The Meeker Herald

A Sportsman's Suggestion.
John Cooper and wife of Mount Vernon, Ohio, are visiting friends in Denver after a hunting trip in the mountains of Colorado, says the Republican of recent date. Mr. Cooper is an ardent sportsman, but thinks the game laws of Colorado should be amended. "We spent a month in the mountains," said he. "We stopped for a good portion of the time at Clark's ranch, eighteen miles up the river from Steamboat Springs. We packed our animals to a point eight miles northwest of Hahn's Peak. There we found deer and elk in abundance. I had very good luck, killing three fine bull elks and five bucks on a three week's hunt. The trouble was to dispose of the game. According to the laws of the state one can have but one carcass on hand at a time. I managed to supply the ranchmen with game and so kept within the law. I claim to be a sportsman, not a pot hunter, but the existing laws do not make the field very inviting to the sportsman, though Northwestern Colorado is the best game country on the continent.
"I have found that not a man carries a gun, but who violates the law. The ranchmen are worst of all. They have no other meat but venison, and the slaughter of elk and deer is enormous.
"What should be done would be to make September a close month for elk for that is the season when they are trumpeting, and then allow the sportsman a little liberty at present, if a man wished to save a hide he has to smuggle it out of the state. I also believe that the bounty on bear and mountain lions should be abolished. Elk and deer are slaughtered by the bounty hunters in order to trap bear. For every bear or lion killed thirty or forty deer or elk are slaughtered. If the close season was rigidly enforced, and a reasonable latitude allowed hunters during the remainder of the year, it would be much better all round."
[Three fine bull elks and five bucks on a three weeks hunt" and yet "not inviting to the sportsman." And "the ranchmen are the worst of all," are they? Mr. Cooper should either be sent to jail or to the insane asylum, we hardly know which.-ED. HERALD.