4io 



RECREATION 



chance caught a bit of information that 

 led to the arrest of Mayor Hutchins. As 

 the story goes, a boy with a pair of mal- 

 lards confronted Mr. Hutchins with the 

 proposition that if he would buy him a 

 box of shells the mallards would belong 

 to him. The game warden went to Mr. 

 Hutchins and asked from whom he got 

 the ducks ; he claimed he did not know 

 his name and would not give up the 

 ducks. A search warrant soon got pos- 

 session of the ducks and the warden 

 caused the mayor's arrest; but there was 

 no case, Judge Melick called it off. 



It is really too bad that a case could not be 

 made out against this high official, because 

 had he been convicted the moral effect would 

 have been great and widespread. As it now 

 stands the people in that section will say that 

 there is one law for the high and another for 

 the low, and this is the state of mind most 

 dangerous to our aims. 



PURE THOUGHTLESSNESS. 



One of the irritating obstacles which Rec- 

 reation meets in the warfare for the preser- 

 vation of game is not the individual who, 

 becoming blood mad, slays more than his 

 proper share of game, but the thoughtless 

 editor, whose pen encourages this sort of 

 thing and also spreads the belief that the 

 game laws are made for a few dude sports- 

 men. 



A sportsman, mind you, has as much right 

 to be a dude as anyone else, but the laws are 

 not made for him as such but for him as one 

 of the citizens of this country. It would wake 

 up the Trenton Times a bit if our Jersey men 

 would turn on a flood of letters condemning 

 the absurd stand taken by this paper against 

 the wise law prohibiting the sale of game. 

 Here is what this paper says editorially in its 

 effort to distort public sentiment : 



It seems scarcely possible that any con- 

 siderable number of men can take seri- 

 ously the proposition to prohibit the sale 

 of game birds absolutely in New Jersey, 

 yet we are told that the Kaiser bill has 

 the support of most of the sportsmen of 

 Essex and Passaic counties, and the for- 

 mal endorsement of the Fish and Game 

 Commissioners of the State. The meas- 

 ure is said to be aimed at "pot hunters" 

 and intended to afford better protection to 

 the game birds. 



No sane person — outside of those who 

 have the time, inclination and means to 

 permit them to go on hunting trips, and 

 the fish and game wardens who get a liv- 

 ing out of the State can expect the Leg- 

 islature to spend anywhere from $25,000 

 co $50,000 to furnish sport for a few. 



The best way to protect game will be 

 to repeal all laws upon this subject, wipe 

 out the Fish and Game Commissioners 



and their wardens, and pass an act for- 

 bidding the killing of birds during the 

 next five years. As between the disdained 

 "pot-hunters" and the "thoroughbred 

 sport" the people will prefer the market 

 gunner. 



Small minded people will always say "we 

 might as well kill the birds, for if we don't 

 the gunner North (or South, as the case may 

 be), will kill them, and we have as much 

 right as they to shoot." Here is a case where 

 the people have a misty idea of their rights, 

 but misuse the fact to make a bad argument. 



We must be charitable to these people 

 because of their ignorance. At the same time 

 if we make this excuse for our brother editors 

 who advocate market hunting we will incur 

 their anger and resentment. Editors do not 

 like to be called ignorant, and, as a rule, they 

 are not, hence the very few who advocate 

 market hunting must do so, not because of 

 their ignorance, but because they have been 

 perverted by mixing in politics until they 

 are mentally unable to distinguish right from 

 wrong. 



MORAL IDIOTS. 



There are people who are color blind and 

 cannot distinguish red from green, and some 

 to whom everything in sight is gray. These 

 people are dead to color. There are others 

 who are so deaf that the report of a gun 

 makes no impression on their rudimentary 

 ears. These people are dead to sound. 

 There are others to whom sentiment is but 

 another name for nothing. These people are 

 dead to sentiment. There are paralytics 

 whose bodies are devoid of all sensation. 

 These people are dead to physical feeling. 

 But when one js dead to sight, dead to sound, 

 dead to sensation and dead to sentiment, they 

 are dead to the world and their worthless 

 clay is buried. 



There are those who are alive to sight, to 

 color, to sound, to sensation, and even to 

 sentiment, but to whom principles and morals 

 are but meaningless words, and these people 

 are Moral Idiots. 



We must not expect to enlist Moral Idiots 

 in our cause unless we can show them that 

 it is to their own personal advantage that the 

 game shall be protected, and fortunately this 

 may be done. 



THE PRESIDENT ACTS. 



We have the President with us and Canada 

 has at last agreed that what is sauce for the 

 goose is sauce for the gander. Canada is al- 

 ways inclined to be fair minded, and we are 

 rejoiced to hear that she has at last con- 

 sented to stop spring seining in Lake Cham- 

 plain. 



It will be recalled that in a letter to the 

 secretary of the North American Fish and 



