32 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 



devoted to field anfl aquatic sports, practical natural hlstoey, 

 jflsh cultorb, the protection of ,«>:, ] 'reservation op forests, 

 and tile Inculcation in Men and Women of a Healthy Interest 

 in Out-Doob Recreation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



£o*eat and ^trtntu fflttbHshing $0m$}tt(g. : 



NO. Ill (Old No. 103) FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 

 [POST OFFICE BOX 283?.] 



TERMS, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR, STRICTLY IN ADVANCE. 



Twenty-flve per cent, off for Clnba of Two or more. 

 Advertising Rates. 



Inside pages, nonpareil type, 25 cents per line ; outside page, 40 cents. 

 Special rates for three, six and twelve months. Notices m editorial 

 columns, 50 cents per line— eight words to the line, and twelve lines to 

 one inch. 



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 or they will not be inserted. 



No advertisement or business notice of an Immoral oharacter will be 

 received on any terms. 



*.* Any publisher inserting our prospectus as above one time, with 

 brief editorial notice calling attention thereto, and sending marked copy 

 to us, will receive the Forest and Stream for one year. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1878. 



To Correspondents. 



All communications whatever, intended for publication, must be ac- 

 companied with real name of the writer as a guaranty of good faith 

 and be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. 

 Names will not be published If objection be made. No anonymous c 

 munlcations will be regarded. 



We cannot promise to return rejected mannsorlpts. 



Secretaries of Olubs and Associations are urged to favor ub with brief 

 noteB of their movements and transactions. 



Nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that may 

 not be read with propriety in the home circle. 



We cannot be responsible for dereliction of the mail service If money 

 remitted to ns Is lost. No person whatever Is authorized to collect 

 money (or us unless he can show authentic credentials from one of the 

 undersigned. We have no Philadelphia agent. 



Br Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHARLES HAULOCK, Editor. 



T. C. BANKS, S. H. TURRILL, Chicago, 



Business Manager. Western Manager. 



CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE COMING 

 WEEK. 



Friday, Aug. 16.— Beverly Y. C. Union Regatta at Cotult, Mass. 

 O'Donnel-Grotty Sculling Race. Trotting : Mendota, 111.; Utlca, N. Y.; 

 Geneseo, 111. 



Saturday, Aug. 17.— Beverly Y. 0. Special Regatta, at Cotult, Mass.; 

 Union Regatta, off Strawbeerry Point, Mass., New Rochelle Club Open 

 Regatta ; Grand Trunk Rowing Club Club Regatta, at Montreal, Can. 

 onday, Aug. 19.— Quiucy (Mssb.) Yacht Club Championship Race. 



Tuesday Aug. 20.— National Rowing Regatta, at Newark, N. J. 

 Trotting at Eariville, III. 



Wedmaday, Aug. 51.— National Regatta as above. Trotting at New- 

 ark, N. Y., and Fowlervllle, Mich. 



Thursday, Aug. 22.— Trotting as above. 



Me. Hallock. — Mr. Hallock is now on the Manistee River, 

 Michigan, in company with A. B. Turner, of the Grand 

 Rapids Eagle, Judge S. T. Holmes, and D. H. Fitzhugh, of 

 Bay City, after grayling. 



Whekk the Money Gobs.— A firm dealing in sportsmen's 

 goods complains to us of the frequent receipt of abusive mis- 

 sives from distant and careless customers who are themselves 

 in the wrong. The self-deluding people who order fishing 

 rods and flea powder, and forget to inclose the money for the 

 same, or to give their name and address, are not the only ones 

 given to such proceedings. We have now in our safe some- 

 thing like $70, which we have received from time to time, and 

 which, owing to the peculiarities, eccentricities and idiosyn- 

 cracies of peculiar, eccentric and idiosyncratic correspond- 

 ents, is of no immediate use to themselves or to us. One 

 man, woman, or child sends us $4, and forgets to sign his or 

 her name ; another sends an order to some one other than the 

 Forest and Stream Publishing Company, and circumstances 

 combine with the United States Postal Regulations to relegate 

 that order to our safe. All of which proves that while a word 

 to the wise is more than sufficient, the vocabulary of no one 

 language will suffice to instil wisdom into the heart of a fool. 



TRUE MANLINESS. 



W'E are over-disposed to the use of cant terms. The ad- 

 jective "true" united to inwardness, has apparently 

 disgraced the former quite simple word. We wish then to 

 invoke no sneer when we speak of true manliness, for it is n 

 quality, which in a certain degree seems to be quite disap- 

 pearing in our cities. The possession of it is limited, ;iml its 

 absence is absolutely hurtful, We call true manliness that 

 which exerts itself at the proper time, which cannot be re- 

 strained and is regardless of profession or surroundings. Mr. 

 Trollope shows v. hit true manliness— English manliness— is, 

 in one of his last novels. A nobleman calls the daughter of a 

 clergyman a degrading name, right, in her father's face, and 

 the man of Cod, despite hishigh buttoned waistcoat, his white 

 cravat, and all the tenets of the Church of England, knocks 

 down with his good fist the brutal filthier of a woman's re- 

 putation. Of course we do not espouse fists, but still occasions 

 do present themselves when their use seems to be called upon. 

 Do any of our readers remember how some weeks ago, in an 

 excursion party in a New Eugland State, some roughs cap- 

 tured the whole train and grossely insulted the women, and 

 how all the men save one took it like lambs, even more quietly 

 than did the women ? Such a thing we are quite certain never 

 could have occured in England. There would not have been 

 a pistol or a knife drawn, but fists would have been used, and 

 the cause of right and manhood would have prevailed. In 

 New York, insults to women in cars are not infrequent. 

 Vulgar, coarse brutality is shown as often by some hectoring 

 bully to men as to women. It moslly passes unheeded. It is 

 quite possible that an unoffending car conductor has blows 

 belabored on him, and not a soul in the car says a word for 

 him. We seem most of us in the cities to have become utter- 

 ly callous and indifferent about such matters, and a lack of 

 manhood is quite evident. Foreigners who have noticed the 

 impassible way in which insults are given and taken even in 

 conversation are often amazed. They seek in vain for the 

 American spirit. The reply generally made is that piBtols are 

 so much carried thut an interference might result in death. 

 We do not believe it. Dastards who insult women are always 

 cowards and shrink like curs before true manhood. What is 

 true is this, that we are all getting to have that perfect indif- 

 ference about other people, and other's welfare, which is the 

 peculiar, unfortunate outgrowth of those who dwell in large 

 cities. We long to hear in the public prints of some one who 

 may take the matter in his own hands, and, using the might 

 which God gives to an honest man, soundly thrash those low 

 curs who disgrace the community. We want occasionally a 

 little more good English knock downs. It may be very 

 coarse, and animal, and cant may call it what it pleases, but 

 this kind of muscular manhoodism keeps hounds in check, 

 and they behave themfelves through fear of personal chastise- 

 ment. We don't desire to hear the click of the pistol nor to 

 see the gleam of the knife, but there are circumstances when 

 men should not be afraid of them. The knowledge that a 

 man has his sinews and muscles perfectly at his Command, 

 hardened and supplied by training and athletic exercises, can 

 never be shown to a greater advantage than when it squelches 

 ruffianism. 



THE " DECLINE OF RIFLE PRACTICE." 



There has been a growing apprehension, and the feeling 

 has found utterance in the public press, that rifle practice in 

 America is declining. It is asserted that the work of the past 

 five years was a mere flurry on the part of a few enthusiasts, 

 who, with their new-found zeal, pushed the sport further than 

 the old steady shooters had ever hoped to carry it, and then, 

 withdrawing, left no successors to cany on the sport. This 

 compound statement is at once true and untrue. It is a fact 

 that modern rifle practico in America sprang from a soil 

 where nothing of the sort had before existed. There had been 

 shooting in America. In town and country, from the Maine 

 woods to the foremost pioneer shot in the West, there was 

 rifle shooting by all grades and conditions ; but it was all 

 special. There was no scientific grasping of the problem of 

 marksmanship, no freedom from rut- work, but each rifleman 

 did a certain style of work and looked on as a stranger when 

 other classes of shooters stepped out. The army, in its regu- 

 lar and volunteer divisions, while it was the greatest rifle field 

 in the country, was at the same time the most neglected. In 

 this condition of affairs, the promoters of modern rifle prac- 

 tice entered into public notice and began that crusade which 

 no one will deny has been most magnificently successful. It 

 was fostered by all who, seeing the importance of a knowl- 

 idge of the use of firearms, did what they could to promote 

 the success of the movement. The press did service, and no 

 small amount, and military men, with some few exceptions, 

 took hold of the new idea with a vim, if not always with dis- 

 cretion. If they did nothing more, they pointed the need of 

 the practice they had set themselves to take, by the public ex- 

 hibition of their deficiencies. The young plant may have 

 been overworked, may have been strained in certain direc- 

 tions, while complete and healthy development was not at- 

 tended to. There were international matches and victories, 

 too, on a field where the poorest quality of military practice 

 might have been seen, The people were dazed by great 

 scores, by comparisons which left the records of the past 

 years of marksmanship absolutely "nowhere;" and then 

 when that particular class of rifle work, in which, as a matter 

 of course, but few can or ever will engage, shows signs of 

 settling down to a uniform living rate, the cry is set up that 



rifle shooting is declining. What is the pleasure of a few is 

 taken as an indication of the course of the many. As well 

 were it to say, because a yacht club is disbanded, or all of 

 them for that matter, that the commerce of the nation has 

 been scattered and destroyed, despile the fact that the navy 

 had never been stronger. Should every race track on the 

 land be closed, the use of horses would go on. Au effect 

 might be traced in the breed of draught animals, but it would 

 be unfair to say that, the use of horses was an obsolete one. 

 If rifle ranges, or any particular range, Muds its patronage 

 falling off, the managers had better look to themselves before 

 jumping to the conclusion that all interest in practice had 

 fallen away. One range may be choked to death by nig- 

 gardly railroad accommodation. Another may have its life 

 blood sucked out by a plague of mosquitoes, and there are 

 some bits of wilderness, dignified by the name of ranges, 

 which are virtually but little better than the original wild. 

 It is not surprising that patrons should become scarce, but it 

 is indeed surprising that the real trouble should not be at 

 once apparent. 



Were every range in the United States closed this very 

 hour, and not a single shot fired in practice for a decade, the 

 money, time and effort spent were well expended. An im- 

 pression has been made, and an example set, which would 

 work good for twice ten years. In the ranks of the militia 

 the service has been wonderfully strengthened in self-confi- 

 dence, and in the good opinion of the civilian public, by what 

 of rifle practice has already been carried out. An example of 

 this was seen in the handling of the impending labor riots in 

 this State, and an example, per contra, in the mangling of the 

 actual labor riot in an adjoining State, where rifle practice 

 was an unknown art. Should American rifle practice cease 

 have we not done a permanent good in dropping the leavens 

 of "system," "position" and "rifles" among the English 

 shooters? What matter is it that we have no international 

 match this year if we see our problems worked out before 

 British butts ? We are not an Irishman, or we should say 

 that American rifle practice is carried on in Great Britain. 



It does look just now as if rifle practice was on the decline 

 if we are to judge by the fancy (yet important) item of long- 

 range work ; but take the result of the season's work, com- 

 pare the military record of this year with the past, study the 

 reports of the General Inspector of Rifle Practice, and, if 

 there be a fair ratio of progress here, count not the year ill- 

 spent. A wise rule, if it could be enforced, would restrict 

 long-range butts to one range in ten ; but when an over-confi- 

 dent company of managers burden themselves with the long- 

 range elephant, they crush out the hardy growth of short and 

 mid-range work in staggering beneath their load. 



We cannot always have a great match on the tapis, nor 

 would it be for the best interests of American practice to have 

 such. There is enough to be done without such distracting 

 pastimes, and there is enough doing to justify the remark 

 that American rifle practice is growing, strengthening and 

 solidifying, and not declining. 



SHARKS IN NEW YORK WATERS. 



THE case of Charles Gates, who was terribly mangled last 

 week by a shark while he was swimming near the Erie 

 Breakwater, Brooklyn, in the East River, has excited a great 

 deal of alarm. Such presence of man-eating sharks in the 

 proximity of New York is almost exceptional. About two 

 years ago a man was reported to have been bitten by a shark 

 off Coney Island, but if facts there were, they were in so hazy 

 a condition that nothing very reliable could be deduced from 

 them. In Gates' case the boy was not very far from the break- 

 water, when he felt one of his legs seized, and if it had not 

 been for the coolness of his comrade, Arthur Cole, Gates would 

 have been lost. Cole took a large stone and was adroit enough 

 to strike the shark on the head. Even then the horrible crea- 

 ture was not fully induced to leave his prey, but made a 

 second attack. Finally Cole dragged Gates out of the water. 

 The shark's teeth had fearfully gashed the boy, inflicting some 

 painful end dangerous wounds. From the crest of the ilium 

 on the right side to the anterior part of the thigh, there was a 

 wound quite eleven inches long. Over the femoral artery 

 there was a cut, and the abdomen was gashed. On the right 

 side the ribs showed the mark of teeth, where they had pene- 

 trated to the bone. The appearance of the wound was like 

 that which might have been inflicted with a very dull cutting 

 tool, for the peculiarity of a shark bite seems to be that it 

 rather resembles a tear than on incision. In 1S64 a well 

 authenticated case is recorded of a young Brice, who, while 

 swimming near Thirty-seventh street, North River, was bitten 

 by a shark. The boy's flesh was torn from the thigh down to 

 the knee, both legs having been terribly bitten. Ue recovered 

 entirely, though badly hurt, at the time. The shark was cap- 

 tured in the immediate neighborhood a day or so afterward 

 and measured eight feet nine inches. There is another ac- 

 count quite truthful, we believe, of a lad of seventeen, who, 

 in 18G5, near Greenport, while swimming in the Sound, was 

 attacked by a shark, and after having been badly bitten was 

 saved by some men in a schooner. Peter Johnsan showed no 

 less than thirty-four wounds, and the abdomen and groin were 

 very much mangled, " the flesh being torn off and left hang- 

 ing by the skin only, nothing but a thin lining membrance cf 

 the abdomen keeping in the entrals." Old accounts state that 

 one hundred years ago very large sharks were, found in both 

 the North and East rivers. Mr. De Voe, tie careful col- 

 lector of past events, writes: " Many years ago, when shaiks 

 were taken at our wharves, and especially near the Catharine 



