and the violent method that saves life. If a woman is drowning, the
sensible man does not wait for an introduction to her; nor does he run
to an acquaintance to borrow his boat, or stop to put on a collar and
necktie. He seizes the first boat that he can find, and breaks its lock
and chain if necessary; or, failing that, he plunges in without one.
When he reaches the imperiled party, he doesn't say, "Will you kindly
let me save you?" He seizes her by the hair, and tries to keep her head
above water, without ceremony.

That is to-day the condition and the treatment necessary regarding our
remnant of wild life. We are compelled to act quickly, directly, and
even violently at times, if we save anything worth while.

There is _no time_ to depend upon the academic "education" of the public
by the seductive illustrated lecture on birds, or the article about the
habits of mammals. Those methods are all well enough in their places,
but we must not depend upon them in emergencies like the present, for
they do not pass laws or arrest lawbreakers. Give the public all of that
material that you can supply, and the more the better, but for heaven's
sake _do not_ depend upon the spread of bird-lore "education" to stop
the work of the game-hogs! If you do, all the wild life will be
destroyed while the educational work is going on.

Often you can educate a gunner, and make him a protectionist; but you
never can do it by showing him pictures of birds. He needs strong
reasoning and exhortation, not bird-lore. To-day it is necessary to
employ the most direct, forceful and at times even rude methods. Where
slaughtering cannot be stopped by moral suasion, it must be stopped with
a hickory club. The thing to do is to _get results, and get them
quickly, before it is too late_!

If the business section of a town is burning down, no one goes into the
suburbs to lecture on architecture, or exhibit pictures of fire
apparatus. The rush is for water, fire-engines, red-blooded men and
dynamite. When the birds all around you are being shot to death by
poachers who fear not God nor regard man, and you need help to stop it
on the instant, run to your neighbor's house, and ring his bell. If he
fails to hear the bell, pound on his door until you jar the whole house.

When he comes down half-dressed, blinking and rubbing his eyes, shout
at him:

"Come out! Your birds are all being shot to pieces!"

"Are they?" he will say. "But what can _I_ do abo