220 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[FEB. I0, 1906. 

over 150 miles long. The Colonel received the 
reports of his subordinates and waited with 
deep satisfaction for further developments. The 
fire would be sure to force the Indians out of 
the country south of the road, reasoned 
Livingston, for even if the blaze did not scorch 
the hostiles it would drive the buffalo away and 
the Indians would be forced to follow the herds. 
The fire was kindled and swept south toward 
the mysterious Indian country where no white 
man dared venture, and here the story ends. 
What became of that prairie-fire is an unsolved 
problem to this day. When a friend of the 
writer’s recently spoke of this matter to certain 
Dog Soldiers and other old Cheyennes who were 
in the hostile villages south of the Platte in 
sixty-four, they were much surprised and said 
they had never heard of the fire. The troops 
certainly started the blaze on its way south, but 
, somewhere in the barren-lands lying between 
the Platte and the Republican the fire must 
have ‘‘petered out.” The grass in that region 
it must be remembered would not burn like 
the long grass in Iowa. It was short buffalo- 
grass, which is well known to make poor ma- 
terial for a prairie-fire, and never produces a 
really dangerous blaze. 
At any rate, Livingston’s plan for driving the 
Indians away failed. The Cheyennes and Brules 
continued to raid west of Kearney for some 
time; then Chivington slaughtered Black Kettle’s 
people at Sand Creek and the hostiles moved 
north to join Red Cloud on the Powder, stop- 
ping on their way to “‘clean out” all the ranches 
and stations on the road between Jules and 
Denver and to fight all the soldiers who dared 
show their nose outside their stockaded posts. 
GrEoRGE Hype, 

4 
iS lias theta ee 
The Game Wardens’ Convention. 
(Concluded from page 183.) 
At the session Friday afternoon, Col. J. H. 
Acklen, of Nashville, State Game Warden of 
Tennessee, read a paper on the “License System 
in Game Laws,” in which he succinctly stated the 
arguments against the Minnesota policy of a 
closed game market. It was like throwing a bomb 
shell into the camp of the game wardens, who al- 
most without exception favor a closed market. 
Mr. Acklen said in substance: “To protect the 
game adequately a considerable revenue is neces- 
sary. Shall this revenue be raised by a general 
tax on the people of the State, or should it be 
derived solely. from those who enjoy the pleasure 
of the chase? I believe the latter method is based 
on sound principles of taxation. 
“One of the leading cases in this country on 
the question of game protection is Geer vs. Con- 
necticut, 161 U. S., 519, in which the court says: 
‘The wild game within a State belongs to the 
people in their collective sovereign capacity. We 
take it to be correct doctrine in this country that 
the ownership of wild animals, so far as they are 
capable of ownership, is in the State, not as pro- 
prietors but in its sovereign capacity as the repre- 
sentative of and for the benefit of all its people 
in common.’ Now, but a small percentage of the 
people have either leisure or means for hunting. 
It is evident, therefore, that the only way in 
which the people as a body can profit by their 
rights in the game is by the imposition of a 
license fee upon those who enjoy the pleasure. 
“What licenses should be granted is a matter 
to be determined by the Legislature of the State 
in view of local conditions. It should depend 
somewhat upon the attractions the State offers 
to sportsmen. What might be a wise law in one 
Stete would not necessarily be so in another. The 
nou-resident license in a State which has marked 
attractions to sportsmen is an economical, proper 
and legitimate method of raising this revenue. 
There is this exception, however; it has been 
decided by the Supreme Court of the United 
States that a non-resident license law will not 
compel a non-resident to take out a license to 
hunt on his own land within the State. 
_ “A direct tax is always resisted more than an 
indirect tax. In this country every one has an 
instinctive feeling that he has an inherent right to 
go out with a gun and shoot something. This is 
an inheritance from our ancestors. Hence the 
necessity of stringent laws and vigilance of game 


SLY AND SHY. 
Pheto of living mink. By George S. Raymond. 
officers and an inculcation of the true spirit of 
sportsmanship. 
“The other licenses that should be required are 
the dealers’ or market license and the market 
hunters’ license. In closing the market you raise 
a specter that will give you trouble. You say to 
the citizen if you don’t shoot game you shall not 
eat it. Can you reconcile that with the proposi- 
tion that the game of the State belongs to all the 
people? Such a law, which gives a monopoly to 
the few, will do more harm than all the attempts 
at game preservation can repair. About five per 
cent. of the people are sportsmen. Shall you say 
to the other ninety-five per cent. ‘you shall eat no 
game, Is this due recognition of the rights of 
all in the game, or is it class legislation? 
“If you have an open market you can place the 
tax where it belongs, upon those who profit by 
the business; that is upon the dealer, the restaur- 
ant and hotelkeepers, the men who pay ten cents 
for a quail and sell it for seventy-five cents upon 
a piece of toast. You will find that these men 
gladly will pay for the license and bear all the 
burden of taxation for game preservation. They 
will see that it is to their interest to do so. They 
will want to see the source of their profits pro- 
tected. The same will be true of the market hun- 
ter. I have seen how it works in my own State. 
There the licensed hunters watch the non-licensed 
hunter with a jealousy that is born of personal 
interest. Not only that; they watch each other to 
see that none overreaches. The law practically 
enforces iself.” 
Mr. Acklen explained later that he would wel- 
come the time when public sentiment will demand 
the prohibition of all traffic in game, but thought 
the views outlined by him are best adapted to 
present conditions. 
S. F. Fullerton, Executive Agent of the State 
Game and Fish Commission, spoke in defense of 
the Minnesota policy of a closed market. He said 
in part: “It has been that it is not right to 
say to a man you shall have no game on your 
table unless you shoot it. Is it fair, I ask, to 
allow a lot of pot-hunters to go out and slaughter 
all the game that they may sell it? Under such 
conditions the game of Minnesota would not last 
ten years. Licensing pot-hunters is not the way 
to protect the game. It is a sure way to extermi- 
nate it. To close the market is the only way to 
save the game.” 
A. C. Hentz, of Illinois, said: “I believe the 
people of Illinois would approve of Mr. Acklen’s 
views. They like to eat game, but they have not 
the interest of the game at heart. We hope to 
educate them up to the point where they will ap- 
prove of the closed market.” 
D. C. Nowlin, of Wyoming, also spoke against 
the sale of game. 
Dr. T. S. Palmer, of Washington, said that 
game should not be sold except for propagation. 
Replying to Mr. Acklen, he said: “I do not 
believe that only 5 per cent. of the people are 
interested in the preservation of the game. 
There is the farmer, to whom game birds are 
valuable as insect destroyers. Then there is a 
large and increasing class of people who want 
the game preserved for observation. When you 
compute the sum total of these classes you have 
far more than 5 per cent. of the people. When 
you condemn laws that deprive people of the 
pleasure of eating game you should remember 
that the slaughter of game for market will just 
as surely deprive them of this pleasure sooner 
or later. With woodcock at 75 cents each and 
quail at $15 a dozen, the bulk of the people are 
already prohibited by economic law from eating 
game. This is a question that each State will 
consider from its peculiar viewpoint. What 
would be good policy in Tennessee, would not 
perhaps be good policy in New Jersey, with a 
great city at each end, affording two great game 
markets.” 
Dr. Palmer, of the Department of Agriculture, 
gave a report on a digest of the game laws and 
decided cases which is being prepared for the 
benefit of game officers. The work wil] contain 
a digest of 200 leading cases, State and Federal. 
The digest will include every game bird case 
that has been decided in a court of record. It 
also will contain all the license cases since 
1800. It considers the enforcement and con- 
struction of laws, procedure, search and seizure, 
non-resident licenses, interstate commerce cases, 
and the importation of birds and eggs from 
foreign countries. At the request of Mr. 
Palmer, the following committee was appointed 
to make suggestions for the work: Col. J. H. 
Acklen, Secretary Brewster and D. C. Nowlin. 
D. C. Nowlin, of Wyoming, read an interest- 
ing paper on “The Big Game of Wyoming,” and 
was followed by Supt. Pitcher, of Yellowstone 
National Park, who was introduced as “The 
Czar of Wonderland.” He said that the beaver, 
which are rapidly becoming extinct in other 
parts of the country, are increasing in the park, 
and that with the consent of the Department of 
the Interior they may be taken from the park 
to restock other favorable breeding places. 
Judge Quinn, of Fairmont, spoke on “The 
Enforcement of Game Laws.” He said that a 
wholesome public sentiment should be culti- 
vated to back up the game officers in their work. 
