Evening star., 1935-11-24
Withering Spatter Effective in Defense of
Outlaws, Who Have Operated From
Eastern Shore of Maryland
and Virginia.

he proved to be Federal agent
counterfeit" as they called him.
The bird-hunter attended church
with the fisher folks, as he soon dis
covered that religion was their ma jor
diversion from work. In fact, every
person on the island had to 60 to
church each Sunday, or else remain
| quietly indoors during the religious
service. Once a villager objected, he
was shot in cold blood for his way
wardnesS.
The purported ornithologist event.
ually gained the confidence of various
villagers, who even went so far as to
allow him to accompany them on
some of their duck-hunting trips. He
saw ducks shot by the thousand. as
many as 125 RATED ducks at a single
discharge of one of the huge swivel
guns. 1t took about eight months of
daily vgilance-ultimately the strang-
er had ferreted all the facts about the
'moonshine" duck shooters-in order
to complete the dangerous mission.
The agent had aspired to solve only
the secrets of the illicit gunners. But
he scored double" in that he also
ran point-blank into the measures and
methods used by the duck trappers in
catching the birds alive That re-
quired several trips to the Eastern
Shore of Virginia.
The traps were made of poles
placed in the mud of the marsh, to
support small mesh chicken wire,
which formed the sides, ends and
roof of trap. A hole cut in the wire
formed the entrance to the trap. It
was placed at the water level and SO
arranged that the cut wires were
pointed inward. The ducks could get
in readily, but, once inside, they were
unable to escape. The pointed wires
pricked them through their feathers
if they tried to worm their way out
again.
The pain caused them to honk in
scared duck fashion. These honks
really served as decoy signals to lure
more ducks, also baited with corn and
other grain, into the trap. The Gov
ernment agent saw as many as so to go
ducks at time in one of these small
and simple but very effective traps.
He also ascertained that the trappers,
after killing the shared ducks, packed
the wild fowl in eel kegs for shipment
to buyers in Chicago, Philadelphia,
Buffalo and New York City. The
names of several persons who had
Sind v1fifhir1 he
the shippers of these out-of season
migratory birds, which entered inter-
state commerce. All of which finally
led to the apprehension of the duck
bootleggerS and their eventual COM
mittment to Jail.
THE fantastic setting of Smith and
Tangier Islands, with their sparse
populations, living in a curious civ
ilization which is about two centuries
behind that of the neighboring main
land, was no whit more bizarre than
the raiding system employed by the
resouceful Government men.
After returning to Washington and
comforting with headquarters experts,
the pseudo-ornithologist took his life
into his own hands by again daring
to return alone to Smiths Island.
There he sought shelter with the
local minister. He told the preacher
about the duck bootleggers in his con-
gregation and the worth whileness of
an educational campaign to convert
them. The minister, convinced of the
desirability of the plan, agreed to hold
series of revival meetings. When the
bishop of that area heard about the
affair he loaned his enthusiastic SUD-
port to the program.
Certain Of the duck poachers, at
first. we're inclined to resist the pleas
OF the preacher. The minister, how
ever, finally won them over by clever
arguments, which summed up to the
fact that unless they changed their
ways of life and sustenance, "they
would go to prison shortly or to he'll
eventually"
The sWivel-gun owners repented to
the extent of surrendering three of the
gargantuan "muskets" to the minister.
one OF these record slaughter guns has
reputedly been employed to kill some
$4,000 wild ducks, being used by four
generations of the same family. The
two other guns had records almost as
ignoble. Anonymous contributors on
the mainland donated several hundred
dollars for the improvement of the
islanders church when they learned
about the results of one of the
strangest revivals held In the history
Of Maryland and Virginia.
Previously, Uncle Sam has been
handicapped by lack of experienced
gameland detectives to aid him in
combating poachers. During the last
year, however. Biological Surveys
appropriation was sufficient to finance
force Of about so "G-men," q mo-
torized personnel which has worked
in flying squadrons of four investi-
gators per automobile. This small but
seasoned and determined corps has
worked wonders in outguessing and
capturing the gameland gangsters.
Their fleet of a dozen cars has been
constantly on the go, spanning stu
pendous territories by sheer speed,
ever being where the commercial gun
ners least expected them to be.