Ill 
Public Sentiment. 
Where the public sentiment recognizes the 
wisdom of the principle of game preservation, 
the laws are respected, not through 'force or fear, 
but every one in t'he community takes special 
care that game is only taken in a lawful manner, 
and only during the open season and not to ex¬ 
ceed the bag limit. The long and unchecked 
wanton destruction of all game in this country, 
as strikingly exemplified in the total extermina¬ 
tion of the wild pigeon, and almost total de¬ 
struction of deer, turkey and prairie chicken, 
has finally brought about the natural reaction, 
that has resulted in the present activity in the 
state and Federal measures to protect wild game. 
Where such protection has been given, it has 
been rewarded by showing a bountiful increase 
in game after a few years of closed season. 
Hunting and Fishing as a Sport. 
There is no sport that has so large a follow¬ 
ing as that of hunting and fishing. Thousands 
may gather to see the home team play a double 
header of the National game, a few hundred will 
go to the private clubs and golf links, but let 
two holidays come together, and the campers 
and fishermen will leave the heat of the city 
in train loads, in street cars, automobiles, bicy¬ 
cles or “foot back,” if no other means of travel 
is at hand. 
Camp Fire Girls. 
Years ago, men only followed the hounds; now 
the fair sex is taking to the woods. 
The automobile takes the whole family fish¬ 
ing; the Camp Fire Girls and the Boy Scouts 
are teaching their parents a few tricks about 
camp life. 
Each year, the women in increasing number, 
are seen in canoe on our lakes and streams and 
are not only becoming expert with paddle, but 
are competent to take care of themselves both 
in or on the water; wading the stream, they 
are expert bait or fly casters, and with light 
weight guns, can bring down the bird on the 
wing. 
The manufacturers are now making fishing 
tackle, guns and camp supplies, clothing, caps 
and shoes for women as well as men. 
The Week End in the Country. 
The railroads and steamboat lines run Fisher¬ 
men’s Specials to accommodate the outing par¬ 
ties. 
’Department stores are buying farms and build¬ 
ing club houses in the country for the benefit of 
their employes. 
The farmers are having post cards printed 
showing shady trees along some stream, to en¬ 
tice their city friends to spend their vacations 
in the country. 
The dinner table is the farmer’s “counter,” 
over which he exchanges for cash, roasting ears, 
potatoes, corn bread and tomatoes, fried chicken 
and fresh eggs, for a better price than he could 
get in trade at the store. 
The farmer has yet to learn that he should 
add to his dairy herd, as fresh butter, butter 
milk or sweet milk and cream is what the city 
people expect on a trip to the country, and so 
seldom get. 
Opportunities on the Farm. 
The farmer is now being assisted by the parcel 
post; he not only supplies country board during 
FOREST AND STREAM 
the summer, but takes orders to ship his poultry 
and dairy supplies, apples, cider and vinegar, 
walnuts and pecans, that a few years ago, found 
no market. His summer boarders tell their 
friends where to send for these articles; they 
are all “boosters” for the farmer, and at no 
cost to him for advertising. 
A flock of quail or a stream stocked with fish, 
means cash in his pocket for livery hire or board 
bill during the fall, if he will invest in one postal 
card and send it to the sportsman or fisherman. 
Conservation. 
Opportunity is knocking at our very door; are 
we to continue to turn a deaf ear? 
We should wake up to the importance of pre¬ 
serving our fish and game. We have beautiful 
streams, valleys and hills, unsurpassed for 
recreation grounds. 
Killing game and fish out of season and dyna¬ 
miting our streams, will not bring visitors to 
our state for recreation, and the people of our 
own state will be forced to go to other states 
for t'heir recreation. 
The Shell Game. 
Public sentiment should be aroused. When 
the State of Missouri asks the sportsman to 
pay a five dollar license fee to hunt, the sports¬ 
man is led to believe that the fish and game will 
be protected during the closed season. When 
the officials fail to do their sworn duty, it places 
the state in the position of obtaining money from 
the sportsman under false pretences. 
The “Lame Duck.” 
The sportsmen of .the state are not paying 
'hunting license fees for the politicians to create 
offices, for no other purposes than to pay poli¬ 
tical debts, and fill these offices with “lame 
ducks” who have no other interest in their work 
than to draw their salaries. 
The money that is paid the state to-day for 
hunters’ licenses is for the sole purpose of fish 
and game propagation and protection, paid only 
by those who wish to hunt. It is not a general 
tax against all property. The Missouri legisla¬ 
ture has on two occasions, diverted this special 
fund to other purposes during political factional 
fights. 
Game is killed out of season, and, is being sold; 
the streams are dynamited for fish; all in direct 
violation of our laws. Very feeble efforts are 
being put forth, if any, by the Missouri Game 
Department, to put a stop to infractions of the 
law. 
Game Laws Should Be Enforced. 
The sportsmen of Missouri have a right to ex¬ 
pect and demand that the officers intrusted with 
this work, render the service for which they 
are being paid, and to that end, appeal to the 
citizens of the state of Missouri, to all commer¬ 
cial organizations and societies of this state, in 
order that they may be brought face to face with 
the deplorable conditions that to-day exist. 
The money raised from hunters’ licenses, 
should be used only for the work of the fish and 
game department and if incompetents fill these 
offices, they should be removed and their places 
taken by men who can render service to the 
state, in keeping with the cost to the state for 
their services. 
Juggling the Game Fund. 
It is a notorious fact that $45,000 was paid 
into the State funds to protect fish and game, 
but this money was used for other purposes- 
On two occasions, as above mentioned, the 
legislature has diverted the game funds to the 
general revenue and refused to make the nec¬ 
essary appropriation to the game department, do¬ 
ing serious damage throughout the state on ac¬ 
count of the work of the department coming to 
a standstill, as no funds were available to carry 
on the work and keep deputies in the field. The 
market hunters could shoot after sundown, with¬ 
out hindrance, either in open or closed season; 
the fish trappers could run their nets, set traps, 
or dynamite the stream at will. 
State Park Fiasco Again Bobbing Up. 
Politicians and real estate dealers have made 
three unsuccessful attempts to unload on the 
sportsmen of the state a scattered lot of par¬ 
cels of land that has not only proved unprofit¬ 
able to them, but unsalable as well. The scheme 
was ably written up and advertised and offered 
to the state (at a price) for a state park. 
The legislature refused to swallow the bait; 
then the promoters had a bill introduced to have 
the state buy it for a state park, but to be paid 
for out of the game department. 
The sportsmen have successfully defeated the 
proposition at each of the sessions of the legisla¬ 
ture when presented. 
The last time it was defeated, a bill was in¬ 
troduced and passed to have a committee visit 
various park sites in the state and report at the 
next session, which meets in 1915. 
The committee has just completed its junket 
and while they admit that the state will not 
be asked to buy the park, that the committee 
will again recommend that a site be purchased 
to be paid for, by providing that all fishermen 
pay a one dollar fee to fish, in addition to fees 
for hunting license, and that the park be paid 
for out of an appropriation from the general 
revenue, from funds collected from hunting and 
fishing licenses. 
If the state representatives are not able to 
impress the farmer vote, of the necessity of 
increasing the tax on the farm, sufficient to pay 
t'he promoters not only the price they ask for 
the property, but the additional cost of buying 
up large tracts of land that lie between the 
scattered parcels; the cost of road and bridge 
building to reach the property; building roads, 
bridges and buildings on the property sufficient 
for a public resort, all of which would in all 
probability, cost $1,500,000 to $2,000,000; we feel 
sure that the members of the legislature will not 
unload such an enormous burden on the fish and 
game department, when the department is strug¬ 
gling along and making a very poor showing at 
present. 
If t'he game funds are squandered in real 
estate deals, and the game department is closed 
on account of no funds to operate, then who 
will patrol the fields and streams, or see that 
hunters take out a license; on the other hand, 
who will take out a license to hunt or fish, if he 
knows the game has been killed off out of 
season. 
After they kill the goose that lays the golden 
egg where will the money come from, to pay 
the promoters for the park? 
