HOW THE OTHER 999 SHIRK. 



Some people think it easy to build ud 

 an association of sportsmen. That's be- 

 cause they never tried it. I hear about 

 once a day that I am building up the 

 L. A. S. to boom Recreation. Then some 

 other fellow says, No, I don't think Rec- 

 reation needs any booming, but Shields 

 is doing it to get himself talked about. 



And now, in order once more to show 

 these fellows, as well as the sensible peo- 

 ple, how near these statements come to 

 the truth, I print below a copy of a per- 

 sonal letter I wrote a few days ago. 



After a long and arduous piece of work 

 I got 25 men in a certain Western State 

 to join the League. The Secretary called 

 an election for Chief Warden. A good 

 friend of mine was chosen and he 

 was duly notified of the fact; whereupon 

 he promptly wrote me, saying he could 

 not serve and that I must find some one 

 else to fill the office. 



Following is a copy of my reply to him. 

 I do not like to parade myself in this 

 work, the A. D. G. H. to the contrary 

 notwithstanding, but I print this for a bet- 

 ter purpose. I print it to show the other 

 999 fellows what their apathy, their cussed 

 laziness, is costing me. 



The letter was dictated when I was hot. 

 It came from the fullness of my heart, and 

 now that I have cooled off I see nothing 

 in it to change or retract. 



The Psalmist wrote, "I said in my haste 

 all men are liars;" and history fails to record 

 that he ever retracted. I said in my hour 

 of trouble some hard words about the 

 other 999 sportsmen. I have no apology 

 to offer them now. Here is the letter: 



My dear Friend: 



If I had been made of ordinary flesh, 

 blood and bones, I should have thrown 

 down this work of game protection 2 years 

 ago and have said, "Let the game hogs go 

 ahead and wipe out the game, and then let 

 the sportsmen shoot craps the rest of their 

 lives." But, fortunately for men who do 

 get a chance to shoot and fish, I seem to 

 be made of the same kind of meat of which 

 bulldogs are made. And so I suppostt I 

 shall keep on fighting as long as I live. 

 And I shall probably keep on begging the 

 other sportsmen to help me in the fight. In 

 the future, as in the past, I shall probably 

 find only one man in a thousand who is 

 willing to do his share of the work. The 

 other 9Q9 will leave their share for me and 

 a few other men to do. 



Why should I interest myself in protect- 

 ing game in your State? I have not the 

 remotest idea of ever doing a day's shoot- 

 ing there. In fact, I would not shoot a 



prairie chicken or a quail if I were camped 

 on one of your prairies and if a thousand 

 of these birds were in sight all day. 

 I have learned to love the birds too much 

 to wish to kill them. Even if I were dis- 

 posed to go on the prairies and have a day 

 of rest and sport I could not do it. I have 

 undertaken a contract that has buried me 

 in work. I have built up an institution 

 that demands all of my time and energy, 

 and in which I could expend 10 times the 

 strength I have. And so I shall keep at 

 work, until some day I shall probably die 

 in my chair. 



Then the men who have been and are 

 being benefited, every day, by the work 

 of this League, and by my work, will say, 



"Well, Shields is gone, and it serves 



him right. He was a fool to kill 



himself trying to protect the game. What 

 difference does it make? Why did he not 

 let the hogs alone, and let them finish the 

 game? It was nothing to him. He did 

 no shooting the last 15 years of his 

 life, and said he did not care to do any. 

 I can understand why a man should want 

 to save game if he had a chance to kill it: 

 but I can not understand why he should 

 want to save it for others to kill." 



And so I shall be forgotten, before the 

 dirt over my grave is dry. 



These reflections — this bitterness, if you 

 will — is caused by your refusal to take 

 the office of Chief Warden of your division 

 of this League. If you knew how many 

 thousands of letters I have written to 

 sportsmen in your State, within the past 2^ 

 years, begging them to join the League, 

 you would be astounded. If you knew 

 how few of these had ever replied to my 

 letters in any way, you would be shocked. 

 If you knew how many men I have asked — 

 have begged — to accept the Chief Warden- 

 ship of the division, if we ever did get 25 

 members there, you would be surprised. 

 If you knew that only 2 or 3 of these 

 same men had ever shown me the decency 

 to answer in any way, you would say, 



"Well, Shields is a fool." 



If ;-ou knew how many hundreds of dol- 

 lars I have put into the work of trying to 

 get 25 members in your State, you would 

 say, 



"Shields is an idiot." 



I have 4 stenographers in my office to 

 whom I pay liberal salaries. In the ag- 

 gregate these stenographers have put in 

 probably 2 or 3 months of their time in 

 working on the sportsmen of your state to 

 get them to join the League. This is only 

 one item of the expense. 



Now in view of these facts will you per 



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