FOREST AND STREAM. 
57 
! 
Shooting Licenses. 
Buffalo, Jan. i. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am in favor of a resident license law as 
against a license or tax On guns. In my mind 
there are three good reasons why we should 
have a resident license law: 
First.—If we can pass a law making it neces¬ 
sary for all resident sportsmen to take out a 
hunting license during the season, we will find 
that we have a fund started which will be a great 
help in game protection. It will mean more 
game wardens, if we are wise and use it in that 
way, and, besides, money in the treasury for 
propagation of game. The working of this law 
in Illinois furnishes an example for other States 
to follow. It is an easy law for them to enforce, 
and puts thousands of dollars into the cause 
of game protection each year. • The most vital 
thing of all in game protection is plenty of good 
game wardens, and without the number and 
quality of protectors we cannot do much in 
forcing lawbreakers to respect the laws. We 
want men who know the woods and who are 
not afraid to leave the railroad tracks; men who 
are resourceful, for there is a free masonry in 
the woods, and the news of a warden’s presence 
travels fast. 
Second.—We have a nonresident license law 
and we need the resident law to help enforce it. 
Our nonresident law is a dead letter for the 
reason that it cannot be enforced. All a bunter 
from some other State needs to do is to say 
he is from New York city or Buffalo, and that lets 
him out, so far as taking out a license is con¬ 
cerned. Whereas, if we only had a resident 
license law, a hunter would be obliged to pro¬ 
duce a license of some sort. We should follow 
the example of Wisconsin and make the penalty 
heavy for fraud in obtaining the wrong license. 
I think the hunting license is here to stay, and 
New York may as well fall in line. While it is 
true that all of these extra costs are felt by the 
average sportsman, I do not believe any of them 
would begrudge it, if they .were to see the 
money used in honest effort to uphold the laws. 
Third.—If we have a resident law, we should 
not issue licenses to unnaturalized foreigners, 
and I would be in favor of going to a further 
limit if it could be done legally. The Italians 
who overrun the country are nothing but a 
! pest. 
Of course a tax or license on the guns them- 
; selves would also raise a revenue, but as many 
have guns who do not hunt, and as only a 
man’s honesty would prevent him dodging the 
tax, I think the resident hunting license the 
t better of the two. 
Mr. Clarence L. Parker, in bis interesting 
i communication in Forest and Stream of Dec. 
29, advocates, among other things, a closed sea- 
' son for guns. Would this reach the class in- 
1 tended, and could such a law be enforced? It 
! would be aimed principally at the lumber camps 
I and campers, who hunt out of season. It is 
! against the law now to possess venison out of 
I season, yet very little is done to apprehend the 
[ camps in which it is kept. It is a popular say¬ 
ing in our State, “that a law cannot be enforced 
in the Adirondacks which is unpopular.” It 
' seems as though a law making a closed season 
on guns would be very unpopular. Many like 
to take a gun into camp for target practice. I 
am not one of that class, as I never want to be 
bothered with a gun on a fishing trip, but am 
raising the question for the sake of an argument. 
• We now hear arguments that the hunting 
season should open in the Adirondacks when 
the season on trout closes, and we see that Mr. 
i Whipple suggests the 15th day of September as 
; the closing of the trout season and the open- 
; >ng of the deer season, while Mr. Parker sug¬ 
gests Sept. 1 as the time for the open season 
on game to begin, which would dovetail into 
the present season on trout. The reason for 
this being that the hotels do not want to be 
idle, nor the guides. Also that many go to the 
woods for the last of the fishing and first of the 
hunting. Now, Mr. Parker suggests in his 
article that he would not even have any guns in 
the adjoining counties of the Adirondacks, ex¬ 
cept in the permanent homes, during the closed 
season for guns. What method does Mr. Parker 
suggest for getting the guns into the camps of 
those who stay over for the hunting? I am not 
so sure but that I like Mr. Parker’s idea of a 
closed season on guns, but there seem to be 
many objections to it at first sight. What about 
the farmer shooting crows- and hawks out of 
season? If Mr. Parker means literally to have 
the guns kept only in permanent dwellings, they 
could-not be taken outside of same. Is his idea 
of a closed season on guns so rigid that he 
would not permit target practice? I know what 
a man is when he is turned loose in the woods 
with a rifle. We had one with us on a fishing 
trip the past fall, who had a new .22 rifle. I 
came out of the cabin and caught him aiming at 
a robin at long range. I said, “Don’t shoot at 
the birds.” He replied, “All right; I’ll just 
knock the feathers out of his tail.” He shot 
and a bunch of feathers were wafted up and the 
bird flew away. Ten minutes after be had shot 
a muskrat which was swimming in the lake. A 
man in camp with a rifle is a savage, without a 
doubt. Dixmont. 
Knoxville, Tenn., Jan. 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I appreciate your offer to allow me to 
express my views on the very important subject 
so ably discussed in the current issue of 
Forest and Stream, and assure you of my in¬ 
terest in this, and all protective measures. The 
fact is, however, that I am scarcely in a position 
to speak authoritatively, as I belong to the 
Scattergun Tribe, and have never enjoyed the 
privilege of so much as seeing the glorious 
country of the big game, or the forests of Maine 
and New York. • 
On the general principles governing the ques¬ 
tion, I have put a deal of thought, and done 
some investigating, and beJieve that the public¬ 
ity which comes with discussion in' such high- 
class publications as Forest and Stream is a 
great educational factor, along the right lines. 
The gun license, nonresident license and every 
measure enacted with protective intent, is a 
move in the right direction, though at times 
made without sufficient study of the best 
methods to achieve the best result, and there¬ 
fore occasionally requiring a backward step. 
Legislators and laymen should freely and frank¬ 
ly discuss all of these questions before the 
books become encumbered with enactments, on 
their face inefficient and defective, and which 
either wither and are forgotten, or else pro¬ 
nounced by courts unconstitutional. 
“Thou shalt not,” is a terrible command to 
some people, and mankind is more restive under 
it than children of a smaller growth. The fact 
that “perfect liberty is perfect observance of a 
perfect law,” is yet only a maxim-to be written 
to the boy off at school. 
Restrictive laws are, and always will be, con¬ 
sidered selfish, but so might, and probably does, 
the criminal think of the penal code. But un- 
ouestionably education is what is needed along 
the line of game protection, and reasonable 
restriction; and after that the thing for the 
next class is “the big stick,” with the right man 
wielding it, and the people solidly back of him. 
I am not. and never was, in sympathy with the 
class of men who denounce all men who seem 
inclined to be selfish in these matters as unfit 
for the name of man, for I have known some 
pretty good fellows who were really quite selfish 
afield; nor do I believe the way to reform is 
by a No. 10 boot backed by good leg muscle; 
I am optimist enough to believe that most men 
are open to conviction, and if the idea is a good 
one, and the cause righteous, they will get in 
line, if convinced of the fact. Lewis Hopkins. 
Hudson, N. Y., Jan. 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: There is no question in my mind as to 
laws which should be passed and enforced in 
order to protect the game in this State. I be¬ 
lieve: 
That the sale of game should be prohibited. 
There should be a system of license, under 
which residents should pay from $1 to $2 for 
each gun or rifle in their possession. Non¬ 
residents should pay $10 and aliens $25. 
The open season for all game, flesh and fowl 
alike, should be from Sept. 15 to Nov. 15. 
Any person found in possession of firearms 
out of season, except it be on their own prop¬ 
erty, to be subjected to a fine and such fire¬ 
arms to be confiscated. H. R. Bryan. 
Boston, Jan. 3.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Concerning the question of a gun license, I 
have seen some account of the discussion in the 
State of Maine on this subject, but, though in¬ 
terested in it, have not had time to inform 
myself about it. 
,1 am in favor of any and every influence, legal 
or otherwise, which will tend to preserve our 
game, restrict shooting to legitimate sportsmen, 
and restrict the market hunter and the game 
slaughterer—whether Italian or native. The 
trouble with the Italians is very great. As you 
say, “all is fish that comes to their nets,” and 
they will kill even the tiniest songster whenever 
they get a chance. I am frank to say that my 
impressions are in favor of a good gun license— 
a strictly enforced one—and, considering the 
interests involved, I believe all right-minded men 
will be willing to conform to a good requirement 
in this direction, though I know that it will be 
very 'difficult to establish a rate that will be 
effective and yet not bear hard upon some who 
are in themselves perfectly proper persons to be 
entrusted with a gun. C. H. Ames. 
The Long Island Season. 
The season for shooting ducks, geese, quail, 
grouse and squirrels, on Long Island is now 
closed, although brant can be shot until the end 
of April. 
The season was notable for the number of red¬ 
head ducks found in Long Island waters through¬ 
out the autumn and early winter, and some of 
the bags on the most favorable days were un¬ 
usually large. Better law observance during the 
months May-September inclusive is believed to 
be largely responsible for the better shooting in 
the open season. While nonresidents do not 
shoot many ducks during the first four months 
of the closed season, it is stated by some persons 
that many of the local gunners will not obey 
the law which prohibits spring shooting, and that 
it is next to impossible to obtain evidence against 
them, for they can shoot brant in the winter and 
spring, and it is not often possible for the war¬ 
dens to catch them, with ducks in their posses- 
' sion. 
Not a Guide. 
Winter Park, Fla., Dec. 30.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: I am informed by some of my 
friends that my name appears among the list of 
guides to sportsmen coming.to Florida. If such 
is the case you will greatly oblige me by strik¬ 
ing same from the list. I have hunted and fished 
for my own pleasure for twenty years here, but 
am not a guide. W. R. Smtth. 
