FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



167 



Americans are so busy building cities and 

 States, amassing wealth and destroying the 

 products of Nature wherever found, that 

 they have up to this date been the most 

 supine game protectors in the higher ranks 

 of civilization. 



We purchased Alaska nearly 30 years be- 

 fore the capture of Khartoum from the 

 Madhi, but the wild animals of the Egyp- 

 tian Soudan had game laws to protect them 

 before those of Alaska shared their good 

 fortune. The Egyptian Soudan has a Di- 

 rector of the Department of Game Protec- 

 tion, but even yet Alaska has- nothing of 

 the kind. 



In America, the game protectors are to- 

 day engaged in a hand to hand struggle 

 with the annihilators of wild life. The 

 United States Senate is considering Sena- 

 tor Dillingham's bill No. 4166 for the repeal 

 of the whole Alaskan game law. The only 

 measure proposed in its stead is a flimsy 

 and utterly useless license law to regulate 

 the exportation of the hides, horns and flesh 

 of the finest wild animals of Alaska. And 

 this is solemnly proposed "to protect deer, 

 moose and caribou in Alaska !" 



To-day there is a possibility that, despite 

 the earnest protests of this Society, the 

 League of American Sportsmen, the Boone 

 and Crockett Club, the United States Bio- 

 logical Survey, the Audubon Society, the 

 Camp Fire Club and other organizations, 

 the Senate of New York may pass the 

 Hubbs bill, to repeal an excellent law against 

 the spring shooting of water fowl. That 

 measure has already passed the Assembly, 

 and the game annihilators of Long Island, 

 and of New York City also, are fighting hard 

 for the repeal of the bill which now pre- 

 vents them from shooting wild ducks dur- 

 ing their breeding season ! 



From Pittsburg to Boston the sparrow 

 eating Italians of Naples and Sicily are 

 swarming afield on Sundays, killing song 

 birds for food ! These lawless citizens now 

 constitute such a menace to the lives of 

 valuable insectivorous birds that it is ne- 

 cessary to deal specially with *hem. Around 

 Pittsburg, Columbus, and in many portions 

 of Ohio, they have become a dangerous ele- 

 ment. On Saturday, March 20th, 2 Italians 

 were found killing squirrels in the Zoologi- 

 cal Park. The one captured by Watch- 

 man Van Benschoten spent 2 nights in jail, 

 and was fined $5. 



The New York Zoological Society is com- 

 posed chiefly of business men and practical 

 women, who are far from being sentimental- 

 ists. The organization stands for the pro- 

 tection of wild life, of nearly every kind, 

 everywhere, and at all times, save in proper 

 and legitimate open season, not breeding 

 seasons, for animals that may properly be 

 classed as game. 



It is time for all persons outside the ranks 

 of the Protectors to think on this subject, 

 and decide whether they will join the ranks 

 of the Protectors, or stand with the Annihi- 

 lators. Ere long the indifferent must by 

 default in good works be classed with the 

 Annihilators ! 



I am glad to be able to report that Con- 

 gress and ' the New York Legislature 

 both adjourned without passing either of 

 the nefarious measures referred to, and I 

 hope they may never be revived. — 

 Editor. 



OBJECTS TO THE BRANDING PROCESS. 



Your work in correcting game hogs is 

 splendid, but your means do not justify the 

 end. Why should your readers be bur- 

 dened with photos and scenes of game 

 hogs and their victims, also their number 

 branded, in your game hog book? We do 

 not pay our money to hear of other men's 

 misdeeds, sad enough, 'tis true ; but don't 

 you think the U. S. Government could do 

 the branding and punishing? It seems to 

 me like hitting a man when he is down, for 

 what redress is there to a converted game 

 hog when his photo and number are in a 

 magazine entering thousands of homes, be- 

 ing seen and discussed? Is it right? I 

 shall continue to read your magazine, as 

 your other reading matter is A No. 1. It 

 always appeals to me as it must to every 

 one who loves legitimate sport in its 

 broadest sense. Your arguments against 

 game hogs are persuasive and eloquent 

 enough to deter all but the most hardened. 

 Your aim is glorious, your purpose humane, 

 but? 



Joseph E. Stuckert, Jersey City, N. J. 



I appreciate your point of view in regard 

 to my game hog crusade. I have received 

 other letters similar to yours and have 

 answered them directly as well as through 

 Recreation. For 20 years or more the 

 various sportsmen's periodicals in this 

 country have published mild protests 

 against the slaughter of game, and they 

 might as well have saved their space. The 

 protests accomplished nothing. The 

 slaughter of game was unchecked, the buf- 

 falo was wiped out of existence, the pas- 

 senger pigeon exterminated, elk nearly so, 

 the slaughter of bird life was appalling, and 

 the time had come when nothing but a 

 method like mine could make the least im- 

 pression on game hogs, fish hogs and the 

 butchers who destroyed the birds. When 

 I began this crusade, I stood ready to 

 lose every friend I had, if necessary, 

 in order to protect the remnant of our fast 

 disappearing game. Instead of that, 

 Recreation has made thousands of friends 



