Evening star., 1955-07-17
VIRGINIA.:
BY ALEX r. PRESTON


House Ways and Means Com
mittee last week elected to
forfeit collateral rather than
face 80-year-old John H.
Booton, Page County trial
justice at Luray.
His offense? Rocking" q
frog.
It seems that on . Dayy
Crockett-like impulse. he killed
him q frog when he was some
what more than three.
The weather was hot, and.
as everybody who endures
Washington weather In the
summer knows. the District
was no place to spend the
Fourth of July.
So Mr.. Riddle tossed tackle
in his car and took of from
his home at ia North Brook
side drive, Arlington, to get
in some small-mouth bass
fishing.
Lazing down the Shenan-
doah River in Q canoe. he
espied q big. fat frog on the
bank.
In the warm sunlight. he
might have been dreaming Of
fish frying in the pan. But
his hand. casting about for
Ways and Means, possibly,
chanced on q rock. He tossed
the rock.
Decd Frog. Decd Duck
Out Of the bullrushes, in
a manner Of speaking, stepped
q game warden and he, too,
eSpied the hullfrog. It was,
by then. a dead frog-and
Mr.. Riddell was q dead duck.
Perhaps the warden was a
scholar and recalled Plut-
arch's regret-filled remark:
Though boys throw stones at
frogs in sport. the frogs do
not die in sport. but In earn
est"
Or Dickens: Can I un-
moved see thee dying
"On a log, expiring frog?"
At any rate, Warden Fred
Hottie told Mr.. Riddell--not
in precisely these words
that unlicensed ranicide is il
legal in Virginia.
Mr.. Riddell's lament was
somewhat like Mark Twain's:
II don't see no p'ints about
that frog that's any better'n
any other frog"
Editor Jack Fitzpatrick of
the Richmond News-Leader.
waxed sympathetic-to Mr..
Riddell, not the frog-and
wrote: you'll get 10 years
for this, Mr.. Riddell, but by
the freckled face Of every bare
foot boy that ever rocked q
frog, Wen take 1t to the high
est court In the land"
9Th n, remembering the
public school segregation case,
he added: mo. we won't-not
to that court"
Is q Frog Wild?
Mr.. Fitzpatrick questioned a
1850 opinion by Attorney Gen.
eral j. Lindsay Almond, jr..
holding q frog to be q wild
animal.
Search the Code Of Vir-
ginia as you please" the editor
wrote, "and you viii find no
place in which the General
Assembly Of Virginia, acting in
its sovereign majesty, has said
a word about the frog. Bears,
yes; wildcats, yes. Deer, squir-
rel, rabbits, skunks. fox. ra-
coon, o'possum, muskrat, all
yes. But frogs? No."
Mr.. Riddell called on Rep
resentative Harrison. q mem
ber Of the Ways and Means
Committee whose District in
cludes the Shenandoah River.
The Congressman jumped into
the act.
Mr.. Harrison, q former Win
chester circuit Judge, asked
Richmond for Attorney Gen.
eral Almonds opinion.
Section 29-51 of the Code
makes 1t unlawful to hunt on
the lands or inland waters Of
this State without first obtain
ing a license, subject to cer-
tain exceptions not pertinent
here" said the attorney gen.
eral, "and Section 2o-13l Of
the Code makes 1t clear that
the prohibition contained in
Section 29-51 refers to the
hunting Of wild animals
q. the frog species is
classified as amphibian. and an
aniphibian is defined as an
animal accustomed to living
both on land and in the water.
Since the term, wild animal.
is used to denote an animal
of a species that Is not usually
domesticated, 1t is my opinion
that q frog is q wild animal
within the meaning Of Section
29-l3l, referred to above.
Finer Than Fros-Hoir
Section 29-132 of the Code
does not classify the bullfrog
as q game or furbearing ami
NAL. but. In my opinion. 1t is
included Mn subsection te)
thereof. where predatory ami
mails are defined as 'weasels.
wildcat and all other wild ami
mails not otherwise classed -
game or furbearing animals