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RECREATION. 



among the best class of sportsmen in this 

 country and Canada. The League of 

 American Sportsmen, of which Recreation 

 is the official organ, has a membership of 

 over 10,000, with divisions in every State 

 and Territory except one, and this maga- 

 zine and League have done more to secure 

 the passage and enforcement of just game 

 laws than all other forces combined. If any 

 of the game is saved in this country, the 

 credit should be given to the League and 

 to the method which has shame.d men who 

 could not be reached in any other way. I 

 have used this method without fear or dis- 

 crimination, and solely for the purpose of 

 saving the game. You say my means 

 do not justify the end. On the contrary, 

 the results obtained by Recreation and the 

 League amply justify the means and prove 

 my case. The League is recognized all 

 over this country as the one power that is 

 framing correct game laws and securing 

 effective legislation to protect the game. 



In this day a man who deliberately 

 slaughters game, or fish, or song or in- 

 sectivorous birds is not deserving of any 

 sympathy whatever. He can not possibh 

 be classed as anything but an ignorant 

 brute whom nothing but the most forcible 

 method will reach. 



I note you object to paying for the re- 

 production of photos of game hogs, etc. 

 However, I give the readers of Recreation 

 much more than 10 cents' worth of other 

 material in each number of the magazine. 

 I am sure you agree with me on that point, 

 and I trust that on further consideration 

 you may realize the necessity of my method. 



Editor. 



GOD'S CREATURES. 



Recreation prints "A Plea for the Bird 

 Dog," based on the assertion that the dog 

 is one of God's creatures. Doubtless he is, 

 but have we any reason to suppose that 

 birds, rabbits and deer are creatures of the 

 devil ? 



"Flush the birds and give them a chance 

 for life," is the dog user's cry, though well 

 he knows that without the dog to point their 

 location, thus giving ample time to prepare 

 for action, their sudden and unexpected rise 

 would be the very chance for life which he 

 professes to ask for them. There is as 

 much sportsmanship in shooting a deer 

 driven past a stand, or a calf tied to a post, 

 as there is in using a shot gun, charged with 

 hundreds of miniature projectiles, over a 

 trained pointer. 



As for giving birds and animals a chance 

 for life, except for economy's sake, that is 

 sheer nonsense. The ownership of a gun, 

 a dog and a ferret bars such a plea. It is 

 game the man is after and the average 

 hunter thinks himself abused when his 



quarry proves too cunning for his skill. If 

 the question of giving wild game a chance 

 for lite is the vital argument in favor of 

 game protection and the suppression of both 

 dog and ferret,' let us not go gunning at all. 



But there is an economical side to the 

 game question, and it is of far greater im- 

 portance than a mere matter of sport. The 

 fowls of the air and the beasts of the for- 

 est are spoils as legitimate as the Thanks- 

 giving turkey, the pet lamb or the fatted 

 calf. They are a valuable food supply, Na- 

 ture's voluntary bank deposit in favor of 

 every individual, and every individual 

 should insist that his share* be protected 

 from unfair extermination. The dog-and- 

 shot-gun men have already overdrawn their 

 accounts and brought Nature's bank into 

 a condition of insolvency. Their liabilities 

 are equal to the entire sum necessary for 

 present-day game protection. The superior 

 sagacity of the dog has won for these men 

 all the so-called honors of sportsmanship of 

 which they boast. 



The true sportsman finds pleasure in the 

 chase only when he matches his individual 

 skill, as a woodsman, stalker and marks- 

 man, against the cunning of fur and feath- 

 er, and not in merely pressing the button 

 while the dog does the rest. 



That domesticated wolf, the deer hound, 

 nearly exterminated the best game animal in 

 Pennsylvania, and the smaller game is rap- 

 idly vanishing before the shot-gun man 

 and that lesser wolf, the bird dog. Beasts 

 and birds of prey do not kill wantonly, but 

 only sufficient for their needs, and when 

 they were plentiful game was also plenti- 

 ful. But man pays a bounty for their des- 

 truction, in order that his dog, a vicious, 

 unnatural brute, and the most wantonly des- 

 tructive of all quadrupeds, may have no 

 competitors in the work of extermination, 

 and no partner other than his own master. 



More human beings have died of rabies 

 than ever fell victims to carnivorous beasts ; 

 more sheep and lambs have been destroyed 

 by dogs than were ever bred in any one 

 year on the soil of Pennsylvania, and the 

 value, to man, of the wild game wastefully 

 destroyed by the aid of dogs, can not be 

 computed in figures. Put a bounty on dogs, 

 and Nature will quickly solve the prob- 

 lem of restocking our fields and forests with 

 game birds and game animals, and that 

 without wasteful expense to private indi- 

 viduals or to the State. 



Let the gunner be thrown wholly on his 

 own resources ; let him pay for his educa- 

 tion as we still hunters have, with many a 

 long, hard tramp that brought no return, 

 other than the pleasure of hunting, — a task 

 so menial that Mr. Raymond delegates it 

 to his dog, while he finds pleasure in gath- 

 ering the spoils — and accounts them honor- 

 able. E. D. Ladd, Oleona, Pa. 



