Great Nebraska
Naturalists and ScientistsNOU, Lawrence Bruner, Letter, 1903, Feb. 18
Lincoln
Department of
Entomology and Ornithology
Lawrence Bruner, Professor
Entomologist, Experiment Station
Acting State Entomologist
February 18, 1903.
Miss Joy Higgins,
544 South 13th St.,
Omaha, Nebr.
Dear Madam:-
Your favor of the 14th inst. with reference to the bill for prohibiting trap-shooting in Nebraska at hand, and I have to-day seen Mr. Loomis of Fremont, regarding his bill on this same subject. I also had a conference with the chairman of the committee of Fish and Game Protection and asked him concerning the time of meeting of said committee for the purpose of receiving statements from interested parties. He assured me that there would be no meeting before next week but possibly Monday evening next he would be able to get the committee together. By special arrangement he has agreed to notify me in ample time to get the Omaha people down so as to have them present at the meeting.
By the way, I would suggest that in bringing this matter before hte public you would be very careful to explicitly state that the bill is intended simply to prohibit the shooting of live birds from traps and not to exclude other trap shooting. I make this statement because sportsmen not only shoot live birds from traps but also glass-balls and discs of clay (sometimes called clay-pidgeons) in the same manner.
By not making a distinction between bird-shooting and glass-ball shooting in connection with traps sportsmen would naturally feel very much hurt.
In our meeting which was held two or more weeks ago this matter of live bird shooting came up and the sportsmen present all agreed that there was very little objection on their part to have this sort of shooting done away with as they had very little sympathy with persons who insisted on continuing this sort of sport. Accorcingly I believe there will be very little objection from the sportsmen if they understand that it is simply the live bird portion of trap-shooting which is aimed to be done away with.
I will try to keep posted and let you know any further move on the part of the committee and will let you know in time to have your forces marshaled in on the ground.
Yours very truly,