The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1908-04-24
LETTER FROM j. c. BURDICK.

to Obiope County before | was Of
age, and have spent the. last forty
years here. While / do not claim
perfection for myself | can truth
fully say that during all this time I
have lived a law-abiding, upright,
honest life. | have never been in
2 aieted for any offense.
1t is the custom for most fish and
game dealers throughout the
section of the country that I know
Eof to violate fish and game laws in
the states in which they do BUSH
ness, but to my knowledge have
never in one single instance violat-
ed these laws. Had | done so /
could have, during my career in
the fish business, made much more
money than / have. For instance,
last fall | had thousand ducks on
hand, which | could have sold out
of the State in Chicago, at ZOO
!, PEI. dozen. but rather than violate
the law | sold these ducks at So. 10
per dozen in Nashville, Tenn, de-
livered. Imerely cite this instance
which is one of many, to illustrate
my point. have always thought
the law was supreme and it was my
duty as law abiding citizen to OBJ
serve it in every respect, and have
done so.
| | have had many ups and downs
in business, have twice gone broke
in my efforts to defend the fisher
men of Reelfoot Lake.
Some twenty-five years ago, w.
M. Wilson, of Obion, enjolned me
from fishing on Reelfoot Lake,
claiming such ownership of the
lake as entitled him to demand
rent from me. In order to defend
the Wilson suit | had a meeting
with the fishermen of Reelfoot Lake
and it was agreed that we would all
be assessed LEO for each, wing net
we were running and $1,000 for
each trammel net we operated. ! |
paid out everything | had in de-
Tending this lawsuit; attorneys
fees, costs, etc., and my attorneys
failed to dissolve the injunction
one of the fishermen paid 100000
this expense in this long and tedi
Gus litigation, the rest being borne
by myself.
The injunction was against fishing
in Reelfoot Lake and not against
buying fish out of Reelfoot Lake,
so the other fishermen who were
not enjoined continued to fish and
! / purchased their output until it
appeared that | was to be also en-
| Joined from buying fish out of the
lake. Thereupon with the consent
of the fishermen on Reelfoot Lake
| then bought my peace by agree
ing to pay Mr.. Wilson 800 per
year for the privilege of fishing,
which ! was only able to do fora
few month, as Igot in such fnan-
cial condition | could pay nothing,
and ! had no nets with which to
] fish. After this / again got a start
and began doing fair business
fishing and buying and selling fish.
About this time Mr.. j. G. Harris,
of Tiptonville, conceived the idea
of draining Reelfoot Lake and con-
verting the shallow part of it into
farming lands, and in order to
carry out his purpose, knowing
that l would fight the project to
the bitter end, he bought out my
competitor, Mr.. Henry Briggs at
Union City, who afterwards moved
to Obion, and hired him to manage
the business. Mr.. Briggs died and
Mr.. William Hubbs was placed in
charge of the business.
Mr.. Harris policy was to pay
more for fish than the market value
so that the fish | got would have
to be handled at a loss, which would
soon break me with my limited
means and the loss that he sustained
would be small matter to him.
The fishermen | had expected to
be my friends in this fight did not
give me the preference in selling
fish. Notwithstanding this worked
upa sentiment against the drainage
of the lake and got some friends
associated with me and organized
the Anti Drainage Co., getting
some people of means in Union
City to make an injunction bond
and help me resist Mr.. Harris
drainage plan. He had actually
commenced the work of draining
| succeeded in getting an injunc-
ton against this project. He
then came back. at me with an
other injunction, enjoining me
from fishing, buying and selling
fish out of Reelfoot Lake The in
junction against me was dissolved |
before Judge Stuttgart at Cham
bers, on a cross-bill The litiga-
ton, however, continued for some