GAME AND SHOOTING. 



' While thousands are doomed every 



moment to yield * ^y^ 



To business or studies severe, 

 The sportsman enjoys the pure air 

 of the field, 

 And roams without sorrow or fear; 

 He sighs not for honor, for splendor, or wealth, 



Better blessings than either attend him. 

 Behold, on his brow sit contentment and health. 

 And the dictates of conscience befriend him." 



The sportsmen of America have for many generations past enjoyed a 

 greater variety of field sports than could be found in any other civilized 

 country. So numerous, in fact, w^ere the varieties of game, and so appar- 

 ently inexhaustible the supply, that few restrictions vv^ere placed upon the 

 shooters, and in consequence of this the country has been for fifty years 

 past overrun by not only the native lovers of field sports, and market gun- 

 ners, but sportsmen of foreign lands have swelled the throngs to exter- 

 minate several of the valued species of game — birds and animals. 



During the first half of the present century the native American, even 

 though his worldly possessions consisted of merely a simple shooting out- 

 fit, could obtain, comparatively without cost, better sport than European 

 princes could boast of in their own country. The United States in reality 

 seemed to furnish a sort of Happy Hunting Ground for the sportsmen of 

 our own land and the wealthy shooters of European countries. AH this, 



