Evening star., 1935-11-24
By Gene A. Day.


| world gangsters. who spray
their attackers with death
dealing spatter of high-velocity
lead, poured from merciless machine
guns, the poachers of the Eastern
Shore of Maryland and Virginia are
now using mastodonic blunderbusses
In their vindictive battles against an
other group of Uncle Sans dauntless
"G-men," the Government game war;
dens.
For a human being to be target
for the hurtling discharge from punt,
or swivel, gun doesn't merely mean
instant death, but also gruesome an
inhalation of his remains.
One of these gigantic guns weighs
over 200 pounds. has barrel from 10
to u feet long and belches out IA
pounds of scatter shot under the dy-
manic propulsion of pounds of pow
der. At range of 25 to 80 yards
such gunflre will shower an average
man from shoe sole to hat crown.
Down Tangier and Smith Islands
way, in Chesapeake Bay, however,
where quaint Elizabethan English is
the common tongue, where railroad
trains, motor cars, and even telephones
and radios are unknown, there are
wild duck poachers who supply secret
markets with delectable fowls, both
in season and out. These human
"throwbackS" to the civilization of
Queen Elizabeth's time still practice
the doctrine of might makes right"
According to the local logical. but
illegal belief, the wild game provided
by nature for mans use is theirs to
kill and sell, and evil to him who at
tempts to hinder them in their chosen
quest of livelihood.
THEY promise-and have made
good on ito baptize with hot
lead any who attempt to say them
nay. If gunfire fails. they threaten
to toss any captured trespassers,
bound and gagged, into Tangier Sound,
with enough ballast attached to guar
antee eventual descent to Davy Jones'
locker on one-way tickets. Barbaric
talk from clan of fishing folk who are
determined to fight for their rights,
tch-as-catch-can Stylel
For longer than the life Of an aver
age hunting dog the emissaries of the
United States Biological Survey, work
ing out of Washington, D. c.. have
been prying into market duck shooting
in the neighborhood of the Sesque-
hanna fats and the strategically situ-
ated islands which here and there dot
Chesapeake Bay.
Uncle Sam has long known that
Havre de Grace, Md. home of a
famous Eastern race track, was also
the hub of a large and well-organ-
lied traffic in Illegally marketed mall
lards, pintails, redheads and canvas
backs. Thousands of ducks were sold
directly in Havre de Grace or else
shipped by underground delivery to
Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore
and Washington, at prices ranging
from So to S12 pair and up. Try
as they would, however, the Federal
"G-Men" were unsuccessful in their
efforts to locate the leaders of the
duck bootlegging rings in order to raid
their hangouts.
The undercover men in their dis
guises as floaters, buns, sportsmen
and epicures-all seeking ducks or
knowledge about the wild fowl
eventually pieced together a patch
work of facts from here and there,
which formed a mosaic of accurate
information. It spotted Smith and
Tangier Islands as centers of the
illegitimate market cunning.
Official spy work was necessary on
the islands, where the islanders could
be watched at their lawless occupa-
tions. That was far from simple, as
lookouts guarded all entrances to the
islands.
Uncle Sam resorted to strategy.
One of the bravest and most resource
full OF the agents, in the disguise OF
an ornithologist, journeyed to Smith
Island. He carried official papers
from the University of Maryland, as
signing him to the task of securing
specimens and studying the bird life
of the Chesapeake Bay islands. 1t
was a mission of extreme hazard.
If detected, death awaited the agent
Just around the corner, or in the
solitary seclusion of coastal swamp.
WHEN the scientist" arrived at
wv Smith Island, he was met by
suspicious islanders, who seized and
searched him, and then questioned
him for a half day before they
would allow him to remain at their
waterbound stronghold. Several OF
the villagers" guided the agent on his
hunts after rare birds. He trapped,
skinned and mounted various speci-
mems under their surveillance. Ger
tain fishermen and their mates
watched the newcomer day and night.