Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 289, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1913 — MR. HUNTER! HAVE YOU A LICENSE? [ARTICLE]

MR. HUNTER! HAVE YOU A LICENSE?

V ' m Game Warden Says Only 150 Have Been Taken Out—Thinks There Should Have Been "600. P. M. Kent, of Brookston, a game warden, was in Rensselaer over night. He went to the county clerk’s office and found £hat only 150 hunters’ licenses have been procured in this county since the new law went into effect last April. He believes that fully 500 licenses should have been issued by this time and judges that there are a great many persons hunting without the formality of getting legal privilege as granted by a license. Mr. Kent "States that between 500 and 600 licenses have been granted in White county. He says that game wardens are apt to drop in and make it expensive at any time for those who fail to comply with the law. He also says that the game wardens would much rather'that every hunter procure a license and thus avoid arrest. That is the purpose of the law and the game wardens make arrests as a measure of enforcing the law and not as a persecution. All persons are required to have licenses under the new law. It was formerly not required to have a license to hunt in your own township but not it is necessary to have a license unless you confine your hunting to your own farm. Mr. Kent suggested that the next time he comes to Jasper county he is apt to be accompanied by one or two other game wardens and work about the county and that arrests of those who have not taken out licenses will follow. Lea Prickette, a young man of 24 years, is now in the county jail, laying out a sl2 fine for hunting without a license. Priqketfce told game wardens Jake Havel and George Wyatt, who arrested him, that his home was at Waynetown. He was hunting on the Kankakee, where Havel and Wyatt maintain a camp for the purpose of catching game law violators. He was brought to Rensselaer Wednesday evening and Squire Irwin fined him the' minimum amount and there was no prosecutor’s fee and the wardens did not put in a claim for witness fees, which they had a right to do. Prickette was hunting with a borrowed gun. The gun belonged to an Illinois man, according to Havel, whom he has reason to believe is hunting without a non-resi-dent’s licehse. Havel confiscated the gun until the owner comes for it-when he will be placed under arrest. Havel also picked up another hunter without a license Wednesday, his name being Burdette Sanger, of Lowell. He was taken before Squire Woodcox, of Lowell, and fined $17.50, which he paid. A license costs only $1 and, seems much the cheaper as well as the safer way. Clerk Perkins has plenty of licenses and all who contemplate hunting should get busy. The quail season closes on Dec. 20th and the rabbit season on Jan. 20th.