THE ETHICS OF FIELD SPORTS. 575 



no law — we should yet have had the great herds of Bison. 

 Would all men do so from this time on, we should always 

 have Elk, Deer, Moose, and Caribou. But if men continue 

 to kill everything they can reach with their lead, whether 

 they need it or not; if men are allowed to hunt for the 

 market ' and for simply the skins of these noble animals, 

 then all of them will soon be extinct. 



In conclusion, let me beseech all sportsmen to maintain 

 the dignity of the craft to which they belong, and to exert 

 all their influence to elevate the standing of that craft and 

 to preserve our game and fishes. T D r 



Let any man wander through the forests, and let there 

 come wafted to his ears, on the wings of the wind, sweet 

 melody from the throat of some feathered songster; let 

 him trace, through the ambrosial leaves, the secreted 

 place of his serenader; yet, when he sees the bird, he may 

 not behold one resplendent in brilliant colors, clothed in 

 gaudy raiment, cloaked with feathers dazzling in their 

 sweeping or trailing beauty, but rather one modest in 

 appearance, subdued in colorings, but whose lack of luster 

 is more than balanced by the heavenly music that warbles 

 and tremors, that pipes and is lost in mournful cadence as 

 its flute-like tones vibrate and thrill deliciously through the 

 woods. So it is with man. Clothing does not make a gentle- 

 man; gentility, if he possess it, is born and bred in him, and 

 asserts itself unsolicited; is ever on the surface, and, like 

 the gurgling spring, bubbles forth and is never-ending. 



We are nearly all more or less barbarians, not in the 

 sense of lacking enlightenment and rejoicing in the fruits 

 of civilization, but in our love for out-of-door life and the 

 sports of the field; and when I find a man who is not easily 

 drawn toward the jjleasures of the field; who does not 

 rejoice in the opportunity to walk forth and commune with 

 Nature; who does not love to follow the banks of some 

 winding stream, and temi)t the trout or the gamy bass with 

 his alluring bait; or to follow the baying hounds as they 



