FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



The man who quits when he gets enough, with plenty of game still in sight, is a real sportsman. 



A WELL MERITED, REBUKE. 



On page 168 of September Recreation 

 you print an article entitled ''God's Creat- 

 ures," which is so personal in its attack on 

 me that I am sure you will permit me to 

 rebuke it in your magazine. 



The questions . discussed in Recreation 

 should be approached in a spirit of broad 

 minded fairness, such as is characteristic of 

 sportsmen. Let us examine the style of 

 argument used in the above mentioned arti- 

 cle. Here is the opening paragraph : 



"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?" 



No. We have no reason to suppose such 

 a thing, and I never knew any one but Mr. 

 Ladd, the author of the article in question, 

 to suggest it. 



Again: "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 minia- 

 ture projectiles, over a trained pointer." 



This paragraph indicates profound ignor- 

 ance of shooting at moving game. Most 

 men think they could hit a deer driven past 

 a stand, or a bird flushed over a dog, until 

 they have tried it. The best rifle shots gen- 

 erally miss a running deer, and the best 

 shot . gun shots rarely average more than 

 one Bob White to 2 shots. After displaying 

 some more amazing ignorance of field shoot- 

 ing, as illustrated bv his characterization of 

 shooting over a dog as "merely pressing the 

 button, while the dog does the rest," Mr. 

 Ladd goes on to enumerate the damage done 

 by stray dogs and curs, and then demands 

 a bounty on all dogs as a remedy. 



He also says : "More human beings have 

 died of rabies than ever fell victims to 

 carnivorous beasts." He is evidently un- 

 aware that tigers in India kill annually hun- 

 dreds of human beings, and that rabies is 

 so rare a disease that its very existence was 

 stoutly denied only 2 or 3 years ago by 

 many'physicians. Many articles on the sub- 

 ject appeared in the daily papers, and the 

 number of authentic cases reported was 

 about as great as the number of authentic 

 deaths from shark bite. 



Mr. Ladd calls a dog a "vicious, unnatural 

 brute." Thus he displays his hatred of God's 

 creatures. No true man ever knew a good 

 dog without feeling for him a d^ep respect 

 and love. I fear Mr. Ladd's views of dogs 

 are derived from contact with curs, for his 

 remarks apply only to such. 



307 



He claims that the ownership of a dog 

 and a gun proves that the owner is after 

 game. The rest of this letter will dis- 

 prove that. He includes a ferret in his re- 

 marks, thus disingenuously trying to make 

 my plea for the noble bird dog apply to an 

 animal that no sportsman ever uses. This 

 is only a step farther than his effort to 

 make the plea extend to curs. He thus 

 closes : 



"Let the gunner be thrown wholly on his 

 own resources; let him pay for his educa- 

 tion as we still hunters have paid, 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 

 tohis dog, while he finds pleasure in gath- 

 ering the spoils, and accounts them honora- 

 ble." ^ 



It is this personal and direct slur aimed 

 at me by name that I wish to rebuke. What 

 can one think of the sportsmanship of a 

 man who could write and publish such a 

 paragraph about another man whom he 

 does not know? Let us look at the facts. 

 I own 2 bird dogs and an excellent gun. 

 Therefore, according to i.j.r. Ladd, I hunt 

 only for game. My dogs are kept in a 

 poultry wire pen. They never run at large. 

 They seldom kill human beings, or even 

 sheep. In fact, they harm no one and 

 nothing. Nearly every day, winter and 

 summer, they accompany me on a tramp 

 of one to 4 hours. In the past 19 months 

 I have shot one Bob White, to oblige 

 a young lady who wished to see some field 

 shooting and to taste quail. That is all I 

 have shot, or shot at. What is my number 

 in your pen, please? 



For 5 months I kept records of all the 

 birds I saw on my tramps and identified 

 about 100 varieties, noting their seasons. 

 The army target season was the sole cause 

 of my discontinuing this study. I visited 

 many birds at their homes and photographed 

 a few. Thus I found "pleasure in gathering 

 the spoils." Of course, I delegated to my 

 dogs the menial task of finding the birds in 

 the tree tops. 



I am only an average type of the man 

 who owns a dog and a gun. There are 

 others here whose slaughter is almost as 

 sanguinary as my own. I have hunted with 

 many gentlemen with trained dogs, and I 

 have invariably found them true sportsmen. 

 They take infinitely more pains, and exercise 

 infinitely more intelligence, woodcraft and 

 knowledge of the habits of the game, in 

 training their dogs and handling them in 

 the field, than the still hunter ever does in 

 tramping for game. 



