The San Francisco call., 1895-11-05
Is the California Game Law a
Dead Letter in This
Section ?
STYLED "CLASS LEGISLATION.'
Campodonico & Malcolm Cleared on a
Charge of Having Violated the
Statutes.

In Judge Lows court in the case of The
People VS.. the Campodonico & Malcolm
Company, charged with selling ducks out
ofsseason, the iury.brought in verdict of
mot guilty" yesterday.
For some time the Fish and Game War
den of the county, ]. a. Mogan, has been
under the impression that a good many
commission merchants and game and poul-
try dealers were selling game out OF season.
1t was pretty well understood that restau-
rant men and caterers generally could get
most any kind of game they wanted if
they went a bout it right. Market hunters
were shipping considerable quantities to
this City from different points along the
Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, as
| well as from the marsh lands around San
| Francisco.
Recently Mr.. Mogan went to the various
piers at which freight arrived and confis-
Gated several bags of game addressed to To-
| cal game dealers.
| Two were consigned to 81. Hickman &
| Co. from Sam Lamme. q we}l-known mar
| ket hunter. One sack contained fifty-rwo
| birds and the other tfty-three. In another
| instance a sack of ducks addressed TO
| tain seventy birds. This sack came from
| O. B. Randall, a market hunter at Atwa-
ter. The following letter found in the sack
by Mr.. Mogan shows that the same sort of
business has been going on for some time.
ATwATER, Cal, Nov =, 1895
Kuhlneyer & Dolheguy, s03-sH Washington
he received from YOU in WRicR you us said you you
| would handle ducks. viii send you few to-
| day, and If you are willing TO handle them 1
hunting season; but If there is any danger to
me in sending you ducks dump the lot and say
nothing about it, and write 70 me right away
and let me know if you viii handle them or
not. Please send shipping tags. So, hoping
you can handle the ducks. am yours truly,
Q. B. RANDALL, Atweter, Cal.
P. S.-Please send me one sack OF No. 4 and
one sack OF No. shot and 1000 No. wads.
The postscript of Randall letter betrays
the fact that he is violating the game law
| IN more ways than one. No. 8 wads are
only used in s and gauge guns, and the
law expressly states that no gun larger
than 10 gauge shall be used in the killing
| of game in this State.
II made the seizures" said Mr. Mogan,
"under a section of the fish and game laws
| of the State of California, which reads:
626i. Every cold-storage company and every
person keeping q cold-storsge warehouse,
tavern, hotel restaurant or eating-house. and
every merketman or other person, who shall
| buy sell. expose or offer for sale in this State
any quail, bob-white, partridge, grouse, dove
or wild duck, whether taken or killed in the
from any other State, Territory or foreign
country, except between the fifteenth day of
November and the fifteenth day of January of
the following year, shall be guilty of misde-
meanor.
in all cases I cut the sacks open before
took them from the wharf and assured
myself that they contained game of some
| sort. In the case of Campodonico & NAL
| colin l found the ducks introduced in
evidence at their store, and offered to buy
| Yal1 hart thnu Il
! them in pairs, but that l could have them
| if wanted to make test case OF the sales.
| Finally paid so cents for the two birds,
so as to make the case clean one against
| the offenders. AS you see they have been
acquitted by jury. 1t will be a difficult
| game laws so long as they canget jury
| trial propose to 60 right on seizing all
the game | can find Just the same, and we
will try them all. This morning | went
| down to the pier to make another seizure,
but nothing was in sight. l heard that
another consignment was expected, but I
found when got there that it had been
| stopped on the other side of the bay.
| There are tricks in all trades, it seems"
| Attorney Riordan, who represented the
| defendants, said that he would fight every
case that would be brought to the courts
and that it would be no trouble to beat
law that was mere class legislation.
THE law holds" said Mr.. Riordan,
| "that any one can shoot ducks for his own
use between the 1st and 18th OF November
| but that they cannot be sold in the mar
kets or by restaurants. That is simply
done for the purpose OF giving the mem
bers of the gun clubs chance to get good
whack at the ducks before the market
hunters get in. The market hunters are
permitted to hunt from November Is to
| January 15. II is mere class legislation
and is unjust in the extreme
| This is the way that Mr.. Riordan pre-
sented the case to the jury and with favor
able results to his clients. The State was
represented by G. 81. Jackson, from the
| Attorney-Generars office.
1t is said that the wholesale game-dealers
| have raised fund for similar cases and
| will fight them all out with jury trial.