VWUM 1 MU klMUI. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Devoted to Field and Aquatic Spobts, Peaotical Natobal History, 

 Fish Culture, the Protection of Game, Preservation of Forests, 

 and the Inculcation in Men and Women of a Healthy Interest 

 in Out-Doob Recreation and Study: 



PUBLISHED BY 



detest xnd gfreanf §ttbUshmg (ftamgatQi. 



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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 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 PublisBino Company 

 Names will not be published If obj ectlon be made. No anonymous com- 

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vr Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHAKLE8 DAIXOCK, Editor. 



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



Business Manager. Western Manager. 



Holiday Gifts. — You can make your children a no more 

 useful and acceptable Holiday present than a year's subscrip- 

 tion to Forbst and Stream. Think of the suggestion and 

 act. 



Intellectual Refreshment foe Ministers. — The New 

 York and Brooklyn Baptist ministers discussed " Pastors 

 Habits of Study " in their meeting last Monday morning. 

 There was one pastor who built churches, and so had no time 

 to study; another read, what little he did read, while travel- 

 ing around on the streetcars ; another thought ministers didn't 

 study the Bible enough, and a fourth thought something else. 

 But the most sensible speech of the day was that of the Rev. 

 Way land Hoyt, -who said, "I read the Forest and Stream 

 every Saturday night. It refreshes me for Sunday." Of 

 course it does, and that's what it's meant for. And our word 

 for it, Mr. Hoyt's Sunday morning sermons are the better, 

 more cheerful and vigorous. 



A Day op Sport. — Our news columns show that last 

 Thursday was celebrated all over the country with out-of- 

 door sports. ' Athletic meetings, shooting matches, rifle con- 

 tests, coursings, pedestrian excursions, and all the other forms 

 of sport to which the bracing weather of the day was so well 

 adapted, engaged the attention of a large share of the devotees 

 of these amusements, and every one is better for the recrea- 

 tion and the feast. 



Ethereal Mildness.— Delightful autumn weather we are 

 having so far, and sportsmen as well as others are making best 

 use of it. Geraniums and other hardy plants are Btill bloom- 

 ing in suburban gardens in this vicinity. There has been no 

 heavy frost. Lingering summer spreads herself all over the 

 lap of autumn. 



i®" Forest and Streamer be sent for fractions of a year 

 as follows : Six months, $2 ; three months, $1. To ribs of 

 two or more, $3 per annum. 



NATIONAL SMALL ARMS MANU- 

 FACTURE. 



THE old question of the proper scope of Government effort 

 comes up in practical shape in odc of the memorials 

 presented to the Joint Committee on the reform and reorgani- 

 zation of the Army from the Association of Manufacturers of 

 Anns, Ammunition and Equipments of the U. S. This As- 

 sociation, of which Eli Whitney is the President, are prepared 

 to speak understandingly on the question of small arms, and 

 the suggestions which it offers to the Committee are backed 

 by figures against which it will, be very hard, even for the 

 most expert of official place-holders, to offer any satisfactory 

 argument. On general principles it may fairly be questioned 

 whether Government functions should go further than the pres- 

 ervation of peace between its subjects and their protection 

 against foreign invasion and in carrying out this the collection 

 of an appropriate and sufficient revenue. Instead of doing 

 this the Government has entered into a sort of smothering 

 competition with private manufacturers, and while allowing 

 all ready appliances for action to fall into disuse has cumbered 

 its departments with a quantity of "plant" of little value with 

 itself and an obstruction to private makers of small arms. 

 Last year the Government placed a valuation of $60,000,000 on 

 its arsenals and armories, and of this it may without fear of 

 contradiction be said that fully five-sixths represents capital 

 sunk dead through the misdirected policy of thegoverment in 

 attempting to do for itself what can be so much better done 

 for it by private companies and firms. 



There are peculiar reasons why this country should of all 

 others abandon the traditions which make it necessary to go 

 on putting vast sums into arsenals and armories. Our manu- 

 facturing firms can and will supply all the arms of any de- 

 scription that they may be called upon to produce. They do 

 not urge government patronage, with the fact kept m the 

 background that the arms they offer are inferior to those made 

 by the government. The facts point the other way and foreign 

 buyers, looking with an unprejudiced eye for a good weapon, 

 come to our American workshop and buy largely, while our 

 own government go on building great shops for the manufac- 

 ture of material and pieces which to all but those actually en- 

 gaged in their making up are second rate and antiquated. 

 The rifle range with the open competition there in vogue is do- 

 ing wonders in showing up the relative results of the close 

 conservatism of the government shops and the open, keen 

 competition of the private armories. To be sure our govern- 

 ment is not now making muskets on an ante-revolution model, 

 but it is years behind the best effort of our time, and the peo- 

 ple at large in this line of manufacture, the masters of the 

 government, if you wish, have a right to be assured that they 

 are getting a fair quid pro quo for the great outlay made and 

 a reasonable return on the money now sunk in the govern- 

 ment shops. There is a danger that the government without 

 such reliances might find itself the victim of rings and forced 

 to bleed heavily in times of urgent need. The bugaboo of 

 " rings" may have some effect, but it is a poor cry for gov- 

 ernment advocates to set up, since such knavery can only 

 flourish through the connivance of trusted government officers. 

 The fact that our own government was a profitable customer 

 to the gun companies would have a consequential benefit, in 

 that such expenditure would so encourage and stimulate in- 

 vention and improvement in their materials of war as to won- 

 derfully increase the foreign trade in those articles. It is 

 needless to reiterate what our private armories_have done in 

 the way of supplying other nations. The Turkish contracts 

 come first to mind simply because they are among the most 

 recent, and comparatively large in amount. With the English 

 market open and the European armories accessible the choice 

 fell upon an American weapon, while in fixed ammunition 

 the capacity of. our Connecticut works and the quality of 

 their supply has never been questioned. 



In the course of the memorial above spoken of these points 

 are strongly urged and in addition it is shown that any claim 

 for greater economy in the making of government weapons is 

 entirely erroneous. Comparing the work . accomplished at 

 the Springfield Armory and that at any private armory it is 

 shown th»t during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, the 

 total number of rifles and carbines fabricated at the national 

 arrnory was, according to the report on the subject, 7,000 ; 

 the valuation of thearmory property that year was §7,000,000. 

 Allowing 10 per cent, as the proper rate to be charged on this 

 sum for interest, taxes, repairs, insurance, etc., all of which 

 indirectly has to be paid, it gives $700,000 to be added to the 

 cost of the arms produced ; this sum, divided by the number 

 of arms manufactured, gives $99.29 as the proportionate share 

 of each rifle in these expenses ; thus the probable cost of a 

 Springfield rifle or carbine, made in 1877, was at least $115. 

 There are private arms manufacturing companies in this 

 country that would contract to make Springfield rifles, iden- 

 tical in every particular to those made at the national armory, 

 for $15 each. 



The recommendations finally made by the memorialist are 

 that 



Firstly. There Bhall be a board for the examination of small 

 arms, small arm ammunition and accoutrements, appointed 

 by the General of the Army, subject to the approval of the 

 Secretary of War ; the said board to consist of at least five 

 officers, who have seen the most active service during the 

 greater part of the three years previous to their appointment. 

 Notice of the time and place of the meeting of the board 

 should be published in the newspapers : and manufacturers, 

 inventors and patentees should be invited to submit arms, am- 

 munition and equipments for examination. The board should 

 carefully examine the arms and munition submitted to their 



inspection. From the rifles presented they should select dif- 

 ferent patterns, to be the standard arms of the Army and mi- 

 htia. These arms should be contracted for at private armories 

 and issued to the troops. The different pystcms would induce 

 competitive trials and the superiority of one system over an- 

 other would be proved. Tbis plan of causing different pat- 

 terns ef arms to be issued should also be applied to the issuing 

 of ammunition and equipments. All the patterns of arms, 

 however, should be so constructed that the ammunition pur- 

 chased can be used interchangeably among ibem. The board 

 should fully report upon the various small arms and muni- 

 tions which they have examined, and such report should be 

 made public. 



Secondly. The law of April 23, 1808, for arming and equip- 

 ping the militia, should be carried out as its originators in- 

 tended, and the annual appropriation should be increased in 

 the same ratio that the peculation and revenue of the country 

 have increased. The difference in the cost of arms and mu- 

 nitions made in 1808 with those manufactured at the present 

 time should also be considered in deciding what shall be the 

 sum of the annual appropriation. The sum appropriated 

 should bo expended as it was formerly, in the purchase of 

 arms and munitions from private manufacturers. By doing 

 this active competition among the private armories will tend 

 to improve the quality and reduce the cost of these necessary 

 articles ; also, it will foster industries of national importance 

 and will so sustain American manufacturers of arms and mu- 

 nitions that they may compete successfully with foreign ri- 

 vals in the markets of the world. 



THE HORATIAN SPIRIT. 



In my leisure I often take up the works of the old Boman 

 poet Horace and read and study him with infinite gusto. To 

 me he is the most delightful fellow that ever lived— not even 

 excepting that prodigious fellow Shakespeare. He was a true 

 country gentleman, and if good shot-guns and pointers had 

 been known in those days I have no doubt he would have 

 been as enthusiastic a sportsman as the editor of Forest and 

 Stream himself. He gives us a hint of this in his first ode of 

 his first book : 



—Manet snb Jove frlglclo 

 Venator, lenaraj conjugis Immomor, etc. 

 That is to say, translated broadly ; " The sportsman in his 

 enthusiasm, utterly forgetful of his young wife, stays out all 

 night in the snow," etc. If we all had more of the Horatian 

 spirit it would be better for us. Let us cultivate it. The 31st 

 ode of the first book breathes all over with the Horatian spirit. 

 I have fallen so much in love with it that I make a translation 

 of it, which I inclose to Forest and Stream, though perhapB 

 not exactly in its line ■■ 



What flhaU the poet, when he builds hU shrine, 



Ast of Apollo, the divine? 



What ehall he pray for when he pours 



His first Uba! Ion and the god adores 7 



Not the best, atore Sardinia yields 



From her ever fruitful fields j 



Not for the pleasant herds that feed 



On hot Calabria's flowery mead ; 



Not for glittering heaps of gold, 



Or Ivory from India old ; 



Not even for those blest retreats, 



Whose boU the silent Slvis eatH. 



Let those by Fortune greatly blessed, 

 Of Bhowerlng vintages possessed, 

 Duly attend the gift divine, 

 And prune with crooked blade the spreading vine. 

 Let the rich merchant, from his onps of gold, 

 Quaff Falernian, choice and old, 

 Dear to the gods themselves, since he, 



Three or four times a year, 

 Sails to the Atlantic Sea, 



Swindling without fear 1 

 For me, content, a simple board is spread, 

 On olives, suocorleB, and light mallows fed. 



Son of LatoDa, hear niy prayer:— 

 Good health, 1 pray thee, be my share, 

 And spirit to enjoy, with proper zeal, 

 The goods of fortune wherewith I am blest E 

 A mind unbroken and serene, I pray, 

 Preserve to me through all my little day ; 

 And when I can no longer sound the lyre. 

 Son of Latona, let the bard expire! 



Thus the Horatian spirit is a calm and beautiful philosophy 

 which envies none and loves all j which seeks none but the 

 loftiest happiness to itself, and none but happiness to all 

 others. Let the rich merchant drink his old Falernian from 

 his cups of gold ; let every man enjoy himself as he chooses ; 

 but give me my quiet country life, my olives and my mallows, 

 my good health, a spirit to enjoy my possessions, and a mind 

 that loves intellectual thought. When this latter fails me and 

 the lyre is no longer responsive to my touch, son of Latona, 

 let me vamos I 



I have been looking over my dictionary to learn exactly 

 what Horace meant by mallows, but they have not made the 

 subject clear. Didn't he mean okras ? Certainly when served 

 hot with butter and pepper they are splendid, and very nutri- 

 tious and digestible. Benesque molvm I 



In that verse where Horace speaks of the rich merchants 

 who drink wine out of cups of gold and go three or four times 

 a year by ship to the Atlantic Sea, returning t'mpune, being 

 dear to the gods, he evidently intends a quiet thrust at both 

 the gods and the merchants. He evidently meant that the 

 merchants got their fine wine by swindling the barbarians, 

 and then appeased the wrath of the gods, on their return 

 voyage, by occasionally heaving overboard a cask of their best 

 as a present to them— having referred particularly to Keptune, 

 Castor and Pollusc, the gods of the sea. In other words, that 

 the merchants were cheats and rascals and the godB no better 

 than they, inasmuch as they would wink at rascality and let 

 the rascals go unwhipt— impune, through influence of a 

 bribe ; that is, an occasional cask of wine heaved over to them. 

 Truly they had a jolly old set of goda in those days. Horace 



