The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-07-28

II Is NOT SPORT. But BUTCHERY

II Is NOT SPORT. But BUTCHEEY.
lacking. OF floating. for il is the same
thing. represents the second degree of ami
NAL murder. And yet hardly the second
degree either. for it shows the criminal
generalization: it represents the assassin
lying in wait to spring on the unsuspecting
animal under the cover Of darkness.
Who that understands what lacking is
will have the hardihood to call it sport?
Long ago these columns described and
condemned it.
| The outfit consists of a small boat or
canoe that may be sculled In the bow is
the jack, lantern especially manufacture
ed for this purpose, with a powerful re-
| Hector, and on the pattern Of the bull
eye dark lantern. The party consists of
the guide. who manages the boat. and the
butcher who sits in the bow back of the
lantern. They move silently about. not
| far from the bank, until the leer are heard
when the cap is taken off the lantern. and
a strong streak of light thrown on the
water. Now the guide swings the bow
around until the deer are discovered stand
ing, probably in the shallow water and
then keeping the light in thereyes. which
| either daZZles or faScinates them so they
| do not attempt to escape: the boat
unseen, but quietly and swiftly draws
near, sometimes getting within fifty feet.
The butcher, completely in the dark
waits until within range 50 short that the
chances of missing his victim are few:
then he fires, nine times out of ten using
| shotgun. which none but such as he
would draw on large game.
| And this is sport. This is what the
people OF this State countenance as such
by the acts of their Legislature.
Does sucking their young are quite as
| likely as any to be killed or wounded in
| this fashion, at a time when the meat is
utterly unit to eat and the fawns likely
to die OF starvation | could dilate for at
least column on the cruelties Of lacking.
and the many reasons why its practice is
not only disgrace to the men who ell
gage in it, but to the State as we'll There
are those who claim that lacking is legi-
innate, because it requires skill. One
might likewise claim skill for the assassin.
who is able to trace and locate his victim
in the dark and finally deliver fatal blow
Some degree of skill is required for almost
everything
Probably the strongest objection to jack
ing is the fact that does suffer equally with
bucks; in fact, nine times out of ten the
butcher in the boat is some city chap out
AO1 q ICN udyS WHO Ill HIS dS1Jd-
ton could not tell whether he is shooting
at buck, doe, or COW.
Another reason for condemning it is
that this class Of men almost invariably
hunt with shot-gun and the results of
their inaccurate aim are horrible to con-
template. Who can say how many deer
have scampered away from the waters
edge seriously wounded, to wander in the
woods until death relieved them Of their
sutferlngs and their carcasseS became prev
for the things of the earth?
| have spoken several times in the course
Of this article of legitimate bounding; per
sonally, | would not follow the hounds
if | never drew bead on another deer. [
object to it first, last, and always on prin-
ciple, and moreover, the biggest bag on
record from following the hounds would
not please me half so well as few days
still hunting, even though my tramping
and patience We're unrewarded by a kill.
Sportsmen ought to take down their rifles
for sport, and not to fill the role of the
butcher
If you don't happen to get deer what
Of it? You have plenty to eat in camp,
haven't you? You have had your sport in
the woods, eh? Oh, but then you must
have blood. Is that it? You must tell the
fellows at the club hom many you killed,
and exhibit the same spirit as those hogs
(excuse the inelegant language, but it is
so fitting) who are not happy unless they
fill up their boat with duck or literally
load themselves and their man down with
the results Of their day afeld. These are
also the fellows who, when they have fill
ed their creel, 60 home dissatisfied be-
cause they have failed to deplete the
stream at one fishing, and are disguised
because some one else perhaps has secur-
ed a few more fish than they.
These are not sportsmen; they are those
who, having eaten their fill, regret their
inability to clear the board; they are
butchers, snobs, that ought never to get
outside of their own beaten circle, where
everything revolves to the pitch of their
inordinate vanity. Harpers Weekly