444 



RECREATION. 



I will not go into a discussion of this 

 topic here. It has been discussed and 

 condemned by thousands of progressive 

 sportsmen during the past 10 years, in all 

 the sportsmen's periodicals as well as in 

 the daily press. 



There are good sportsmen who still 

 shoot ducks in spring, because the laws 

 permit it; and as long as this is the case, 

 market hunters and pot hunters will kill 

 all the ducks they can find during the 

 spring months. There are, however, thou- 

 sands of men who are so radically opposed 

 to the principle that they do not shoot a 

 game bird of any kind in spring. Such 

 men have petitioned the Legislatures of 

 nearly all the States to prohibit spring 

 shooting. This class is not yet strong 

 enough to have secured such legislation 

 except in a few instances; but the senti- 

 ment is growing, and in 5 years more all 

 the States will have enacted laws pro- 

 hibiting the killing of any game bird in 

 spring. The sooner you, and other fair 

 minded men like you, join this vanguard 

 of sportsmen the better. We need you 

 with us. You will be with us 5 years 

 hence, and then you will be sorry you ever 

 allowed such sentiments as those expressed 

 in your letter to go in type over your sig- 

 nature; to be bound up into books and 

 placed in hundreds of great libraries, and 

 in thousands of family libraries through- 

 out this country and Europe. 



You attempt to justify the swinishness 

 of such men as Jones by quoting the rec- 

 ords of certain English gentlemen on par- 

 tridges, pheasants and rabbits. These gen- 

 tlemen shoot on private grounds; they 

 breed and raise their own game just as the 

 New York farmer raises domestic fowls 

 for the market, and they have the same 

 right to kill 100 or 1,000 birds that the 

 New York farmer has to go in the barn 

 yard and wring the necks of 100 or 1,000 

 of his domestic fowls. 



One or 2 of the others you quote have 

 written about duck shooting 50 years ago. 

 Some of those gentlemen you tell of have 

 used swivel guns of 1 inch to 1% inch 

 bore, loaded with 10 to 20 drams of pow- 

 der and % or y 2 pound of shot. These 

 men often killed 50 to 100 ducks at a sin- 

 gle shot. Such methods were common 

 in those days and no one thought of criti- 

 cising. But suppose an Englishman 

 should go on the same waters to-day 

 and begin slaughtering ducks bv the use 

 of such weapons and such charges. 

 Would his friends approve his actions? 

 No. There is scarcely a place on the earth 

 where such slaughter could be carried on 

 as successfully as it was in the times your 

 men write of. Such slaughter as you now 

 defend Mr. Jones for having perpetrated 

 has wiped out the great clouds of wild 

 fowl that went from North to South 50 



years ago, and even up to 10 years ago. 

 If Jones had made his record in 1850, or 

 even in 1870, no one would have given it 

 a second thought. Birds were abundant 

 everywhere then, it was all right in 

 theory, and everyone did it. To-day the 

 conditions are different, and I am simply 

 expressing the opinion of all intelligent 

 and progressive sportsmen, everywhere on 

 this continent, when I say no man should 

 kill more than 20 ducks in a day, no mat- 

 ter what his opportunities may be; no 

 matter what his ill luck may have been 

 on other days. I am expressing the 

 opinion and the rule of thousands of still 

 more progressive sportsmen when I say 

 no man should kill more than 10 game 

 birds of any kind in a day, no matter 

 what the conditions may be. 



The fact that several States have passed 

 laws limiting the number of birds which any 

 man may kill in a day to 10, or even 25. 

 proves the truth of what I have just s-aid. 

 As a rule, law makers are not sportsmen, 

 and a majority of them are not interested 

 in any question of game or bird protec- 

 tion. They simply enact laws that are de- 

 manded by any strong element of their 

 constituency. Hence, when you find on 

 the statute books of Pennsylvania, for in- 

 stance, a law saying no man shall kill 

 mr re than 15 quails, 10 woodcock or 10 

 ruffed grouse in a day, it means that hun- 

 dreds and perhaps thousands of influential 

 sportsmen of that State have demanded 

 the passage of such a law. 



Brother Williams, ycu will in 5 years 

 from now subscribe to the code of ethics 

 outlined above. You will yourself advo- 

 cate and demand the enactment of such 

 laws as I have mentioned, and you will 

 deeply regret, then, that you did not take 

 your place in the front rank of progressive 

 sportsmen 10 years sooner. The hand- 

 writing is on the wall. Game of all kinds 

 is being swept off the earth at a rate that 

 is alarming to every lover of nature. Sev- 

 eral species have been exterminated al- 

 ready, and several others will follow be- 

 fore you and thousands of others consent 

 to stop spring shooting, and to limit your 

 bags to numbers consistent with this rapid 

 decrease of game. Then why not go into 

 the front rank now? — Editor. 



ON THE TRAIL. 



Weiser, Idaho. 

 Editor Recreation: 



Here I am at Weiser, after a delightful 

 trip from Omaha over the Union Pacific 

 and the Oregon Short Line railroads. 

 Never before, in all my travels, have 

 I found the employees of a railway so 

 exceedingly courteous and accommodat- 

 ing as on these routes; each and every one 

 of them deserves to be promoted to gen- 



