A FEW CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS 

 Last Sunday, as T was taking my consti- 

 tutional, walking through the woods and 

 thickets around the ponds and trout brooks 

 which are included within the corporal lim- 

 its of New York City, and which still con- 

 tain some woodcock, quail and brook trout, 

 I met numerous, well-dressed boys, armed 

 with guns, and, upon asking one of these 

 lads what he was going to shoot, he replied, 

 with a toss of his head, ''Everything in sight." 

 This reckless disregard for law exists in 

 the suburbs of every city in the United 

 States, and these boys are only doing what 

 their parents and guardians and teachers 

 have failed to tell them is wrong. Besides 

 the boys there is an army of ignorant for- 

 eigners who live all the week upon bread 

 alone, because they are sold in gangs, like 

 so many potatoes, and the political bosses 

 take 25 cents of each laborer's earnings a day, 

 as a rake off, for their own bulging pockets. 

 This 25 cents a da}?- would be sufficient to sup- 

 ply the foreigners with meat and take away 

 from them the temptation or necessity of 

 killing our robins, thrushes, catbirds and blue- 

 birds for their dinner kettle. Immense num- 

 bers of song birds, squirrels and rabbits are 

 killed by these people in and out of season 

 because, as a rule, there are no game war- 

 dens within the city limits. Now, why should 

 such a state of affairs exist? It is only nec- 

 essary to educate the public up to a proper 

 wholesome state of mind to insure the im- 

 munity of all the little wild creatures within 

 the corporation lines. 



In our parks the gray squirrels frisk among 

 the trees, the birds nest and rear their young 

 and are practically unmolested, because the 

 public has been educated up to appreciate 

 their presence and policemen are ordered to 

 allow no one to kill or disturb them. Why 

 not have the park regulations extended to 

 the corporation limits of each city in the 

 Union? Why not have the gray squirrel in 

 the shade trees of the villages and cities all 

 over the United States ? Why not have birds 

 nesting in the rose bushes on our front lawn 

 as well as the shade trees in front of our 

 dwelling? Why not have Molly Cottontail 

 running around the vacant lots and open 

 space of unused land which is found in every 

 urban district? It would add immensely to 

 the value of the property. It would be of 

 great aesthetic educational value to our chil- 

 dren and ourselves. It would add to the 



pleasure of life and the joy of living to see 

 these little creatures all around us, and there 

 is but one reason and only one that this state 

 of things does not exist. 



When I was in Victoria, I saw the crows 

 Avalking around the lawns and I thought that 

 eve^body owned pet crows, but later I dis- 

 covered that crows were protected because 

 they -fed on the fish and offal, which would 

 otherwise produce unsanitary results. It is 

 unnecessary in most parts of the United 

 States to protect Jim Crow. He seems per- 

 fectly capable of taking care of himself even 

 under adverse circumstances, and, with very 

 little encouragement, his tribe increases to 

 such an extent as to form a menace to agri- 

 culture and to the increase of any creature 

 smaller than himself which he can swallow. 

 I do not want to be considered as one who 

 advocates the protection of these intelligent, 1 

 humorous black thieves. But I only cite this 

 example to show how tame any creature will 

 become if he be unmolested by man, and I 

 am writing this editorial in the Christmas 

 number of Recreation because it is the 

 Christmas number, and for the reason that 

 the presence of the holly and the mistletoe 

 and the gifts and the sentiment of "Peace on 

 earth, good-will to men" pervade my soul at 

 this time and I want to appeal to all the 

 readers of Recreation to use their pens and 

 their tongues and their influence to educate 

 their respective community in which they live, 

 up to a point where the trees and plants and 

 birds and harmless animals will be consid- 

 ered sacred within the corporation limits, and 

 thus make each town, hamlet, village and 

 city a miniature Yellowstone Par^ where 

 there will appear on every street the motto, 

 "Live and let live." 



Some evil-minded person who never in his 

 heart cared for the protection of God's crea- 

 tures has said that the October number of 

 Recreation was printed for those who de- 

 lighted in killing, or words to that effect; 

 and right here I want to call the attention of 

 the people to the fact that all the laws for 

 the protection of the birds and mammals of 

 this country are prompted by, inaugurated 

 by and upheld by the sportsmen. The men 

 who go to the field with gun and dog are 

 the men to whom we people who believe in 

 perpetuating the native fauna and flora must 

 go for help. The man who never fishes, the 

 man who never shoots, and is content to sit 

 by his own fireside and smoke his cigar, sel- 



555 



