Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-12-27
The Market Shooter and the
Game Hog in Central Iowa
Counties
SHOULD BE JAILED
The Decision of the Supreme Court
Against Taxidermists Who Shoot for
Scientific Purposes" in Close Season
in the Line of Good Game Pro-
lection.

There remains but four days in
/ which the sportsman can lawfully
shoot quail in the state and as was pre-
4 dicted in these columns before the open
season began, this sport has been far
from good. Facts have borne out the
prediction that the rains of the sum-
mer had done considerable damage to
the small birds before they We're able
| to take care of themselves. While in
most localitis the bevies were small and
| few in number, in other places the
birds were fairly PLENTIFUL. Hunters
| have had to work hard for every bird
| they got, however, and most reports of
those who have been out show the
sport has been poor. Cold, disagree
able weather during the past month
has kept many indoors who would have
gone, but with the mercury lowering
around the zero mark, and the earth
covered with six inches of snow, there
after quail.
Speaking of quail calls to my mind
a market shooter, who during the open
season has been hunting in central
Iowa, and has been supplying several
of the restaurants with these deiic-
ious birds. This fellow is known to
have made as much as S15 a week for
the sale of these birds at SO dozen,
and he still claims to hunt inside the
provisions of the law. He states that
he has never in a single day killed
more than twenty-five birds, and
claims without exception to have never
ground sluiced a bird of all the hum
dreds he has killed. He has probably
during the past season bagged sew
eral hundred, as he has carried on his
slaughter several days of each week.
$50
While in the sight of law this man
has done no wrong, and consequently
is beyond the reach of those who look
upon one OF his kind as being no better
than game dog. still to the average
sportsman he Is a being to be despis-
ed. Taking his word for the truth that
he has in all cases kept within the pro-
visions of the law, the mere fact that
he is out to slaughter for gain makes
him an object that the true sports
man hates. Find the market shooter,
who is purely and simply a market
hunter, and openly boasts of it, and in
nine out of ten cases you will find a
man who does not care SO much for
the method employed in filing his bag
as to the number of birds contained
therein, or fears the law so thoroughly
as he does the presence of witnesses.
And in this respect Is one of the
many ways in which the game laws
of the state are SO extremely weak.
There is but one way to stop 1t all and
that is the method employed in the
northern states, where by its use they
have been able to preserve to a large
extent the fish and game for the hum
ter who hunts for the love of the sport.
Laws should be passed prohibiting the
sale of both game fish and game birds
of every description in Iowa, and the
market for the game having thus been
abolished, the curse of the sportsman,
and the game, the market hunter will
also soon disappear.
Another thing that is radically wrong
with the game statutes of this state
is that when arrested for illegal hunt |
ing the accused may appease the re-
quirements of the laws by paying a
fine. The penalty for Of
lenses of this kind should be imprison-
ment for a certain period without fine.
This would prevent the moneyed rascal !
from openly defying the law, being
able, If arrested to pay his
fine without any moneyed embarrass-
ment. Were he given to understand
that when arrested he would languish
behind prison bars for a period of from
ten to thirty days he would be inclined
to hesitate somewhat before going out I
to his ruthless slaughter.
The recent decision of the supreme
court in the case carried from the I
county court regarding the t
right to slaughter game birds for sci
antific purposes during the closed sea- +
son, Is a decided victory for strict
game protection. There Is no good .
reason why game birds should be killed
FOR scientific reasons, or for that mat
ter any reason out of season. If the
open season for game is not of sufficient
Cor the benefit of science. they should
not be slaughtered in violation of the
aw. Had the decision of the higher
court been other than it was what an
it would have been for I'M /.
persons to have committed
sins in the name of science.
The action of the governor of Mich
gan in threatening to call out the mil
tia if necessary to prevent the Cor
Dett- McGovern mill, seems to Indicate
hat championship contests will here
,fter be severely frowned upon by
state executives. The prominence of
he two pugilists and the fact that
he fight was to decide the champion
ship are more responsible for the vigor-
JUS action of the governors of Ken
lucky and Michigan, that the mere fact
hat prize fight was to be pulled off.
There can be little doubt that two min
IT fighters might have gone on to
finish in either Louisville or De- 4
roit without awakening such decided
opposition on the part of state Off
ials.
There is q movement on foot among 4
he sporting men of Des Moines to re-
i've boxing bouts in the capital city.
his sport, owing in a large measure
0 the interference of the police, has
cen practically dead during the past h
ew years. The scheme, judging from
What has been sent out, is to hold Sc