Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-04
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
he Editor Of the Telegraph:

! have just read an article in
your issue of March 31st entitled
Quail Shooting De Luxe in Okla
homa" by Tom Marshall, that is eX-
ceedingly misleading in certain par
ticulars. If this story had been sent
out April l, we might have thought
it an April day joke no matter
how it might deceive and harrow
the feelings of sportsmen.
Mr.. Marshall says: oklahoma,
at this writing, is the favored state
for the speckled beauties, there they
have congregated in vast mum ber,
multiplying and increasing regard
less of their liberal laws, which per-
mits the shipping of thousands of
birds into sister states for propaga-
ton purposes" through this state
ment, leading sportsmen believe
that when we. who represent the
Game Commission of Pennsylvania,
say we have been unable to secure
quail in the United States, that we
have either neglected our duties or
have deliberately lied while in truth
we are guilty of neither charge, for
quail cannot be secured in Okla
homa, as the writer states lin thou
sands for propagating purposes" or
in any other numbers. We have
tried more than once and failed.
Some years ago l attended a
sportsmen's meeting at Columbus,
Ohio, and there met a man who was
an Indian agent in Indian Territory,
now Oklahoma. This man told me
quail were very plentiful in the
country around where he lived and
that if l could get a permit from
the Secretary of the Interior at
Washington, he could have his In
dams trap and send me ten thou
sand quail, in a week. l at once
took the matter up with Senator
Penrose who called personally on
the Secretary of the Interior at
Washington who said to the Sena-
tor: "All you say regarding the
presence of quail in that country is
true, but unfortunately a United
State statute forbids the shipment of
these birds out OF that Territory,
permit you desire. ! would like to
obhge Pennsylvania but cannot Leg
ally do So"
Within four weeks after that time
I was informed by Washington that
the Indian police of Indian Terri
tory had arrested a number of men
who were illegally taking quail and
shipping them to Charles Paine, in
Wichita, Kansas. Mr.. Paine was
then and is now a dealer in quail.
Since that time Indian Territory has
become oklahoma, and is under
state law instead of United States
law. The export of quail from that
state is just as strictly forbidden
to-day as it ever was.
/ have before me while | write, a
bulletin issued by the Biological
Survey, Washington, d. c., in which
the laws and regulations of every
state of the Union and of the pro-
vinces of Canada published for the
year 1918, and l find under the
name of Oklahoma this statement:
open seasons, quail Dec. 1st to
Dec. 31st," showing that notwith-
standing the supposed vast numbers
of quail in that state, those in au-
thority have seen fit to limit the
open season to thirty days. Under
the head of Bag Limit, The num-
Der of quail that may be legally
killed in one day is fixed at To-
Under the heading of Export ap-
pears the following: Export pro-
hibited of all protected game, eX-
cept nonresident licensee may carry
to his home two days bag limit of
game birds if license permit is at
tached." Nowhere is permission
given to carry quail out for propa-
RaIlOn hiiON VI
dealers in game for propagating
purposes who are trying and have
been trying to secure living quail
wherever that might be possible,
and know that every one of these
men have been doing their best to
get quail from Mexico, because they
could not get any elsewhere.
have in my office letter from
n dealer in quail located at Eagle
Pass, Texas, written not ten days
ago, in which the writer says that
certain men from Kansas who were
looking for quail in Mexico have
gone home disappointed. having Sc
cured no quail. These very men
handled Indian Territory quail in
years gone and would be glad to
handle them now if they could get
them legally. Quail cannot be Sc
cured from Oklahoma or from any
other state in this Union as Mr..
Marshall writes and l protest
against the publication of such state
ments, that are unfair to both
sportsmen and to officials in various
states who have tried their best but
without avail to please sportsmen.
Respectfully yours,
JOSEPH KALBFUS,
Secretary, Game Commission.
A Prohibition Goddess