Feb. 14, 1903.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
129 
game of Texas. His soti,,W. L. Moody, Jr., is said 
to have stated that one year his income from the 
sale of ducks alone was over $6,000. I do not doubt it. 
"Thinking you may have overlooked the notice of 
the late duck hunt of the John W. Gates party, I in- 
.close clipping from a newspaper. You will bear in 
mind that the weather was not propitious at that time, 
consequently the slaughter was not as great as usual. 
"The simple repeal of the proviso exempting ducks 
and geese from shipment and sale, putting them on the 
footing with other game, will destroy this pot-hunting 
industry. If the Legislature will do its duty this term 
and strike out that proviso from the game law, not 
only will it have a tendency to preserve the wild game, 
but one branch of industry of the millionaire pot- 
hunter and duck, peddler will be. cut off, and he will 
be obliged to seek a scanty livelihood hereafter by 
means of his experimental rice culture, his bank, his 
cotton press, his cotton factory business and his cot- 
ton dealings with country clients. 
"I cannot directly prove the fact that 1,500 ducks 
were killed at one time and 1,756 at another. The. evi- 
dence comes to me by hearsay. It was told on the 
streets that a member of his party reported the first 
number, namely 1,500, and an employe of his at the 
lake told me, in the presence of two others, that 1,756 
ducks had been shipped from there the day previous. 
The newspaper report about the 400 killed by the 
Gates party speaks for itself. Judge Williams, of the 
Supreme Court, was a guest at the lake, and if report 
which may eventually be thought intolerable. It will 
be a matter very fortunately settled on all acounts if 
the Legislature of Texas shall cut this Gordian knot 
by shutting ofif the sale of ducks, and so leaving the 
millionaire market hunter high and dry on- the banks 
of Lake Surprise. ■ 
Mr. John W. Gates, of Chicago, offered to buy Lake 
Surprise of Col. Moody during his visit the other 
week, but Col. Moody declined to entertain any sort 
of proposition. Mr. Gates has large business interests 
at Port Arthur, in eastern Texas. 
San ANroNiG, Texas. 
Michigan Game Laws. 
Chicago, 111., Feb. 6. — The general stir up in the game 
laws of the State of Michigan goes merrily forward. It 
is singularly unfortunate that this grand State, so full 
of good shooting and fishing, should be so continually at 
the merc.y of this j uggling in the game laws. No sooner 
does Michigan get a good practical game law than there 
ar'ises some element er other to break it down. No 
sooner does she get a good warden than there arises the 
political machine to oust him and put in his piace some- 
one else. 
Much of this state of affairs can be gathered from 
comment in Michi.gan newspapers. A journal of Sagi- 
naw. Mich., contains the following communication from 
Mr. W. B. Mershon, who has always been very prominent 
in the work for good game laws and good protective 
ginning September 20. letting it include plover. These 
birds all go at the first frost. I should like to see the 
15 days they propose in December stricken out. More 
birds can be killed in December than in all the other time 
together, and we have got to protect and restrict the 
killing more and more every year, for our supply is 
diminishing. 
. "I approve of making the limit on trout 7 inches and 
not over 50 being taken in any one day, nor oyer 75 away 
from any one stream, though the Fish Commission advo- 
cate making that limit 50. 
"Anything our legislators can do toward the enforce- 
ment of the law so as to make the garne warden's office 
more effective will be a step in the right direction. I 
think we should co-operate with the commercial fisher- 
men here as far as we can consistently do so and get 
their support, so as to do away with spring shooting 
entirely. 
"A non-resident coming here and shooting deer, if he 
pays a license, should be allowed to take one deer hoine 
with him. If they come here to shoot our birds, they 
should take out a license, not less than $10 nor over $23, 
for the season, though probably $10 or $15 would be 
enough, and they should be allowed to take home with 
them when they go not to exceed one-half dozen part- 
ridges or 20 quail. I should like to see a license on non- 
resident fishermen and allow them to take out of the 
State not to exceed 2^ or 30 brook trout, all properly 
taken, if it can be legally done. 
"Above all things, I am opposed to the marketing of 
game. If the farmer will compare the prices of poultry 
now with what they were when game was in market, he 
will see his poultry brings him more money. The cry that 
the game is protected for a favored few is nonsense, _ for 
everyone has a right to take game legally and also a right 
to give it away to friends. Throw _ it open to market 
hunters, and there would be no game in a couple of years, 
and no one excepting the residents of large cities, who 
could pay a fancy price for it, would get it, and it would 
largely be smuggled out of the Stale for the New "^'ork 
and other high-priced markets. Detroit would get a 
share of it, and farmers would get no more, if as much, 
as they do now, and in two years no one would have any." 
There is good sound sense in those closing words. 
It is very much to be hoped that something will be done 
toward restricting the catches of trout on the upper 
IVfichigan streams. Some of these streams are wonder- 
iully prolific and are beautiful angling streams as well. 
But neither they nor any other water of any size can 
v.-ithstand such drains as catches of 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 
trout to the party. The best posted anglers and guides 
along the Au Sable river admit that the salvation of the 
Au Sable and its tributaries is the 50-fish, 8-inch limit. 
This same law extended to every stream in Michigan 
would work wholly for the good of the best interests of 
aughng. . ' • E. Hough. 
126 Hartfokd Buir-DINO, Chicago. 
A THANKSGIVING BAG. 
speaks truly was disappointed in not bringing away 
the ducks he killed, they being needed for export to 
the Northern markets. This, of course, I do not 
vouch for on personal knowledge." 
It , seems to be the unwritten law at Lake Surprise 
that any guest shooting there shall leave all his game. 
One Texas sportsman of considerable prominence, 
owner of his own yacht and proprietor of a consider- 
able business at Houston, was once a guest at this 
place, and killed three or four dozen ducks to his own 
gun. He was stopping on his own boat, and asked one 
of the Moody hunters to send out to the boat a pair 
of canvasbacks. The birds did not come as specified, 
but in their stead a pair of inferior ducks, which did not 
please the gentleman. Complaining to the market 
hunter, he was advised by the latter that Mr. Moody 
had stated that he wanted the marketable birds left at 
the club house, since he thought that any man who 
had enjoyed the sport at Lake Surprise ought to be 
willing to let the owner have the products of his gun. 
There is always more than one side to almost any 
question, and I do not doubt that there is some per- 
sonal animus in much that has been written regarding 
this sequestration of the best ducking grounds of 
Texas. It is no doubt true that Col. Moody is hos- 
pitable and generous, and that he does not wholly en- 
tertain the attitude of a curmudgeon or cynic in re- 
gard to the privileges of this prolific shooting ground. 
Perhaps he acts according to his lights, and his lights 
may cause him to believe that the boundless kilHng 
and shipping of ducks is a commendable procedure 
upon his part. Perhaps he is one of those, and they 
are not a few, who think that the wild game of this 
great country is something which can never be ex- 
hausted, in short, that there will always be enough for 
all. Yet, after every excuse has been made for him, 
there seems no reason to doubt the truth of all these 
incidents related regarding him, or the accuracy of 
the figures given as to the extent of his market shoot- 
ing operations. It is to be added also that there is 
an undoubted sentiment in Texas, and one rapidly 
growing, against him and his duck preserve. It is 
something more than mere personal pique which pro- 
tests at high-handed appropriation of benefits which 
ought to belong to all, and at the persistent and un- 
limited violation of all those laws of restraint and 
moderation upon which the future of our American 
game depends. There are very many unpleasant de- 
tails which might be made public regarding incidents 
at Lake Surprise, incidents of violence and lawless- 
ness, of which, perhaps, the less said the better. All 
in ail, the situation is one which is not pleasant to a 
large part of the sportsmanship of this State, and 
principles in the State of Michigan. In his^ statement he 
makes the following remarks regarding politics in sport, 
remarks fully in line with the often expressed and con- 
current belief of the Forest and Stream : 
"I see by the Courier-Herald that the Game and Fish 
Protective Association indorsed Chas. L. Benjamin for 
State Game and Fish Warden. Now, I am a great ad- 
mirer of Mr. Benjamin, and I think he is a clever and 
able fellow, but I want to strongly protest against the 
Association lending itself to politics in game protection. 
If the indorsement had been made with the provision 
that if a politician or someone without any experience is 
to be selected, then I Avould have heartily favored Mr. 
Benjamin, but I do think, as. a game protective club, if it 
intends to be such, it ought to protest against making 
the office of game warden part of the political machine. 
It has been the custom for some time to use the office 
of State Game and Fish Warden as a reward for some 
political worker, without considering for one minute 
v/hether he is a naturalist or a sportsman, or knows any- 
thing about the habits of birds and animals of the fields 
and forests and fishes of the lakes and streams. I have 
done my utmost, and I believe it is the duty of every 
game protective enthusiast and true sportsman to use 
every effort to divorce the protection of game from poli- 
tics and have it done on its merits and in a practical and 
thorough way. There is nothing the matter with our 
game and fish laws, but there is a lot the matter with the 
enforcement of them. You never will stop the violations 
of these laws as long as the State Game and Fish Warden 
is given to understand that he and his deputies owe their 
first duty to the party, to the Governor who made the ap- 
pointment, and to see that his political fences are mended 
and that the machine is kept up in every county, village 
and hamlet where they can use tlieir influence and then 
if they have any spare time devote it to game and fish 
protection. 
"1 say, if a thoroughly experienced man is not to be 
appointed, and if the Governor wants to recognize his 
political friends, then there is no one I would rather see 
have the office than Mr. Benjamin; but I do not believe 
our Fish and Game Protective Club should be made the 
tool of the politicians. The meeting was held at an un- 
fortunate time, owing to so many other engagements of 
the members. I hope another meeting will be held soon, 
at which time the commercial fishermen will be present 
and state their wants, and see if the sportsmen cannot 
work together and help one another, and each be reason- 
able in their demands and work with the sole idea of pro- 
longing the supply of game and fish." 
Mr. Mershon also advances in proper circles the fol- 
lowing suggestions as to a game law : 
"I should like to see an open season made for rail, be- 
ji \ Thanksgiving Bag. 
'$ To triose of us Avho are not too old or too young 
I to recall our boyhood days, the accompanying illustra-- 
■' tion will appeal with a peculiar warmth, carrj-ing us 
back to the long single-barrel of grandpap's, the first 
cotton-tail, gray squirrel or chipmunk, to frosty morn- 
ings down along the "spring" back of the old crib 
house with Neezer — him of no breed at all, just a dog, 
one that would go under the ice after a muskrat, run 
a rabbit, tree a squirrel, help find a dead bird or mind 
cows — ^just a dog — just a boy, both full of the love of 
hunt, when we, too, could pose in pride oblivious to 
the camera and the world, only looking for more. 
Many of us come by our love for nature and those 
things which a modern ingenuity has contrived to sim- 
plify the taking of game by inheritance to a degree 
that, should we have had the "selection of an ances- 
try" we couldn't have done better. I have heard it 
said "that the sportsman is born, not made," and sure- 
ly observation would indicate that this well worn say- 
ing is largely true. 
By comparison, those days that are gone, but not 
beyond recall, look as though they might have been 
dull, but they were not. The boy of then and the boy 
of now ai-e the same. Fred's sensations as he sits be- 
neath that string of brant and ducks, are sweetly nat- 
ural and true to nature, and "he looks the part." 
It happened' at Chadwick's, on Barnegat Bay, on 
Thanksgiving Day. that Mr. W. E. Ross and his son 
Fred, of Elizabeth. N. J., accompanied by Mr. E. W. 
Brown, endured the hardships of a gerfuine fireside 
(only) weather in their sharpies, waiting for a flight 
that it seemed never would come. Even the guide had 
retired from on watch, when the welcome honk, honk, 
honk of the goose broke upon the ears of the watchers 
in broken snatches, wind tossed and discordant, and a 
flock of geese decoyed. To six barrels five geese fell, 
and to this youth of seventeen belongs the credit of 
a pair. With Fourth of July weather now in their 
hearts they still watched and bagged thirteen ducks 
ere the sun had kissed the west. 
Fred comes by his gun instincts by absolute inheri- 
tance. What he has to learn about the use of the 
gun can easily be taught him by his father, and what 
is lacking there can be found just around the corner 
at his Uncle Charlie's. These five geese weighed 68 
pounds. T\_E. Batten. 
Paris Green and Game Birds. 
Orient Point, N. Y., Feb. 6. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Last week Dr. Morton Grinnell stated_ that a 
dead quail's stomach had been found to contain "loi 
potato bugs" by Prof. Atwater. No wonder that quail 
died. Ten years ago I found a dead partridge lying in the 
grass within a few feet of a potato field which had been 
thoroughly sprinkled with paris green a few days before. 
This is the only partridge I ever saw in this village (dead 
or alive), with the exception of those brought here by 
our hunters who have visited and hunted outside of our 
village limits. I have no doubt that the partridge I 
found dead gorged itself with bugs which had previously 
gorged themselves with paris green. 
Uncxs Dan. 
