The diamond drill., 1914-10-03
A FAULTY GAME LAW

Upper peninsula sportsmen seem to
be having a continual fight on their
hands TO secure game Legislation favor
able 10 themselves and the district
where they live. One year the legisla-
ture, aided By the pressure OF the
farmers OF the lower pant OF the state,
puts on the statute books some damfool
game laws An instance OF this can
be found in the law OF two years ago
putting the date of the opening OF par
fridge season at October is. Other
instances can be found throughout the
game legislation OF the past few years
IL is the same old story, told over
and over again in the same old way.
The upper peninsula sportsmen regis
ter a kick and send formidable peti
tions to their representatives in the
state body. The cheap sportsmen OF
the lower part of the state begin to get
alarmed, interview their farmer
friends and meet the advances of the
inferior forces from the upper penin-
sula with battle array that by sheer
weight of numbers cannot be dis
lodged. The laws are changed 70 be
sure, but the change is generally for
the worst In spite of the fact that
sentiment throughout this district for
number of years past has been in
favor of radical changes In the game
laws seeking only to conserve the
game and not 10 necessarily discrimi :
nate against the kerosene crowd OF
the lower peninsula, practically moth
ing of material benefit has been ac-
complished and the game laws are now
in little better condition than they
were ten years ago.
Take the present open season for
ducks and rabbits for example, 1t
begins on the first of September, and
during that month and the two months
following ducks and rabbits may be
shot lawfully. The partridge season
opens on October first, extending
through the months Of October and
November. When the first of Septem-
Der blew around this year it was really
surprising to see the number of rabbit
and duck hunters who hiked for the
woods. Some OF them had hounds, to
be sure and were doubtless sincere in
their efforts to bag a rabbit or two.
Others evidently were after ducks, or
the big lake at Forty Acre falls re-
sounded with the crack of shot guns on
many occasions during the past two
weeks.
Others there have been, however,
who have adopted rather UNIQUE meth
ods of hunting rabbits and ducks. For
instance, they may be found loating
along an old logging road in the chill
of the morning, peering around cor
ners and searching the sides of the
road. Possibly they expect TO find a
duck squatting down in the leaves
somewhere, or IT may be that they ex-
pect 10 see Br'er Rabbit bounding
down the middle of the road. Hounds
they have not, and the shells in their
shot guns are loaded with No. z shot,
not exactly duck or rabbit load.
And yet they cannot be molested
unless they are caught with the goods,
for the law makes il legal to hunt
ducks and rabbits now
The state game department is
laboring under severe handicap
during September. Although the
wardens may feel morally certain tina
man is hunting partridge out Of
season, they are powerless 10 arrest
him unless he has the birds in his
possession. Last week two game
wardens down in Iron county came
upon some twenty Italians all armed
with shotgurs, beating swamp.
They had no rabbit dogs, and when
the wardens came upon them they
very assiduously rot down on their
knees under the pretense OF picking
mushrooms. OF course, they may
Lo,.a kao,, ,,atharino tnuChrooma but