Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-05
UNIFORMED Sportsmen Some
times Suffer Severely.
PENALTIES ARE HEAVY
IGNORANCE DOES NOT PREVENT
THEIR ENFORCEMENT.
Some Instances in Which Hunters
Have Been Made to Pay
Heavy Fines.

| According to an Official of the Depart
| ment Of Agriculture, the multiplicity Of
state and federal laws enacted within the
past few years has rendered the shooting
| season almost as dangerous to the hunter
| as to the hunted. In addition to the drastic
| federal law, a brief digest of which was
recently issued by the Department of Agri~
| culture, every state, and in Maryland, Vir-
| ginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, every
| county, has it's own laws. While these laws
| are aimed chiefly at the pot-hunter, in
| stances are frequent where uniformed
| sportSmen run counter to them with Seri
| ously inconvenent results. An incident
which occurred last season furnishes an
| excellent example A New York sportsman
went to Norfolk Va, for the duck shoot
| ing. Having met with excellent success he
undertook to send portion of his bag to
friend in Baltimore, ignorant of the fact
that the duck season in Maryland opens
| some weeks later than in Virginia and that
under the provisions of the federal law all
game becomes subject to the state statutes
as soon as it crosses the state line. The
small colored boy who had been selected
to deliver the ducks in Baltimore was ar
rested but explained that he had been sent
with the game by the steward of the boat.
He was permitted to go, but the consignee
was summoned to appear some days later
III d justice COURT he O1O SO ana ln6n learn
ed for the first time of his friends gener-
Gus Intentions, paid a fine of SIS and hired
colored man to bury the now sadly-de-
composed ducks.
Jersey Justice.
The most frequent prosecutions. under the
state laws, according to the official above
referred to, occur in New Jersey. where the
offender is Immediately dragged before a
justic of the peace and receives a sample
of Jersey justice" which he is not likely
| to forget. In New York the laws are strin-
gent and the penalties heavy. The killing
or possession Of game outside the lawful
season entails a penalty of $50 for small
game and 500 for large, in addition to
which penalty amounting to S25 for every
bird and 800 for every large carcass found
| in the offenders possession is imposed. The
penalty for possessing moose carcass is $780,
but there are few prosecutions for that Of
tense. owing probably to scarcity of the game.
Since the enactment of the federal law Of
May 25, 1901, the American Steamship Com
pany has been convicted of serving quail
out OF season and representatives of the
company were let off, after paying fine of
500 for themselves and 81, 600 for the dealer
who sold them the quail. They had sup
posed that in serving the game on the high
seas they were free from the restrictions
Of the law. Another steamship company
whose boats run between New York and
titIlu, NE, was compelled to pay q
fine for similar offense
For Shooting Prairie Chickens.
A recent instance which occurred in Iowa
will cost the offender several months In jail
He had shot and shipped to Chicago COM
mission house number of prairie chicken
and he claimed, had supposed he was i'm
mune from the provisions of the law from
the fact that the birds were taken on his
own farm. The express company from
whose hands the birds were taken re-
ported them as lost and the shipper
heard no more of them for a year. when
United States marshal arrested him and a
federal judge fined him 50 and costs, the
extreme penalty of the law being 500. The
costs, however, amounted to $SS, and as
the prisoner was poor man he is now
working out his fine in Jail.
The necessity for such drastic laws arose
about the time that cold storage of game
began to be extensively practiced. Before
that the perishability of the BIRDS etc.
made their wholesale slaughter unprofta-
Bile. but after it became practicable to store
them in refrigerated warehouses the prices
secured ''out Of season. made pot-hunting
a most profitable employment.
Even the existing law has not eliminated
the danger of the extinction of many game
birds. but when the numerous convictions
become more generally known and hunters
learn that at any time within two years the
federal government Is liable to prosecute
them for infractions Of the law it Is be-
lieved that they will accomplish the end for
which they were enacted.