Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-08

most other large cities of the United States
can reach good shooting grounds
Game is Valued Now.
or course. with all this. the game of the
country has assumed great value in the
eyes of many different cIasses-gun and
ammunition makers. sporting goods supply
dealers, sporting hotel keepers. boatmen
and guides railroads and steamboat COM
panies and local shopkeepers. all of whom
share in the golden flood that is poured
from the pockets of the hunters.
That is why the system of legal game
protection has vast majority of the coun-
try people behind 1t now, instead of against
it, as they used to be.
In the early days of real game protection
the country people echoed the cry of the
pf professional hunter that game laws were
legislation of the few against the many,
the rich against the poor. The market
hunters walled that 1t was unjust to take
the food out of the mouths of their families
sin ply that a few rich and selfish men
might have fun shooting for sport. But
both state and citizen see clearly that
the really selfish man was the market hunt
er himself killing and selling for his own
Individual profit the game that belonged to
all the people.
The work of the game protector is easier
each year. Each year more stringent laws
are being enacted with less cutlery against
them. Each year the population of the
game districts is becoming more DESTROYS to
prevent violations.
Federal Game Control.
Much still remains to be done. The most
satisfactory thing purely from the view of
the man WHO would see game protected
wisely and correctly, would be if the entire
system Of game protection in all the states
could be regulated by Congress 1t is ridic-
ulcus that 1t should be possible to shoot
GENE at a certain time in one state while
Just across the boundary the next state
prohibits the killing of the same species
Some o. the sea coast states now pro-
hibit spring shooting of wild fowl entirely
one Of the wisest things that can be done
TO save the migrating birds, for in the
spring they are on their way north to- nest
and lay eggs. But other sea coast states
Immediately adjoining permit spring hunt
Ing, with the result that the citizens of one
state who refrain from shooting in order
- save the game, see the birds slaughtered
just across the line actually In front of
their eyes.
1. would be far better. of course II the
game laws of the country were uniform.
there being open seasons for game accord
Ing to breeding season and so forth, with
out regard to state lines
But great things have been done within
state lines Trapping and netting have been
abolished almost throughout the land.
FARMS and preserves have been protected
by making trespass an ofrense against the
game laws and open to drastic punishment
instead of being punishable only through
the slow course of civil suit. Birds that are
not game have been placed on the immune
list, so that the robins, meadow larks flick
ers and other fnsect-eating and song birds
are no longer the helpless prey of the pot
hunter Game birds are protected almost
everywhere except for a few weeks each
year: and the huating season for them is in
the weeks when they are shyest strongest
and most alert, SO that they have decent
chance against the gun.
Big game has as many safeguards thrown
around 1t as II 1t were ready cash In most
states. killing it out of season Is fast tax
ing the same place in popular estimation as
horse stealing any other form of crime.
The poacher used to be pitied when he was
caught. Now he is despised.
The Money" in It.
1t is true that this change is not due to a
purely ethical awakening. 1t is the money
that is in game protection that has caused
the general respect for the game laws.
Many thousand old-time market hunters
are earning two and three times more today
by guiding hunters than they used to earn
by selling game.
The guides of Maine earned 1901. last
year in about two months. Sportsnen who
wanted to stock preserves of old grounds
with quail paid farmers and hunters $40