Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-12-06
GAME LAWS.
SPORTS AND sPoRTsxEN.

The shss-Gun and snarss-A Word for the
Beys-Ths History or Traps.
"w.n Mr. Prince writes to the New
York Journal of Commerce
We who call ourselves "sportsmen"
have extensive influence in literature,
in books and periodicals. There is
very large population throughout the
country, who have as great interest in
game and game laws as We, who have
little II any representation in the pub
lished literature of the subject. Our
views Of game and fish and their pre-
seryation are Of course largely related
to our possession and use Of expensive
weapons, guns, rods, and tackle, some
Of which are from year to year made
more and more deadly by skilful i'm
provements and inventions. The other
class Of the people do not as rule pos
sess these weapons, and their views OF
game and fish are more directly related
to their capture for food pur-
poses. One class are in general resi-
dents Of cities, towns, and villages. The
other class are residents Of the country
proper, many of them those on whose
lands the game is bred, fed, and killed.
While both classes enjoy the pleasure
Of hunting and fishing, they look at
game laws from different points Of view.
To the latter class the more prominent
consideration is the value of game for
food at home or for sale as country
food or fur-product, while the. promi-
nent idea % the other class is to pro-
vide the best system of laws for pre-
serving game, so that they, with
breech-loaders, may find an annual
supply Of game for enjoyment in shoot
ing. Both regard the ultimate use Of
the game as food, for no decent sports
nan lives who will kill game or fish
unless they are to be eaten by some
one. But one class think more about
the game after it is dead, and the other
more about the living game as some
thing to be killed.
No reader of these letters will doubt
my love of the sportsman's life, my
high appreciation Of it in the history of
civilization. 1t is unnecessary to re-
peat what has been so often said in
these columns, that | think every father
who can do it should bring up his sons
to love hunting or angling, or both.
From the remotest ages, in sacred and
profane history, we are taught to regard
pursuing the chase as a noble occupa-
ton. Elevation Of moral as we'll as
physical character may be expected
from such pursuits. But in calling
ourselves "sportsmen " we must
not make the mistake which some
do, through want Of knowledge,
about the true definition Of the
word sportsmen." We are not to
forget that hunting wild animals in wild
countries, where game exists in natural
conditions, is not the same as hunting
where the game exists under artificial
conditions, and is, like ourselves, under
the protection Of laws. 1t becomes us
to keep the distinction in mind and be
cautious in looking contemptuously on
what we call poaching, or even on those
we call pot-hunters. We must not fall
into the error Of adopting English ideas
as if they were American. Our coun-
try has passed rapidly from wild to
civilized condition. Portions of it
remain in the wild state. Por-
tons are in transition state. The men
who lived by the chase not a great
while ago had honor are heroes in
fiction some of them are heroes in
history. My own experience has been
not only to know and respect such men
fifty years ago,'but to know and respect
some Of the same class Of men now. If
/ want to find man who is wise in the
ways of the forest, who knows trees
and plants, 4 land and water beasts
and birds, L. Us them young and old,
feeding and breeding, their habits,
characteristics, relations and COM
Partnerships, | go to men whom
some sportsmen contemptuously call
pot-hunters. There are pot-hunters
and pot-hunters. know some of them
who in their lives and ways are sports
men nearer the historic heroic type Of
sportsmen than any other men know.
Some Of the most delightful days Of
last summer passed, from early morn
ing till long after dark, with one such,
all day wandering on water and in
woods, listening with delight and profit
to his homely talk, wherein be opened
great stores Of knowledge of things
that are as yet in no book but the book
of nature he has read daily for sixty
years.
There are other pot-hunters and fish
ermen who should be exterminated as
yermin. have posted about the
haunts Of such men my personal offers
of ample rewards for their arrest and
conviction for violations of law which
they were notorious in committing.
Successfully? Never. Why? Be-
cause in many parts of the country, es-
pecially in the wilder parts, public
opinion does not support the game laws,
complaints are unpopular, convictions
almost impossible.
Nor in defining what constitutes a
true sportsman can you or |, who were
once American country boys, consent
to say that there was ever time in our
lives when any city or town man with
his gun and dog had right to look
down on us. Your experience was,
perhaps, what mine was in the old con-
ditions, where the forests were prime
val and the game abundant. There are
generations of men-two, three genera
tions living together, born and brought
up in the yeritable country, living on
the same lands their ancestors owned
and farmed, all sportsmen Of the old
and highest type, and the boys are to-
day the legitimate heirs Of the fame Of
Nimrod and Walton and other mighty
hunters and fishers.
| have in mind a family-grand-
father, father and mother, two daugh-
tiers, and son, boy fourteen or tif-
teen years old. They owned 200 acres
of hard land, more than half forest,
some Of it primeval. They were very
moor but a very industrious family. and