The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-08-29
THE GAME WARDEN
DR.. w. A. Rothschild Defends
the New Game Law and
Wardens

luk ia DlldH anu TIC lhCk VI uuI az"
tempt on the part of the state game
wardens to prevent the same. DR..
Fred Brown of this city who is himself
an ardent sportsman sent q copy of
the Argus Leader containing the com
plants of the local sportsmen to DR..
Rothschild at Madison which letter
brought forth a lengthy answer in
which DR.. Rothschild upholds the
state game commission, and thinks that
the plan of campaign as announced by
the commission should not be criticised
until Ii has been given u good trial.
Well it is sixty days since the new pro-
cedure went into effect and conditions
are the same in other counties as in
Minnehaha the present game commits.
sion and its 8 deputy wardens are a
dismal failure. Four weeks ago
there were more prairie chickens in
Minnehshs county than had been here
for many years. Today You can find
a few stragglers, and it is safe to
say that chicken will be mighty
scarce when they are legally ripe.
The letter of DIR. Rothschild is as fol-
lows:
/ re-read the article you inclosed
but had seen it previously. Personal
ly, / 4 believe there is nothing. or very
little, to this illegal shooting. Ny
friend DIR. K, and myself have three
dogs, which we are training, and we
| are OUT more or less evenings and
mornings. He has reported hearing
some shooting, very little, and l have
heard none. / AN also in touch with
every corner of this Lake. county,
and can get no word worth mentioning
of any illegal shooting. / know the
boys northeast of here have a clay bird
shoot every Sunday and anyone going
through that part of the country might
think that the birds were suffering too
soon. You know l have lived at our
Lake Madison cottage since June 81.
Am there most of my time. Ia fact
evenings when not running our dogs
we are motoring around or over the
lake, enjoying lake breezes, good
roads, and the hum of the motor,
and. incidentally got our ears open
" bhO pup VI ~ uhs hhA 4 OChAONC Il
have about as keen an ear for the pop
of a gun az the next one. Again, you
come right down to brass tack, if your
Sioux Falls sportsman saw, as well as
heard, illegal shooting on his auto
trip to Lake Madison, q quote Argus
Leader he is nearly as guilty rs the
parties who are supposed to do the il.
legal shooting, if he does not squeal
on them. 1t seems to me if / saw a
man stealing some diamonds and did
not try to stop him, / would virtual
ly be assisting him to get away with
the goods.
Now, as to our warden system. 1t
is a fact that the old system was a fail
ure. but ! I'm willing to give u pres
ent system a fair trial before condemn
ing it, or knocking it right at the
beginning. You know our present
game Law went into effect just one
month and twenty-five days ago, and
for a warden to get his men or as
sistants started; get some system to
work inside of tfty-five days, is not
an easy matter. Consider ave his
getting acquainted with his men, OF
acquainted with the whole state, and
get a system of proper protection for
every locality in less than two months
time, and get criticised in so short a
time.
Now q little assistance or experience
which l bad with our wardens. A
short time ago I put in a complaint
about illegal fishing at Lake Madison.
The -ssult was that Mr.. Hendrick was
here inside of a few days, and closely
following him was his assistant. a
Mr.. Kelly. MI. Kelly camped out in
the grain fields around the lake a
couple of nights, but saw no signs of
illegal fishing. Ii was reported that
people from Sioux Falls were blast
ing and SEEMING In one end of the
lake. But we looked the thing up
very carefully and could get no signs
of anything of the kind. The dead
fish that caused the reports Of blast
ing we're killed from the effects of
leeches on the bullheads. while tine
perch were all small and had hook
marks, or the gills were torn--due to
fishermen returning them to the water
because they were under the legal
six inches. Bullheads are thrown
back by half the fishermen as unde-
sirable fish. In no case did we find
a broken fish bladder caused by blast
ing OF dynamiting We had a gov
eminent man from Washington here
recently investigating the lakes. l
took him around Lake Madison per-
sonally and he stated that i. wac not
an uncommon occurrence to find dead
fish around a lake at any time of the
year. Incidentally he procured a fine
supply of bass and croppies for our
lakes. Lets help our wardens. rather
than knock them, at the present ut
least. until we see whether it will be
a failure or not. ! am mighty glad
to know that some of our best game
protectors and boosters in Lake county +
are our good old farmer friends.
Let all the sportsmen who find i'll
legal shooting or fishing. take it upon
himself to acts az an officer, and re-
port the case. and find out all that
you can about the parties doing the
illegal work. Help the game wardens. |
and see IT we do not get good re-