THE NEW SPORT. 



JOHN WINTHROP SCOTT. 



IN THE early days every man and 

 boy knew how to use a gun. It 

 was a necessity of life. It brought 

 in meat for the family. The regu- 

 lar business of every holiday was to go 

 to the woods and kill. The free life of 

 the woods, the pleasure of ranging 

 about for a purpose, and the excite- 

 ment attending success in bagging game 

 were among their greater pleasures. 



Now we live in cities mainly. Even 

 the country boy has less regard for the 

 gun. The game and many of the birds 

 and animals that are not game have 

 been killed off, so that country boys 

 now wish to give them a chance for 

 their lives. Probably the worst mur- 

 derers of songsters and innocent ani- 

 mals are the ignorant city youths who 

 get only a day or two in the woods in a 

 year. 



Guns have been "improved" to such 

 an extent that whether the gunner 

 has any skill or not everything in 

 sight can be killed because of the 

 rapidity of fire and the number of 

 chances for killing. A gun has been 

 invented which pours a steady stream 

 of rapid fire as long as you hold the 

 trigger. It was invented for killing 

 men on the battlefield; but there are 

 other guns nearly as destructive that 

 are used for "sport." 



Public schools, Audubon societies, 

 women's clubs, and other humanizing 

 agencies have so modified the ideas of 

 boys and young men that there are but 

 few who hunt for sport. 



The cheapening of the camera and 

 its perfection for amateur use have 

 placed a new shooting apparatus in 

 their hands, and many young people of 

 both sexes are now more or less expert 

 in making exposures and developing. 

 A shot with a camera is worth more 

 than a shot with a gun. You have to 

 eat or stuff the unfortunate bird or 

 animal you shoot with a gun. When 

 it is gone you have nothing to show 

 for your skill. 



The shot with a camera gives you a 

 handsome picture with many thrilling 



details to relate. If you wish to boast 

 you have the evidence at hand to cor- 

 roborate your statement. The pictures 

 last indefinitely, are easily stored, and 

 may be duplicated at will. 



Camera presents last Christmas far 

 outnumbered the guns given. Boys 

 and girls much prefer the new sport to 

 the old. With the aid of the bicycle 

 in getting about the country, young 

 people are making trips to the country 

 with loaded cameras and bringing in 

 much more satisfactory game than 

 they used to get with guns. 



The skill some of them have mani- 

 fested in getting a focus on some shy 

 resident of the woods or fields is in- 

 deed remarkable. Imitations of brush 

 heaps are made out of light stuff that 

 may easily be carried about. These 

 may be placed before the residence o 

 a rabbit or woodchuck for several days 

 before the attempt is made to get a 

 shot from beneath. A great deal of 

 caution is sometimes necessary to get 

 the subject accustomed even to a 

 strange brush heap, so he will act 

 naturally at the instant the snap is 

 made. 



Two young Englishmen made a mock 

 tree-trunk of cloth, painted its exterior, 

 cut holes in it for observation and 

 for the camera, tricked it out with 

 vines, spread it out on a light frame so- 

 they could set it up where they chose, 

 and got so many beautiful and scien- 

 tifically interesting views that they have 

 written a book that has had a large 

 sale. It is embellished with half-tone 

 engravings made from their collections 

 of photographs, and is a most delightful 

 and useful addition to one's library. It 

 is entitled "Wild Life at Home," and 

 is published by Cassell & Company of 

 New York. It has met with such pop- 

 ularity largely because it has appeared 

 just at the time when so many young 

 people are turning their attention from 

 the killing of birds and animals to the 

 more pleasing and humane business of 

 catching their likenesses in their native 

 haunts. 



