EDITORIAL 



451 



and, bless them, they want to rough it with- 

 out the rough. 



It would be well if Howard Eaton had the 

 buneh astride his cayuses and could take 

 them over a three-hundred-mile trail to the 

 Park ; then they would be in a fit condition 

 to appreciate Nature unshaved and without 

 its hair cut. 



It is with delight that we notice in the 

 Hotel Register the statement "that owing to 

 the strict enforcement of the game laws small 

 chickens, ducks and turkeys have come into 

 fashion." That one little sentence means 

 more than a column in any other sort of a 

 paper, protesting against the illegal slaughter 

 of our birds. When the Hotel Register prints 

 such an item it means that the game wardens 

 are doing their duty, and that the people's 

 consciences are aroused. Until very lately 

 all manner of game could be procured at al- 

 most any restaurant in any big city at any 

 season of the year. They even made a joke 

 of it and put down quail on the menu as owl, 

 while venison, when it went out of date, ap- 

 peared as antelope; but with all the encour- 

 aging news that we receive we still find such 

 discouraging" items as this : 



A party of prominent Salt Lake men, composed 

 of A. J. Davis, E. G. O'Donnell, E. B. Love and 

 R. McKenzie, were arrested near the Yellowstone 

 Park a few days ago by the State game warden, 

 and an elk found in their possession. 



After a warning and the payment of $50, the 

 charge for a license to hunt elk, the men were 

 allowed to go. They threatened vengeance on the 

 Wyoming warden, claiming that he was holding 

 them up in true "Butch Cassidy" style, and some 

 of their threats almost resulted in their being con- 

 fined. — Republican, Denver. 



We do not know any of the gentlemen 

 above named, nor anything more about the 

 case than is stated in the item quoted ; but 

 this we do know — and we wish to impress it 

 upon our readers and upon the public in gen- 

 eral — that the more prominent the man the 

 more certain should be the punishment and 

 the less leniency shown to the culprit, because 

 the very prominence of the law-breaker tends 

 to detract from the sanctity of the law in 



the public mind. We see no more reason 

 why prominent citizens should escape in this 

 case by. buying a license than any benighted 

 Dago who is caught shooting chippy birds. 

 This is a free country, founded upon the dec- 

 laration of equal rights to all, and we have 

 already proclaimed that the politics of Rec- 

 reation are based upon the fact that we hold 

 these truths to be self-evident — that all men 

 are created equal and endowed by their Cre- 

 ator with equal rights and privileges to hunt. 

 Such being the case, we wish to call the game 

 wardens' attention to the fact that if the law- 

 breaker is a judge on the bench he should be 

 treated the same as the tramp on the railroad. 

 Otherwise, we cannot hope to earn a respect 

 for the law in the community. We have, at 

 this moment, abundance of proof to show 

 that position, social, financial or political, does 

 not make a man honest; and we can not see 

 how any person who reads the daily papers 

 can pay any deference and regard to people 

 on account of their chance position. Neither 

 can we see the justice of being lenient with 

 these people when they arrogantly override 

 laws made for the protection of our game or 

 when they threaten dire vengeance upon the 

 officers of the law because the latter per- 

 form their duty. 



The conscience of the great public is hav- 

 ing a tremendous revival ; and great results 

 may be expected from it ; and we may even 

 see the day when respectable sportsmen will 

 not take their dogs and guns to shoot prairie 

 chickens in violation of the law simply be- 

 cause there is no game warden there to pre- 

 vent them, and give the childish reason we 

 have so often heard, "If I did not do it some 

 one else would." We must not pretend to 

 think that we are doing no wrong in violat- 

 ing the law if we are not caught and pun- 

 ished, for, as the South Dakota Record says, 

 "It is as much a crime for a man to kill his 

 brother in the desert one thousand miles away 

 from human habitation as it is to kill him 

 before the doors of tribunal justice. It does 

 not make a crime less because the criminal 

 is never punished by man." 



AUTUMN REVERIES 



By AGNES LOCKHART HUGHES 



An empty nest 'neath the old brown eaves, 

 A scarlet flame 'midst the maple leaves, 

 And a farmer binding his golden sheaves, 



Where autumn flaunts her red. 

 The farewell note of a bluebird gay, 

 A butterfly kissing his love good-day, 

 A rainbowed drift where the flowers play — 



And summer's rose lies dead. 



Alas ! the rose lies dead. 



