b'KB. 5, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
107 
Game Protection in Congress. 
The new game law measure (H. R. 2,524), amending 
the present law of the District of Columbia, was dis- 
cussed in the House on Monda)' of last week. The most 
important change is one forbidding possession or sale 
of game in the close season. A clause forbidding the 
possession of any unlawful "trap, snare, net or illumi- 
nating device" for the purpose of taking game was in 
debate cut out. We give the discussion of the clause 
relative to sale and possession of game in close season, 
as reported in the Congressional Record ; • 
Mr. Ra.y, of New York. — As I listened to the bill it 
seemed to read as providing a penalty against killing or 
having in possession certain game or birds "within the 
District of Columbia." or having in possession ■ such 
birds and game when killed, and yet it may not be an 
offense to kill such birds or game in the States of Vir- 
ginia or Maryland adjoining. Why should you place a 
penalty in bringing them into the District of Columbia? 
Is that not rather a rigorous provision of law? Suppose 
there is no law in Virginia against the killing or having 
in possession this class of game: yet a man bringing 
them into the District would be guilty of an offense 
against this law and be subject to the provisions of the 
law. 
Mr. Curtis, of Iowa.— I would suggest to the gentle- 
man fron New York, as I have already suggested to the 
gentleman from Illinois, that the only purpose is to make 
this provision of law as efficient as possible, and any 
amendment will be considered which will tend to pro- 
mote the 'object for which the bill was drawn. We have 
no objection to any reasonable amendment. 
Mr. Ray, of New York. — I wished to ascertain from 
the gentleman if the bill is as broad as I have suggested. 
Mr. Fleming, of Georgia. — It is absolutely worse than 
the gentleman has suggested. 
Mr. Curtis, of Iowa. — With the permission of my col- 
league, I would state that this law conforms practically 
to the law of the State of Maryland. The State has a 
county law as well as a State law in reference to the 
killing of gam^ out of season, and the gentlemen who 
framed the bill endeavored to conform it as nearly as 
possible I think with the Maryland law, which has I be- 
lieAre been shown to be efficient. 
Mr. Jenkins, of Wisconsin. — If I may be permitted a 
moment, it is suggested by a gentleman sitting near me 
that you cannot protect game in the District of Colum- 
bia if no protection is aft'orded in the adjacent States. 
For that reason the bill has been drawn in this form, 
because in the judgment of the Commissioners it is 
necessary to have it as stringent as possible, while at 
the same time as nearly as practicable in accordance with 
the laws of the adjacent States. 
Mr. Ray, of New York. — But how can you protect 
game in the District of Columbia unless you could also 
provide that a man may not shoot it in Virginia or 
Maryland, just across the line, where there is no law? 
How are you to prevent him from bringing it here and 
cooking it? 
Mr. Curtis, of Iowa. — The gentleman from New York 
understands how difficult it might be under certain cir- 
cumstances to enforce a law of that sort. 
Mr. Ray, of New York, — That may be, but this seems 
to be a conspiracy, practically, in favor of the dealers 
in food in this city to increase the cost of living, I do 
not know what other purpose it can possibly serve. If 
you prevent game which has been killed in Virginia or 
Maryland (and the law does not prohibit the killing) 
from being brought into the District and sold, I would 
like to ask what other purpose the bill can have than to 
enhance the cost of such provisions? 
Mr. Curtis, of Iowa. — With the permission of my 
friend, the provisions of the bill were thoroughly ad- 
vertised in the papers. Ample opportunity was given 
to the citizens of the District of Columbia to examine 
the matter and object to it if they saw lit. 
Now the fact — and it is quite enough for the com- 
mittee to know — in respect to the provisions of this bill 
is that they are approved by the Commissioners of the 
District of Columbia, by the district attorney, by the 
Game and Fish Protective Association, composed of 
some of the best citizens of the District, all of them hav- 
ing urged the passage of the bill. 
The amendments suggested here were considered by 
those gentlemen, and when presented to the committee 
no member of the committee could see any objection to 
them, it seeming to be the desire of the people of the 
District that this proposed legislation should be enacted 
into law. I will say to my friend that in my opinion 
any amendment such as he suggests would be danger- 
ous, and might destroy the efiiciency of the bill. 
Mr. Shattuc, of Ohio.— I want to say that this law is 
just about the same as the laws in the various States. 
This very issue has been tested recently in a decision 
by the Supreme Court of Illinois. Ohio and Illinois have 
similar provisions. I am quite sure that Texas has it. 
Arkansas has it. I do not know as to West Virginia, 
but being a sportsman myself I know that the proposed 
enactment is similar to the laws of almost every 'State 
in the Union. If you cut out that clause and allow them 
to bring in game from States where it is legitimate to 
shoot it at a time when it is illegal to shoot it in 
other States, you cannot after the game has been 
brought into the District separate that which is legiti- 
mately killed from that which is not. 
Mr. Curtis, of Iowa.— The law is just the same in the 
neighboring States. 
Mr. Fleming.— Suppose game is legally killed within 
the time provided by the law of a State, and a hotel 
keeper or a restaurateur in Washington buys that game, 
it being legal for him to do so in the State in which 
he buj^s it, and puts it on cold storage in order to pre- 
sence it for a few weeks, to be sold later to his custo- 
mers in the District. 
By the provision of this bill he will not even be al- 
lowed to serve in his hotel or restaurant a partridge or 
pheasant, or wild duck, or wild turkey, or anything 
of that kind that he may have bought legally, that may 
have been killed legally, and which he has preserved by 
cold storage. It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that this 
bill goes too far. I know that these gentlemen who are 
fond of hrmting, and who look after game, get together 
sometimes and frame these measures and seek to get 
us, who are supposed to be men of common sense, to 
indorse and vote the measures through, but it does seem 
to me that this bill is a sort of an outrage not only on 
every hotel man in the District, and every keeper of a 
restaurant in the District, but is a sort of an outrage on 
every man who has to eat in the District. 
If a partridge or a wild turkey is legally killed in 
Georgia and a restaurant keeper or hotel keeper in 
Washington wants to buv it and put it on cold storage 
and then sell it to his customers, why should he not be 
allowed to do so? 
You cannot hit upon any datQs that will fit every State 
in the Union. You can kill deer at some periods in 
Georgia when you cannot kill them in some of the 
Northern States, and vice versa. You may kill par- 
tridges in some of the Western States when you cannot 
kill them in other States. Now, when game is legally 
and properly killed under the law of a State, why should 
not a hotel keeper or a restaurant keeper in the District 
of Columbia be allowed to bring the game here, put it 
on cold storage, and sell it out to his customers as oc- 
casion demands? 
Mr. Jenkins. — I want to ask the gentleman from 
Georgia if any restaurant keeper or hotel keeper in this 
District has been to the gentleman from Georgia to 
make any complaint against the provisions of this bill? 
Mr. Fleming. — I have no doubt that if you will go and 
call upon the restaurant keepers and hotel keepers in 
Washington and ask them if they indorse this bill not 
one out of a dozen will do so. 
Mr. Jenkins. — Then why have they not come to the 
committee and made some complaint? 
Mr. Fleming. — Ihey are busy about their own affairs, 
not supposing that the National Legislature would put 
such an obnoxious provision upon the statute book. 
Mr. Jenkins. — If any one had come to the gentleman 
from Georgia, and he had referred him to the commit- 
tee, the commjttee would have given him a hearing. 
Mr. Curtis, of Iowa. — Mr. Speaker, there is no desire 
on the part of the committee or the distinguished gentle- 
men suggesting this legislation to impose hardship upon 
anybody. It is represented to your committee on the 
District of Columbia that Washington has been made 
the storehouse for "pot-hunters" throughout the coun- 
try, and that legislation here is not sufficiently restrict- 
ive. 
It is represented that very mature deliberation has 
been given to the subject, and that this proposed bill 
has been compared carefully vnth the laws of the ad- 
joining States, and that the majority are fully as rigid 
in their provisions as this proposed measure. Now the 
committee will have no objection whatever to any 
amendment which does not destroy tlie tnle intent of 
the measure. 
Mr. Fleming. — Now, Mr. Speaker, I wish to offer an 
amendment which I think will best come in on Section 
8. The section reads as follows : 
Sec, 8. That wherever in this act possession of any birds, fowls 
or meats is prohibited, the fact that the said birds, fowls or meat 
were killed or captured outside the District of Columbia shall 
constitute no defense for such possession. 
I wish to add: 
Provided,_ That this act shall not apply to any game brought 
into the District and which has been killed or captured not in 
violation of the law of the State or Territory where such killing 
or capturing was done. 
Mr. Jenkins.— I would say to the gentleman from 
Georgia that this amendment is not necessary, for I 
submit to him that this law is in harmony with the laws 
of Virginia and Maryland. 
Mr. Fleming. — But there are forty-five States. 
Mr. Jenkins. — The prohibition applies here as well 
as in those States. 
Mr. Fleming. — But bear in mind there are forty-five 
States in the Union. Venison is shipped here from 
all over the West and North. 
Mr. Jenkins.— That is true; but this law is in harmony 
with the laws of these two States. 
Mr. Fleming. — And only perhaps with these two. 
Mr. Jenkins. — I do not think it is in harmony with all 
legislation of all the States. 
Mr. Fleming. — Of course it cannot be, 
Mr. Jenkins. — But it very seriously impairs the use- 
fulness of this bill. Now I want to say that this bill 
has been very carefully considered by the committee, 
and gentlemen largely interested in this question were 
heard in reference to it, and to accept an amendment 
like this will demoralize the entire bill. 
Mr. Fleming. — Is it not true that venison is kept 
three, four, five, and sometimes six months in cold stor- 
age, and even dried? j 
Mr. Jenkins. — Oh, I do not know; but I do want to say 
that the people interested in the question as presented 
by the gentleman from Georgia have never made any 
complaint whatever. We submitted it to the people of 
the District who are interested in it, but no one has been 
complaining. 
Mr. Fleming.— They do not know what we are going 
to do. I have seen bird and game laws put upon the 
statutes that are perfectly ridiculous, some of them. 
They put numerous game laws on the statute books of 
Georgia while I was a member of the Legislature, and 
every time the Legislature met we have had to change 
them, and the change had to be made simply because 
the members refused to subject bills to their investiga- 
tion and to their common sense judgment.. They "al- 
lowed some man who was a hunter and fond of game 
preserves to draw a bill, and they would bring it in and 
indorse it. They passed such bills there, and we are 
doing the same thing.here. 
Mr. Curtis, of Iowa. — I am Avilling to admit that the 
State of Georgia makes some bad legislation, but we 
do not want to repeat it here. 
Mr. Fleming.— You are doing worse. We only had 
one State to subject to bad legislation, and you are try- 
ing to subject forty-five States to it, and to do something 
worse. The man that wants to put game in cold storage 
— .trame taken in season and sold out of season after 
bemg put m cold storage— is not allowed to do it. You 
do not allow a man to have game in his possession in 
close time, even if it was legally killed in season. You 
put a penalty on it. He cannot sell it; he cannot pre- 
serve It; he cannot keep it; he cannot sen'e it in any 
way, notwithstanding it was legally killed and has been 
kept in cold storage. 
Mr. Greene, of Nebraska. — I ask for information. Sup- 
pose game was killed in some of the Western States 
in season; as I understand, this bill would prevent any- 
body from handling it in this District in close time. It 
was lawfully killed, brought into this District here from 
the State where it was killed in season, and yet under 
your bill it is out of season in this District, and any 
party having it in possession can be fined. 
Mr. Fleming. — It is well known that the restaurant 
keepers frequently take venison and keep it in cold stor- 
age for several months. The longer you keep it the 
better it is; and here is game and meat preserved for the 
very purpose of putting it in better condition, and yon 
refuse to allow them to serve it in the restaurants. 
Mr. Cowherd, of Missouri. — The only way to enforce 
the game lavys is to stop the man who hunts for the 
market. He is the man that destroys the game, and the 
only way to destroy the market-hunter is to close the 
markets. If you leave the market open, you provide 
for keeping the market-hunter going. For that reason 
the game laws in nearly every State that I have had oc- 
casion to examine close the markets. The game laws 
not only provide that game shall not be killed in cer- 
tain seasons, but they say that it shall not be shipped 
out of the State, it shall not be shipped in the State, and 
it shall not be sold in the markets, and it is a crime to 
have game found in the possession of anybody during 
the closed season. 
It is true they do put game in cold storage and sell 
it. It is true this law would close the open market, and 
that is the only way to stop the market-hunter. If the 
gentleman's amendment should preA'ail it would destroy 
the whole efficacy of the law. 
Mr. Fleming. — ^Well. if that kind of a provision would 
destroy the efficacy of the law. I think it. should be de- 
stroyed to that extent. 
The Speaker. — The question is on the amendment 
proposed by the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Flem- 
ing]. 
The question was taken, and on a division (demanded 
by Mr. Fleming) there were: ayes 19, noes 46. So the 
amendment was rejected. 
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third 
time, and it was accordingly read a third time and passed. 
On motion of Mr. Curtis, of Iowa, a motion to re- 
consider the last vote was laid on the table. 
The Rigfht to Beat Armsu 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Somehow or other a copy of your paper dated Dec. 
II, 1897, drifted into my hands, and as an old hunter I 
was greatly interested, but I think "The Man in the 
Clock Tower" made an error in that number, and I want 
to go on record as objecting to some of his constitu- 
tional reasoning regarding the right of citizens to have 
and to carry arms. 
The reference to a well-regulated militia is simply 
an excuse or preamble, and the amendment was put in 
to allow the people at all times to be prepared to resist 
encroachments upon their liberties from within more 
than from without. It was put in so that the people 
could not be cowed by any would-be dictator or usurper 
who might somehow get control of the regular army; 
it was put in there that each of us might be, as my old 
commission says that we are, by the grace of God. free 
and independent. It was put in there to give to us, to 
each of us, the proper power as sovereigns that we are. 
He says that the carrying of arms as commonly under- 
stood and practiced is not a right at all! Oh, isn't it? 
Well, if it isn't, how long do you think our political 
fabric vvould hold together? Until some military leader 
or political rascal saw fit to gobble us up. 
As for the various local laws or regulations how wea- 
pons are to be carried, they do not amount to the paper 
they are printed on when taken before our highest court. 
Whether it is illegal to carry a weapon concealed, as 
far as I know, has never been decided yet by our national 
court. The Country Doctor. 
Olamon, Maine. 
The Maine Deer Limit. 
Berwick, Me. — Editor Forest and Stream: I have 
noticed in the papers lately that considerable talk is 
being made about making a law limiting' the shooting of 
deer to one for each person. I am not in favor of such 
a law, and don't believe that any sportsman is. I was 
down East on a himting trip this fall, and made a few 
observations while there. One is that the law is re- 
peatedly broken by the guides. _ One of them told me 
that he had killed twenty deer this year, some of them, 
in close time. The sportsman who can't shoot a deer, 
but wants one to take home with him, can have it fur- 
nished by the guide for a sum of money, more or less. 
The sportsman of course claims to have shot the deer 
himself. Some sportsmen who perhaps have a tender 
conscience cut the deer's throat after it has been shot 
by the guide, and thus "kill" a deer. 
Another observation was that deer are killed by the 
farmers, who use jack-lights, dogs, traps and snares, 
and kill a deer whenever they can, be it in June or De- 
cember. Deer are killed by the men in logging camps 
from early fall till spring. The wardens don't seem to 
know anything about this law-breaking unless some- 
body turns informer and "blows" on the violator of 
the law. Then woe betide the informer. 
Stop this destruction of game by the guides, farmers 
and lumbermen and there will be no need of limiting 
the sportsman to one deer. Sportsman. 
North Dakota's Mild Winter. 
Galesburg, N. D.. Jan. 14.— Herewith is money order 
for $4, renewing my subscription to your good and 
great paper for 1898. I cannot keep house without it, 
and wish to miss no numbers;. 
Lots of mink and foxes here this, winter, but rabbits 
ard chickens vei y scarce. Last winter was very hard on 
them. This winter so far is very mild, with no snow at 
all, and weatlier little below freezing. VV. 
