A WBEKLY JOURNAL., 



Dbvotbd to Field and aquatic Spokts, Practical Natural hibtukt, 



fish culture, the protection of ijah.k, pljeserv vrton ok kokkhtb, 



and thk Inculcation in Men and Women op * lifiiTnv Interest 



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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 1879. 



To Correspondents. 



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CALENDAR FOR THE "WEEK. 



Friday, April 25.— Philadelphia Kennel Club Bench Show, Phila. 

 Saturday, April 26.— Base Ball: Yale vs. Holjoke, at HolyoKe, Mass.; 

 Albany vs. Capitol City, at Albany, N. Y. 



That"Doointhb Mangeb." — Some persons seem to have 

 misapprehended the tenor or intent of an editorial allusion in 

 the last issue of this paper. The " Dog in the Manger" is 

 only a proverbial dog of ill repute, and our reference thereto 

 was purely metaphorical, intended to apply in a general way 

 to that class of chronic grumblers and envious persons who 

 take pleasure in dissensions, and delight in creating them ; 

 to those, in fact, who grudge to others what they cannot ob- 

 tain and secure for themselves. 



How to Load fob Game.— In the Rifle Department of our 

 last issue of the Forest amd Stream one of our most intelli- 

 gent and experienced mountain men gave our readers an in- 

 structive article on arms and ammunition for large game— re- 

 ferring of course to the use of the Rifle In our Gun Depart- 

 ment also two well known sportsmen kindly gave their ideas 

 as to the proper weapons and loads to use for divers kindB of 

 birds and small animals. Not the least interesting feature of 

 their expression was their very wide difference of opinion. 



Now, gentlemen readers who know it all, here is an oppor- 

 tunity to ventilate your private views and experiences. Let 

 us hear from rb many of you as will, what you have to say on 

 this subject. It is a problem long studied, and well worthy 

 of a full and accurate solution. The instruction which you 

 jointly and severally may be able to impart will mucli benefit 

 the fraternity of sportsmen. What is really needed is a formula 

 or key by which the novice may utilize the knowledge which 

 the expert haB acquired by repeated crucial experiments. 

 Mechauical ingenuity has devised measures for powder and 

 lead which secure uniformity of charges, and manufacturers 

 have Rpplied them to fixed ammunition, so that nice calcula- 

 tions as to weights and quantities are rendered unnecessary. 

 The next advance is to secure a differential scale by which to 

 apply designated charges to varying distances and the kinds 

 of game to be shot. Sizes of pellets are indicated by numbers. 

 What we desire especially to know is the effective power of 

 these respective sizes at long or shorter ranges, contingent 

 upon the leDgth and calibre of barrel and the amount of choke. 

 The published results of experimental tests will enable us to 

 decide. Gentlemen ; the question is open for discussion. 



THE AMERICAN YACHT FLEET. 



STATISTICS relating to the earlier days of yachting in 

 America are exceedingly meagre and difficult to get at. 

 Even at the present time, owing to the want of a central or- 

 ganization, such as the National Association of Amateur 

 Oarsmen is to the rowing public, the National Association to 

 the turf, or the International to the game of base ball, statis- 

 tics and accurate information of any kind are still in a more 

 or less chaotic condition. The various systems of measure- 

 ment of different clubs preclude a close estimate of tonnage, 

 the vagueness of the definition of " depth" being especially 

 troublesome in this respect. The class and character of the 

 hosts are too often left in doubt to any one not acquainted 

 with them Individually. When we arrive at that stage of de- 

 velopment which will justify, if not necessitate, the estab- 

 lishment of some central association, with ample powers dele- 

 gated from the leading clubs, such as the Yacht Racing 

 Association of Great Britain, we will no doubt have less com- 

 plaint to make about the irregularities and want of harmony 

 among the many clubs now scattered along the coasts and 

 upon the G reat Lakes. If the advance of yachting in the 

 future keeps pace with that of the decade just passed, another 

 ten or fifteen years will actually see us surpass the British 

 fleet in numbers, though it will be a iong while yet before we 

 can out-ton the average of their vessels. With almost every 

 club book published at our command, end a multitude of 

 material to draw upon, the following may be taken as a pretty 

 close approximation to the truth, and will serve to show the 

 great strides sailing has made among the masses in spite of 

 maritime decay and long years of commercial depression. 

 At the close of the war, 1805, there were ten organized clubs in 

 America with hardly 800 members. In 1879 we find one 

 hundred organized clubs with a membership of over 7,500, 

 and a number of new clubs in process of formation. The 

 American fleet at the opening of the year consisted of 150 

 schooners, average fifty two tons ; 308 sloops, average four- 

 teen tons j forty steamers, average thirty five tons ; six yawls, 

 average twenty tons ; and ten cutters, average twenty five 

 tons. For the purposes of comparison it may be interesting to 

 turn to our issue of December 26, 1878 where similar figures 

 will be found concerning the British yacht fleet. The general 

 average tonnage of the latter runs up as high as forty seven, 

 that of our fleet about twenty seven tons. We have besides 

 about 300 " open boats" rigged as cats and jib-and mainsails, 

 the above figures including only cabin yachts. There are 

 also a dozen nondescripts and catamarans, which may be 

 classed with the open boats. 



THE ASSASSIN'S UNCERTAIN AIM. 



A CURIOUS study in the doctrine of chances is afforded 

 in the immunity of sovereigns who are subjected to the 

 deliberate and repeated assault of the conspirator's weapon. 

 The aim of the assassin, whether with dagger-thruBt or pistol 

 ball, is a noticeably uncertain one. The records of shots at 

 royalty contain a preponderance of those misses which rifle- 

 men are accustomed to term "unaccountables." The loDg 

 list of names whose owners have won for themselves lasting 

 veneration or obloquy by the assassination of rulers is far out- 

 numbered by another list of would-be assassins whose designs 

 some trivial circumstance, or an unnerved aim has frustrated. 



While Czar Alexander II was taking his customary morning 

 walk in St. Petersburg the other morning a Nihilist assailant 

 approaches within a few feet of the sovereign, takes deliberate 

 aim, and fires four shots at him. Wonderful to relate, the 

 Emperor remains uninjured. And this is his third apparently 

 miraculous escape from death ! Within a twelvemonth other 

 attempts, alike futile, have been made upon King William of 

 Germany, King Alphonso of Spain and King Humbert of 

 Italy. With the exception of the wounds sustained by King 

 William these sovereigns escaped untouched. Still more re- 

 markable are the statistics of the last three decades. During 

 this period there have been more than thirty attempted assassi- 

 nations of rulers, of which only seven, or less than one-fourth, 

 have been successful. If any men do lead charmed lives we 

 may accord the distinction to sovereigns. Now, whence this 

 immunity ? Is it a gift of the gods ? Is it inherent in roy- 

 alty ? Before such feats of forefending bullet shots and sabre 

 strokes, the sleight-of-hand and powder tricks of Blitz and 

 Heller pale their fires, and the shades of the defunct magi- 

 cians step to the rear abashed. 



Invulnerability to the onslaught of foes has ever been a fa- 

 vorite attribute of the heroes of myth and romance. Achilles, 

 dipped by his mother Thetis in the magic waters of the Styx, 

 withstood unharmed the weapons of gods and men. Troubled 

 by ill omens Frigga exacted from all created things a promise 

 not to harm her son Baldur the Beautiful, the most beloved 

 of the. girls of Odin's race ; and the great, bluff, good-natured 

 deities of the Norseman used to amuse themselves by hurling 

 their huge war maces at Baldur as a target. Among all na- 

 tions that have left us a literature we find recurring, in one 

 form or another, this idea of immunity from the laws and pen- 

 alties of natural forces, the dream of a mortal clothed with the 

 fate-forefendmg attributes of an immortal. 



In these latter times we are more logical. We reject the 

 supernatural, and attribute miraculous effects to natural causes. 

 The Czar, to be sure, in his speech last week gave his very 

 simple explanation of those four straying shots when he said, 

 " This is the third time God has saved me." For an emperor 

 who wears his crown by divine right and for the people who 



are his subjects, also by divine right, nothing could be more 

 natural than this notion of a divine interposition to unnerve 

 the arm of the would-be regicide, or to turn aside the deadly bul- 

 let in its flight. This Deus ez macMna, system is both convenient 

 and edifying, and eminently adapted to suit the ends of roy- 

 alty. It satisfies the Emperor if it does not the Nihilists. But 

 scientific reasoners and non-believers in the Dei gratia claims 

 of royalty may assign more prosaic reasons why a marksman 

 shooting at royalty should miss his mark. For instance, may 

 not these "unaccountables," as they are termed in target 

 practice, which sovereigns so readily ascribe to Providential 

 interference be directly attributable to the flualration of the 

 marksmen, or to what our simple backwoodsmen would term 

 aggravated " buck fever ?" It takes a wonderfully cool head 

 and steady hand to shoot with any exactness under the tre- 

 mendous excitement which must possess a regicide in the 

 supreme moment of his crime. It is not enough to he a won- 

 derful marksmen under ordinary conditions, the demand upon 

 the whole mental and nervous organization of the man en- 

 gaged in such an undertaking is so extraordinary that it ef- 

 fectually nullifies all things else. There is no necessity for 

 otherwise seeking to account for the wild shots of fanatics 

 and socialistic reformers. It is perfectly in accordance with 

 natural laws that the most skillful cxpertness under ordinary 

 conditions should go for naught when brought to such a test. 

 Had the mythical Tell had occasion to use the arrow reserved 

 for Gessler, the chances would have been overwhelmiugly in 

 favor of that tyrant's safety. 



A HORSE-BACK HOMILY. 



IN our Kennel columns to-day will be found a sketch of 

 North Carolina fox hunting, over the familiar sigcature 

 of " T. G. T." Few persons who have read these spiriled 

 papers contributed from time to time to the Forest asd 

 Stream would imagine that they were written by a septu 

 agenarian ; and we trust that our esteemed correspondent, Mr. 

 Thos. Goode Tucker, of Gaston, North Carolina, will not 

 deem it an unwarrantable editorial license when we inform 

 our readers (as he himself tells us in a private note) that he 

 last week celebrated his seventy-seoond birthday. This is an 

 instance of hale old manhood and well preserved physical 

 vigor well worthy of note. " The days of our years are three- 

 score years and ten, and if by reason of Btreugth they be four- 

 score years, yet," the Hebrew leader asserts, " is their strength 

 labor and sorrow." But here is a mau who, having passed be- 

 yond the allotted threescore years and ten, thinks nothing of 

 being in the saddle before daybreak ; who follows the music 

 of the hounds from sunrise to sunset, and into the night if 

 necessary ; who tires out his relays of horses, and, while 

 younger comrades of the chase have fallen into the rear, rarely 

 owns up to fatigue himself. We confess that His not so much 

 the result as the cause at which we marvel, when our corres- 

 pondent further adds that at the time of writing after a two 

 days' hunt he was confined to the house with a resultant at- 

 tack essentially like that which disabled " Pious Jeems" (Col. 

 Gordon, of Mississippi), some years ago. After a ten-days' 

 rough-and-tumble in the saddle ' ' Pious Jeems" found himself 

 on crutches for three years, until at last falling into a personal 

 encounter with an old enemy, he excitedly flung the sticks 

 away and never after found any use for them. Truly an 

 enemy in need is a friend indeed. 



We can heartily sympathize with the hero of a thousand 

 hunts, shut up in the house and thinking about ■ ; that old red" 

 he saw on his way home the other day and planned taking his 

 brush. A man may be ailing all his life and yet be in a way 

 contented ; but one who has had seventy odd years of health 

 does not immediately accept bodily inactivity with good temper. 

 When the physicians, in Wilkie Collins' " Shocking Story,'' 

 warned the old general, " at his age and keeping in mind his 

 weakened leg, to ride no more restive horses, but get a quiet 

 cob," the old man, sorely mortified and offended, testily re- 

 plied : " If 1 am fit for nothing but a quiet cob I will ride no 

 more." And he kept his word ; no one ever saw the general 

 on hoiBeback again. 



It were a pleasing speculation to conjecture what an inex- 

 haustible fund of sporting reminiscences such a long exper- 

 ience with men and things and a devotion to exhilarating 

 sport must have stored up in one's memory. The typical 

 Southern sportsman of the old school is a man deeply versed 

 in woodland lore; who has a rare knowledge of all that pertains 

 to the horse, the dog and the gun, possesses a wide acquaint- 

 ance with men of kindred tastes, and unites, with a keen ap- 

 preciation of what is worthy of remembrance, the rare faculty 

 of drawing from the past such stories— numerous, stirring 

 and pathetic— as were never written in books. Who that has 

 gathered with the huntsmen around the great open fire-place, 

 or has stretched himself before the camp-fire in the soft South- 

 ern night, to listen hour after hour as story follows story, 

 reminiscence recalls reminiscence, and the scenes of other 

 days are depicted clear and vivid in the flickering glow of the 

 pine-knots, has not felt at least a momentary regret that these 

 memories must be lost with their recalling, and the pictures 

 must fade with the uncertain reflection of the fire-light upon 

 the forest trees. And yet the charm is much in the telling. 

 Spoken words, when accompanied with all the subtle influ- 

 ences of the hearer's mood, the rapport of the surroundings 

 and the personality of the speaker, possess a strange fascina- 

 tion which the printed page fails to preserve. 



There is much prating about the fraternal feelings of spoi ts- 

 men, and much of it is hollow cant, best unsaid. That there 

 may in truth exist such a sentiment, and that its kindly in- 



