The Portland daily press., 1900-07-11

and thus you Ahave gan opportunity 40
| killing some OF them. They go TO Y IL
ginia the CarOlinas, Louisiana ana Elor
| ida for the winter. At present the law
and the customs of the people are Such
| that the birds are pursued re1entlessly II
those states, all through the winter
| Then, / am ashamed to confess, 6na
when they start on their Northern I'll ght
in spring, certain alleged sportsmen II
! Pennsylvania, New York and New Eng
land follow them and kill every bird they
can reach. The League OF American
! Sportsmen is pushing its missionary
work into all the Canadian proy1n ces,
ana is endeavOring to build up it's mem
bership and to create public sentlmenG
there in favor of q rigid protection FOR all
wild fowl while breeding In that coun-
try. 1t is doing similar work in all the
Southern states, and l am safe in saying
that within two years more we shall en-
tirely reform the game laws of all these
Southern states,
"Much that have said as to the water
fowl is also true as to your
SONG AND INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS.
Most of these are only with you through
the summer, or part of it. Some of
them go into Canada to nest, and nearly
all of them go South to winter. The
shameless and benighted hunters (not
sportsmen) in Virginia, the Carolinas
and all the Southern states, pursue AMI
kill robins, meadow larks and other song
birds as eagerly as you do ruffed grouse
or wild ducks. Shall we not reform these
Southern men? Shall we not educate
them to the fact that they are committing
a shameful crime every time they kill
robin, or other song or lnsectiyorous birdY
Shall we not induce them to enact and
enforce laws to prohibit such senSeleSS
and inhuman slaughter?
Therefore, gentlemen, you see you are
interested-Or should be-in this question
of game protection in other states than
your own.
Are you not also interested in the
protection OF game in the Western statesY
Let us see. Many of you have traversed
the West, and dare say there is not
man or boy within the sound OF my
voice who does not hope to do SO at some
future time. Should you not like to
have an opportunity for week OF prairie
chicken shooting in Illinois, Iowa, Min
neSOta, North or South Dakota or Ne
braska ?-Then would you not like to drop
off somewhere in the Rocky Mountains
and hunt elk, antelO Pc, bear, mountain
sheep or mountain goats for week? Ii
you dream of any such luxury in the
future, then you are interested in the
work Of this League in saving the game
in the Western states, / am not here to
talk shop, but l TRUST you will pardon me
for saying that l have better OppOrtuni-
ties for knowing how rapidly, and how
ruthleSSly and how Shamel6SSly game and
song birds and fishes are being slaugh-
tered everywhere. In my dual capacity
as president of the League OF American
SpOrtsmen and editor of a magazine de-
voted to outdoor sports, 1 receive thOus-
ands of letters, from all parts of the con-
tinent, reporting such slaughter, and APP
peadng to me for aid to stop it. Through
out n eW England, New York, Pennsyl-
vanla and even through the middle and
Western states, an army OF ignorant ltal-
1anS, BOhem1anS and other foreigners
goes out from every big city, every man
ufacturing town and every mining camp,
every Sunday morning, from March 1st
until snow comes, armed with cheap shot
guns. These men scOur the woods, the
fields and the marshes, killing everything
they can find that wears fur or feathers,
from humming bird to a nawk, from a
chipmunk to a rabbit. Everything goes
into pocket or game bag, and on return
to the city howell every such thing goes
into the dinner pot Many OF these same
people sneak up and down the streams,
armed with sticks of dynamite, and blow
up all the fish they can find. They value
trout no more than they do a sucker or
bull head. All 81 flesh that comes to |
their pot. Anothel llass of poachers rig |
up jack lights and spear fish at night |
when on their spawning beds. Whether
trout salmon, black bass, suckers or bull
heads makes little difference to them. 1t
is the fish hogs, and, like their four
legged prototypes, they eat anything that
sW1ms II they can get their tusks into it,
My mail is also burdened with
REPORTS FROM YOUR OWN STATE,
from Vermont, New Hampshire from
the various provinces of Canada, from
Wisconsin, Michigan and the far Western
states, of men who go out on snow shoes
and kill moose, deer and caribou, elk or
antelope, with rifles, with buckshot or
even with axes
9th rs report Western Indians as sur
rounding great. tracts of country and
driving the game into and through some
canon. AT a certain point few of the
best shots are stationed, and the panic
stricken animals are shot down in heaps
as they rush by. Reports come from the
Carollnas, from Virginia, from the Gulf
SGates, from the Indian Territory, Okla
hO1na, Kansas and from the Puget Sound
country that market hunters are follow
ing up the game day and night, slauQh-
6erlng 1t without the slightest regard to
open or close seasons and shipping it to
market. Water fowl are hunted with
jack lights and swivel from Chesapeake
bay to the Florida Keys, in spite of
laws and game Wardens. The birds are
hunted IN the same way all around the
Gun coast ana all up and down Puget
oOUnu. S9uallS ana prairie chickens are
trapped all through the winter, in the
various Western states where they abound
ana are shipped to the markets in direct
Violation of state laws. In most, cases
the packages are falsely marked as con-
tanning poultry, beef, mutton or egrs
A copy OF circular issued by a u tan
eaXlderm1st recently came into my hands
IN which the man offered to buy heads
and skins of all kinds of big game ami
lnais lie gave explicit instructions as to
how to pack, mark and ship such CONTRA
band goods, in order that the railway
ana express companies might not know
what was in the packages and he mi.
mated that they would not inquire; that
6ney would simply take the mark as sun
plying all the information they wantad