breakers. Several arrests have been made 

 and several convictions secured in this 

 State for violations of the law, and it is due 

 to Chief Warden Pond to say that he has 

 paid the rewards for such convictions out 

 of his own pocket. This is because the 

 League has thus far been short of funds 

 for pushing its work and meeting its obli- 

 gations. Soon after Mr. Pond was elected 

 to his present position, he offered to pay, 

 out of his own funds, all rewards that might 

 be earned during his first fiscal year. 



Local Warden E. P. Dorr, of Erie 

 county, is entitled to the honor of having 

 done perhaps the most heroic and effective 

 work of any local warden thus far ap- 

 pointed. His first official act was to arrest 

 and secure the conviction of a man who 

 was trapping robins. He found 2 other 

 people engaged in this unlawful work; se- 

 cured indisputable evidence against them, 

 and could have prosecuted them success- 

 fully, but magnanimously refrained from 

 doing so on their releasing the robins they 

 had captured and promising not to repeat 

 the offense. The next important piece of 

 work done by Mr. Dorr, in the interest of 

 bird protection, was when he found some 

 grape growers in Erie county shooting 

 robins that were carrying off their grapes. 

 Mr. Dorr called on these vineyard men and 



told them, manfully and emphatically, that 

 this killing must be stopped. The farmers 

 protested that the birds were eating their 

 grapes and that they had a right to defen4 

 their property. Mr. Dorr replied that the 

 law must and should be obeyed and the 

 farmers finally agreed to stop the killing 

 and to drive the birds away by the use of 

 blank cartridges, instead of killing them. 



In November, Mr. Dorr called on a num- 

 ber of hotel and restaurant men, meat deal- 

 ers and cold storage houses in Buffalo, and 

 warned them that venison must not be sold 

 or had in possession after the 20th. Some 

 of the hotels had already advertised that 

 they would serve venison at their Thanks- 

 giving dinners, and in 4 of these instances 

 Mr. Dorr's warning caused them to have 

 these notices withdrawn. One hotel did sell 

 venison in defiance of Warden Dorr, and 

 we are now negotiating with the State Fish 

 and Game Commissioners for permission 

 to proceed against the managers of that 

 hotel in the name of the State. 



One of Mr. Pond's local wardens caught 

 a party of fishermen taking undersized 

 trout from a stream in the Catskills. When 

 he reached their camp they .had in their 

 baskets 43 trout under 6 inches long (the 

 legal minimum size). The law prescribes a 

 penalty of $10 for each offense and these 

 men were, therefore, liable to pay a total 

 fine of $430. The local warden finally com- 

 promised the case by the offenders paying 

 into court $150. 



A warden in Friendship, N. Y., had a 

 wealthy man arrested for shooting robins. 

 He denounced the action of the warden as 

 an outrage and said he would go to jail 

 rather than pay a fine. The officer started 

 with him and when he reached the door of 

 the jail he weakened and paid a fine of 

 $50. 



A number of other wardens, in various 

 parts of this State, have done effective work 

 in various ways, but I have not at hand the 

 necessary data to enable me to give them 

 the credit that some of them deserve. 



The Chief Warden and Secretary-Treas- 

 urer of the Connecticut Division have also 

 been doing valuable work. They have 

 thoroughly circulated the literature of the 

 League throughout the State; have had 

 several hundreds of our muslin posters dis- 

 tributed in public places and have advised 

 lawbreakers, in various ways, that the 

 League is after them. 



Two local wardens in that division have 

 also secured convictions for violation of the 

 law. 



On the 27th of December, Mrs. Bertha 

 Williams, of East Canaan, saw George 

 Stevens fire at, kill and carry off a ruffed 

 grouse. She remonstrated with the of- 

 fender and then wrote a letter accusing him 

 of having killed game in close season. 

 After passing through several hands the 

 letter reached Mr. H. C. Went, Secretary- 

 Treasurer of the Connecticut Division. 



