FOREST AND STREAM 
486 
4 
Unfortunately For The City Amateur, Photographs of Falling Water Can Be Taken to Best Advantage Only in the Early Spring 
Illinois has Joined the “No Sale of Game” States 
Real Conservation Work Accomplished Through Co-operation of Illinois and Missouri Sportsmen—Forest 
and Stream’s Famous Plank now Almost Universal 
I LLINOIS has enacted a new game and fish 
law which has been signed by the Gover¬ 
nor and is now in effect. 'It is unlawful to 
sell any game, except rabbits, whether killed 
within or without the state. 
Without doubt this is the great conservation 
movement of the season. Persons who are fa¬ 
miliar with the previous conditions, term it the 
most important protective law passed in several 
years. Widespread benefits will accrue to the 
national conservation movement by the enormous 
saving of migrating waterfowl from threatened 
extinction. 
Co-operation between Missouri and Illinois 
sportsmen produced this result. The writer, rep¬ 
resenting the Missouri Fish and Game League, 
and Mr. A. D. Holthaus, also of Missouri, repre¬ 
senting the American Game Protective Associa¬ 
tion, inaugurated the plan, which soon developed 
into such proportions that overwhelming success 
was demonstrated by a vote in the legislature of 
48 to 1 in. the Senate and 113 to 7 in the House. 
Every sportsmen’s association and nearly 
every club in Illinois, besides many individual 
sportsmen, actively participated in securing the 
law through.a campaign of letter writing to the 
legislature, similar to the Missouri Fish and 
Game League plan, which passed the recent rad¬ 
ical Missouri law in the face of attempts by the 
reactionary element to abolish the game warden 
system. 
Along the Missouri-Arkansas border in the 
sunken lands, is one of the greatest wild fowl re- 
By E. T. Grether. 
sorts of the nation. For years this has been the 
paradise of the market hunter and game ship¬ 
per. Unbelievable millions of ducks have been 
slaughtered and shipped from this famous duck 
country. 
In 1905 Missouri enacted a law prohibiting im¬ 
portation or sale of all game. At every legisla¬ 
tive session in Missouri there has been attempts 
to cripple or repeal this law, through the ener¬ 
gies of the commercial interests. 
Illinois permitted importation and sale of 
game “killed in other states,” and this afforded 
a great game market for the swamp hunters, com¬ 
monly known as “snake hunters.” The closing 
of the New York and Missouri game markets 
was a severe blow to the game shippers, and 
their influence largely was responsible for the bi¬ 
ennial game law fights in the state of Missouri. 
Dissatisfaction with Federal hunting seasons in 
Missouri and adjoining states, afforded a favor¬ 
able opportunity this year to attack the Missouri 
State law in the attempt to abolish the game 
warden system. The Missouri Fish and Game 
League expediently ignored the Federal seasons 
but drafted a bill with further drastic and rigid 
provisions against all commercialism. Thirty-six 
associations and clubs passed the new Missouri 
law with a handsome majority, the final vote be¬ 
ing only a few hours before adjournment of the 
legislature. 
Then the Illinois campaign was developed and. 
though many obstacles were placed in the way 
of such legislation, which seemed insurmountable. 
the Illinois law was pushed ahead of other legis¬ 
lation and the game selling business was made 
illegal in Illinois. This bill also received its 
final vote within a few hours of adjournment, 
after voting down over twenty amendments, any 
one of which would have proven fatal to the 
passage of the bill, by requiring another vote of 
approval by the Senate in the last hours of ad¬ 
journment. 
The State law of Arkansas, while prohibiting 
the exportation of game generally, contained an 
exception clause, permitting the shipment of 
ducks from the “Chicasawba District” in Missis¬ 
sippi county. 
This district was in the heart of the duck 
shippers’ paradise, and the fowl were gathered 
from the surrounding vast area of fine duck 
country, and shipped in carload lots to Illinois 
markets. The writer of this article, while act¬ 
ing as chief deputy game warden, a couple of 
years ago, confiscated 88 illegal duck shipments 
in the express cars, during two months. 
These mostly originated on the Missouri side 
of the border, but were shipped from the Ar¬ 
kansas “free zone.” A system of numbered ship¬ 
ping tags made it practically impossible of iden¬ 
tifying the consignor, though the consignee’s 
name and address showed Illinois to be the des¬ 
tination. One hundred thousand ducks, all mal¬ 
lards, have been shipped from Arkansas in a 
single shipment a few seasons ago. 
I have a letter of recent date, from E. V. 
Visart of Little Rock, Ark., who is United 
