Jan., lyoi | 
THK CONDOR 
25 
every ornithologist in the country, and I am 
sure that the Cooper Ornithological Club, with 
its constantly growing influence, will, as here- 
tofore, he its most loyal subject.’’ 
The editors take this occasion to extend 
thanks to Mr. Richard C. McGregor for com- 
piling the index for Vol. II of The Condor, 
which is sent out with this issue. The index 
will be found most complete, bird species being 
indexed by both the common and the scientific 
names, while each author is credited with all 
his titles for the year. 
With this issue of The Condor, Mr. Walter 
K. Fisher becomes Associate Editor from the 
Northern Division, vice Henry Reed Taylor, 
who finds his time too limited to give the office 
attention. Mr. Fisher’s energy, as well as his 
knowledge of matters ornithological, will prove 
him a valuable member of The Condor’s staff, 
and this magazine looks confdendy forward 
to carrying out to .some extent during 1901, its 
ideas of what com titute an ideal ornithological 
magazine. 
^ 
“The Way of the Transgressor Is Hard.” 
In the March-April Condor for 1900, 
we called attention editorially to a cir- 
cular .sent out by one, W. B. Caraway 
of Alma, Ark., in which he posed as a 
dealer in song birds. At the end of the 
circular occurred a paragraph reading 
as follows: “ JVe can fi<rni;,h birds' s/cins 
and skins of small animals (native) for 
taxiderniists and millinerv purposes in 
large qnantiiies at reasonable prices." 
It appears that a copy of The Con- 
dor containing the editorial was sent 
by Mr. Otto Widmann of Old Orchard, 
Mo. to Mrs. Louise McG. Stephenson, a 
member of the A. O. U Committee for 
the Protection of Birds, residing at 
Helena, x\rk. Mrs. Stephenson writes 
that previous to this she had written all 
the circuit judges of Arkansas asking 
them to charge the grand juries in their 
circuits with regard to the ‘Bird Law 
Act’ which is operative in x\rkansas. 
Among the judges who responded was 
one residing in the circuit where lives 
the offender, Oarawa)’. 
A copy of The Condor’.s editorial 
and .some of Mr. Caraway’s circulars 
were sent by Mrs. Stephenson to the 
judge, who replied that he had given 
them into his prosecuting attornej^’s 
hands. The results are apparent from 
the following copy of a letter kindly 
furnished The Condor by Mrs. Steph- 
enson. 
W. B. CARAWAY, 
dealer in 
Living Wild Animals and Birds for Scientific 
and Propagating Purposes. Pet Stock 
of All Kinds. 
Alm.a, Ark.\n.sas, U. vS. 
Dec. ist. 1900. 
Mrs. Louise ISIcGowen Stephenson, 
Helena, Arkansas. 
Dear Madam: — I have to inform you that 
through your information to Judge J. H. 
Evans of this, the Crawford County Circuit 
Court, I was indicted by the Grand Jury for 
exporting wild birds from this state for which 
I will have to pay a heavy fine, costs etc. 
Now it may have been your duty to have re- 
ported me to the court for this but to be plain 
and honest with you I did not even know there 
was a law against shipping live birds for breed- 
ing or jiropagating purposes or animals of any 
kind for tliis purpose. 
I do know that I can get all I want in other 
states shipped per my orders for breeding, t etc. 
1 don’t want to violate our laws and am a 
lawful abiding citizen born and reared in this 
state, a democrat and a southern man — if you 
had kindly written me before hand exjilaining 
there was a law against shipping birds I of 
course would have ceased doing so at once. It 
don’t seem to me that I, a stranger, should de- 
serve this kind of treatment from your hands 
and it is hard for me to pay out money, besides 
the unpleasant notoriety I get in the matter. 
Under the above circumstances I don’t be- 
lieve I would have treated a person like 30U 
have me for I believe in that old adage: Do 
unto others as you would have them do unto 
you. Respectfully, 
W. B. Caraw.ay. 
Arkansa.s justice and Mrs. Stephen- 
son are to be commended for this valu- 
able effort toward bird protection and 
Mr. Caraway has very natural!}' reached 
that stage where penitence is becoming! 
But it may be safely assumed that the 
evidence was ample to warrant a con- 
viction. One of the weak points in Mr. 
Caraway’s plea is that he a.scribe.s his 
conviction to exporting wild birds from 
out of his state. This evidentl}" does 
not con.stitute the most serious offense 
of which he was guilty, for his offer to 
supply the millinery trade “in large 
quantities at rea.sonable prices’’ must be 
taken as evidence of his willingness to 
execute any possible orders in this line. 
Wherefore, his conviction is a step in 
the right direction. 
