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 about it? I can't help it! I'm no game warden." "Put on your clothes, get your shot-gun and come out and drive off the killing gang." "But what good will that do? They will come back again." "Not if we do our duty. We must have them arrested, and appear against them in court." "But," says the sleepy citizen, "That won't do much good. The laws are not strict enough; and besides, they are not well enforced, even as they are!" "Then let's make it our business to see that the present laws are enforced, and go to our members of the legislature, and have them pass some stronger laws." And this brings me to a very important subject: * * * * * HOW TO PASS A NEW LAW We venture to say that the average citizen little realizes how possible it is to secure the passage of a law that is clearly necessary for the better protection of wild life and forests. Because of this, and of the necessity for exact knowledge, I shall here set down specific instructions on this subject.