The Michigan Game Laws

Our game laws are not a relie of barbar sin - they aro i new or young sprout trom ho root of the old treeof M-istocraey.wlneh our fathers cut down and supposud tliuy ïad killed. Tliey are not laws in aüy D ■■ of' the word. They are oppregsive and unjust fctatutory enactuients wliicli OMBOt e enforcod. Tliey are not a public bem'tit, ut they aro a positive private injnry, and consequently ought to be repoaled, as any and every unconstitutinnal and arbitrar}' enactmont, uiiscalled law, fchould be - uucouditioually. Üstensibly enaoted for the preservation of game, but really 111 the interest of aclact of sportsnion who are [ireMiiuably able to ieep private parks lor their ploii-ure or amusement if tli"y wi.-h to hunt, and who ought to be more honest than to foree or wish the public to be robbed of' their rights or cheated out of theiu f'ur the private recreaiion or jileasurü of any class, dique or clan. What were deer and other game Diade for? Evidently, first, tor the aupport aud use of the aborigiuea ; and, secoudly, tor the pioneers of' a uew country before they can raiHe douiobtic animáis for their BBMt I rccoliect, when fifty year sinco the old pioneerB of Michigan liad no other rcour.se for animal f'ood but the deer and otlicr wild gaiue that abounded, and for several years they had to depend on iheir trusty rifles for their necessary rapplios. What execrationN, what anathema.s, wbat roaledictions, would at that time have fallen upon the scapula, or, more proporly, " scalp locks" of our modern " lig medicine" men, who did not make the world, but feel bound and fully competeDt to mend it. And to-day, gentlemen of the sportsmen's club, peiuiit me to remitid your honors that in our " north woods" as noedy and poverty-stricken a oUsí exista (yea, more -so, as they have not the beíiutilul prairies, and natuial pa-sturage then M abundant in the -outhern parts of Michi gan) as ever endured the hardships and privalioDS incideut to the Gist settlers in any new country. There is but oue advantage they have over these (the old fogy pioneerh), that is better pay for labor on account of the lumber business. Jf' they could earn money to pay for beef' and ruutton it is not brought arouud every day, uor week. y cnison is good uieat six months, or even niuo on an average of the year. These settlers (houicatesders or mossbacks, as you please to cali thcoi) have families. They need food, and will have it in spil e of' jour game iaws, you, or the devil. What think you of a law that woulc fine one of these ''son of a guns " tor killing a fat duck or dry doe on his owi land, exeept 2$ moDtfal in a year? It ib only a neighbor who has a grudge to gratif'y, or a black-hearted huil hound of a devil's imp, or a gentleman of the Hjmrts mens Club, that would deinur or coui plaio. Go ahead, gentlemen ! You are impotent! You are not smart enough to catch these lawless law-breakers. Perhaps you have lound it out. If not I will inforui you no interdicted game is ever known in our backwoods during prohibition. Deer areehanged into " wild sheep," or " fbres lambs," and, likea rose by any other name are equally sweet and palutuble, and the only effect your game law has is to makt men law-breakers, despisers of law. lraw a tiluck line around your execrable game. Iaws, and then write thoroon: "Ex punged by order of the good tense of al true-hearted sportsmen." Well, gentlemen, you see how tliis thing is done. Now I will remind you ol tin way in which you eircumvent your cher ished law. If any of you, or " the upper crust," for whose .special benefit the game Iaws ere enacted, hankjr (as ull picure do) afler VeoiaOD in July, Augut, and the tir.-t half of September, why, all you havt to do is to visit Iliggins' lake, BmoodMDOl county, and secd fbr old Kosnegonch am boy (any other lake and lndian will answe as well), and then you can t-mack you chops on as goud and tender venison stal as ever feas-ed a piince or an lndian. You can eat and grow fat, and drink your wine and smoke your choice Havanas, an laugh at the "greenhotns," whoaie natu rally too obture in intellect to appreeiate your fun. You may even sharpen you appetites and witiy shafts at the expen.-e o your lndian purveyor.s, as a pany diH ti my certain knowledge last August at Hig gins' lake. They set the " redskin " Kos negonch and his boy " to taking the jacket off" potatoes boiled with the skins on, am as they gormandized in true epicureat style, tantsilized tiim with the assurance that they would eat up all the venisoti "Oh! ah! 11 o-all I" he exclainitvl in hi native gutteral ; "Me a-h, no like ox m e a t." 1 don't wish to torment you, gentlemen " before the time," - tlial is, prematuiely - but I give you due notice that you natu keep your hounds off the tracks of tht timid deer, or they will die, trickeu bj a psralysia common to bloodhounds pursuing deer. And that'a right - ihdj sh uld die and you should also be fiticd for break in the law forbidding "crucltyto animáis.' Just think of the panting victim of you i.iuoutmr.-ty sp,.,., ,„;,,, nrotrnding tongue and panting breath lic ii..i. water" to elude his keenscentod, knul rviouthed, ."-ure-footfid pursuers. Ah ! yes theiü's where you have him. You hav atubucaded him like craven-hearted cow aids, and you ought to be ahamed of you treaoUeroiu eroefiy. Bwidect his meat (in this hot weatht r) ia aturated and black a jour motives añil htarts, witli putrid venous blood. His meat s utifit lor eat ing, but you have had and enjoyed you baibarous sport. What do you care ? You are destitute of every int-tinct of humanity and like the old slave-holdtr undnr th " ehatlel nystem," you would inipor tiaineil Cuban blooJhounds to run dowi thi: fiyiiiL' fugilive. Yes, you are preparet for any emergency. You hld in reserve an Englub grey hound to catcli the gaine your shot niises - you are as inexorable a death and as in-atiable as the grave. You will be welconiid to tho OMM, and shel tercd by ttiu Iriondly Mttler if you come a a bunter should come, to hunt tbr pleiisure sjiort, reoreation or profil in a legiiimau way - thut is, without dogs. Now, pUa-i don't flure up and swear, as I have hean soiue within a week : "If any man sboot my dogs, ['I shont him, if I have to follow him ioto the city ot Grand Ku i Is todo it. 'aution, my li ris ; recollet-t ■■' that is a game that twi can p!ay at," and you ma; Dome out tecond but. I havr beu in tin '■ north wnods " within a weck and in fni conversation with ull classes, and have heard but one opinión. That is: 'Cumt one, come all," bul come wiihout you hounds, or they will die. We will protec ourselves if we can. iako warning I Coup like men, like hunter.s ; not like demons. And L sav amen. I have killed hun diviK of deer - more iha.n any memher o State or eounty tportsmea'l cüili 1 lm t I an acquainted with, over siw, or 6ver wil see - and I swear by ihe blood of Kthan AUci (my giandmother's brotlu'i), that if neoc m rt.'(uire (thuugh now 72 yrars of age) . will voluntoer, with tbe best bicach leade of modern tiui'iH, in tlie dutensu of the inalienable rights nf th dwpúed nin-s liaeks and baekwooil ctilers. - [Gram Rápida Demoerat, Oct. 15, 1879. The writer of' the above is John P Weeks, of Grant, Kent ('o., Mich., whon many of the early ttttlen ol Lima wil rtcognize aa the schooluiaster who taugh the school near Blngh:iiu'n saw mili in the townsliip of Lima in the winter of 1834-5 and the editor of TliB Couhier was at this time one of his papil.