THE GAME WARDEN AND THE 
SPORTSMAN 
HE duties of the average game warden today 
iq are extremely difficult. He has an enormous 
area to cover. The lawless minority fights 
him at every turn, and leaves nothing undone to 
make futile his efforts at law enforcement. 
_ What is the honest sportsman’s attitude? Does 
he help the game warden in his duties, or does he 
stand idly by leaving that official an almost super- 
human task to perform? 
_ There exists in this country more than in any 
other nation on the face of the globe, with the pos- 
sible exception of England, a vast distaste for “‘tat- 
tlers.”” That is as it should be, but intentional vio- 
lations of the fish and game law fall in a category 
which makes reporting them a thing entirely apart 
from ordinary “tale bearing.”” When a man wil- 
fully breaks the fish and game laws, he is robbing 
‘us just about as directly as a burglar would. If 
the shoots a female deer, for instance, in violation 
‘of the law, he is robbing us of untold future chances 
to shoot a buck. If he catches short bass or trout 
he is removing from the waters where the act oc- 
curred, many thousands of potential fish which we 
might have enjoyed at a later date. 
Yet, a great number of sportsmen, even if they 
personally see this wilful violation, hesitate to re- 
port it because they feel that it is not a manly thing 
‘to do. If a thug should hold us up and take our 
‘watch and money, we would leave no stone un- 
turned to see him apprehended. What is the dif- 
ference between this and stealing our chances to 
enjoy good honest sport? 


wv sw 
THE DOG ON THE RUNNING BOARD 
DOG on the running board of a motor car 
! may attract the attention of those who have 
an eye for what some persons call “smart- 
Ness.” 
Those who really love dogs, however, think only 
of the discomfort and danger to which the hapless 
animal is subjected by an inconsiderate owner. 
__If you question the truth of the assertion that 
the running board of an automobile is an uncom- 
Mortable and unsafe place for a dog to ride, try it 
Yourself. Stand there in the wind, without using 
‘your hands to maintain your position, the muscles 
‘of your legs and feet tense and strained to over- 
come the jar and swing of the car. Just try it 
‘yourself for a little while. 
It is probable that a bill for an act prohibiting 
the carrying of dogs on the running boards of cars, 
‘without some form of protection, will be presented 
at the coming session of the Oregon legislature, 
Colonel Hofer of the Oregon Humane Society hav- 
‘ing announced that his organization will sponsor 
such a bill. 
__ While legislative action would not be necessary 
-if owners had proper regard for the comfort of 
their dogs, it should be passed as a necessary mea- 
sure for the prevention of cruelty to animals. 
Itis a law that should be written in the statutes 
‘not only in Oregon but in every other state. 
«, 
i 

BROTHERS 
REES have stepped with man the stairs of 
dim time. Where men hunt, commune, or 
seek some interrogative treasure for their 
physical and spiritual needs, growth of some kind 
follows in the old trail. If man wanders into tree- 
less lands, the trees follow when the seed finds 
earth, moisture, sunlight. In his migratory flights 
and current residences, they have been food, 
shelter, clothing, fuel, transports, utensils in times 
of war and peace. 
They have been as man to man, as brother to 
brother—protectors of his helplessness, counselors 
in times of spiritual stress: A wise man once said 
of man, ‘Ye have made your way from worm to 
man, and much within you is still worm.” If a 
tree could speak—a pine, a palm, a bamboo—it 
might talk in such a manner. The brooding trees 
were murmering a sweet, orchestral undernote 
when man was a grain of sand. 
ww 
CONSIDER THE HUMBLE GRASS 
MAGINE a grassless world. The mind thinks 
of miles of lonely sand. The desert may own 
a beauty all its own, something sinister and 
fantastic where winds and countless suns revel 
like mad spirits. Man fears it and stands in awe. 
Grass is an eternal blanket hiding the scars and 
fresh wounds. It is a benediction. It is immortal. 
Its humbleness awakens no thought in man, yet 
nations tremble at the terror of grassless vistas. 
It has the vitality of youth, the strength of mad- 
ness, the bravery of explorers. It stops not at 
running water nor towering mountains, or heat- 
drugged deserts. In its silent march it is all- 
powerful. 
The “red hounds” of fire may lap up blade and 
stem, and it thrusts again tiny spears above the 
whirling ash. Droughts wither man’s harvests 
and they vanish from earth, but grass greens the 
land again after the first rain. It has a virgin 
beauty not seen by the eyes of man, a scent and 
color too delicate for mortal senses. It makes men 
paupers and kings. It holds strange intimacy with 
birds, the elements. It beautifies the landscape, 
makes one’s bit of earth a paradise, and yet it is 
nothing—grass, and no more. 
Wa ot) oe 
FOREST FIRES 
N page 416 of this issue there is printed a 
photo reproduction that should seriously in- 
terest every outdoorsman. It is not a pleasant 
thing to look upon, this mass of fire-blackened 
down timber, but it is a condition that exists only 
too often in forest areas. 
The majority of forest fires are traceable di- 
rectly to carelessness on the part of campers, hik- 
ers, hunters, anglers and other outdoorsmen. A 
match or cigarette butt hastily discarded, a light 
breeze, and in a few minutes the woods are trans- 
formed into a blazing holocaust. 
Forests are among the country’s greatest assets. 
Trees furnish lumber and regulate climatic condi- 
tions—that is their economic status. Considered 
from an aesthetic standpoint, however, their im- 
portance cannot be measured. A treeless world 
would be a drab place indeed. Let us therefore 
exercise extreme caution when in the forests. 
409 
