56 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



NATIONAL SPORTSMEN'S CONVENTION 



A VV.kiij-L.LY JOURNAL, 



Devoted to Field and Aquatic Spouts, Practical Natukal Histobt, 

 j? ish culture, the Protection of Game, Preservation of Forests, 

 aitd the Inculcation in Men and Women of a healthy interest 

 in Out-door Recreation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BT 



PKOCEEDING8 AT CHICAGO. 



17 CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK, 



[Post Office Box 2832.] 



— — — <» ■ 



Tefmg, Four Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 



4 



Twenty-five per cent, off for Clubs of Three or more 



Advertising Rates. 



In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the inch, 25 

 oente per line. Advertisements on outside page, 40 cents per line. Reading 

 notices, 50 cents per line. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 

 month, a discount, of 10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 

 per cent.: over six months, 30 per cent. 



MtiW'YORK, THUKSDAS, AUGUST 31, 1876. 



To Correspondents. 



All communications whatever, whether relating to ousiness or literary 

 correspondence, must be addressed 'to The Forest and Stream Pub- 

 lishing Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 

 real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 

 Objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regaraed. 



Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 

 notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 

 men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 

 And our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 

 tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and 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 the dereliction of the mail service, if 

 money remitted to us is lost. 



Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 

 CHARLES 11ALLOCK, 



Editor and Business Manager. 



CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE- COM- 

 ING WEEK. 



Thursday, August 31.— Trotting: Pongbkeepsie, N. Y.; Massilon 

 Ohio; Rock Island, 111. Racing: Point Breeze Park, Philadelphia. 

 Base Ball: Orange vs. Nassau of Brooklyn, at Orange, N. J.; Browns 

 vs. Stars, at Syracuse. 



Friday, September 1.— Trotting: Hartford Conn.; Massilon, Ohio; 

 Rock Island. 111. Racing: Point Breeze Park, Philadelphia. Base Ball: 

 Cricket vs Boston, at Binghampton, N. Y.; Chicago vs. Stars, at Syra- 

 use. Rifle: Australian trials at Creedmoor. 



Saturday, September 2.— Regatta Beverly Yacht Club, at Swamp, 

 scott, Mass. Trotting: Rock Itland, 111, Base Ball: Haymakers vs. 

 Boston, at Lancingburgh, N. Y.; Osce»la vs. Staten It-land. atProBtpect 

 Park; Contest vs. Orchards, ef Greenpoint, at Prospect Park. Rifle; 

 Australians at Creedmoor. 



Monday, September 4.— International Convention of Archaeologists 

 at Philadelphia. International Bench Show of dogs at Philadelphia. 

 Trotting: Dubuque, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa. Rifle: Australians at 

 Creedmoor. 



Tuesday, September 5.— "Nineteenth annual meeting National Rifle 

 Club at Springfield, Mass. Central New York Fair at TJtica. N. Y. 

 Racing as above, and at Penn Yann, N. Y., Springfield Mass.; Me- 

 Comb. 111., and at Montgomery City, Mo. 



Wednesday, September 6.— Meeting National Rifle Club as above. 

 Central New York fair as above. Racing as above, and at Westchester 

 Pa. 

 ii 



BEIT" The subscription price of Forest and Stream has 

 been reduced to $4. Twenty-five per cent, off for Clubs 

 of Three or more. 



Centennial Regatta At Philadelphia. — Our reports 

 of the International Ragattas at Philadelphia are prepared 

 by Mr. J. Gillingham, Secretary of the International Re- 

 gatta Committee, and will be found correct. 



— There are 10,000 forest and field fires burning at pres- 

 ent in different parts of the country, and all the Forest 

 Preserving Associations that can be formed will not avail 

 to extinguish them unless rain comes. Dozens can be seen 

 at one time from any given mountain peak, and the destruc- 

 tion to dwellings, barns, and fields, as well as forests is al- 

 ready very great. 



— A Lake George correspondent speaks of the gorgeous 

 spectacle afforded nightly to visitors there, the mountains 

 on the eastern shore having been one mass of fire for sev- 

 eral days. Every evening the lake is dotted with boats 

 filled with visitors from the different hotels, gazing on the 

 entrancing display. All the hotels at the lake are well 

 filled— the Mohican, the Wilson, Bay View, Fourteen-Mile 

 Island, the Hundred Island House s etc. 



The Convention organized on Tuesday, at Grand Pacific 

 Hotel, Delegates present from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, 

 New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylva- 

 nia and Tennessee. President J. V. Le Moyne delivered 

 an address as follows: 



* * I think our efforts will command more respect and 

 attention when it is known that they are unselfish, that we 

 strive to secure, not to ourselves, but to the whole people, 

 and especially to those who come after us, what we believe 

 to be a great blessing, One of our chief designs is to urge 

 and demonstrate the importance of the preservation of the 

 game, as a means of national education. 



Every intelligent person will admit that whatever con- 

 duces to make a strong, stalwart, active, manly race, is of 

 the first importance to us, individually and as a nation. 

 Heretofore the condition of our country has made the 

 needed demand. The efforts necessary to conquer a new 

 country, to drive back the Indians, hew down the forests 

 and to overcome all the difficulties which surround the 

 frontiersman, have furnished the necessary stimulus, but 

 now our people are crowding into large cities and manu- 

 facturing towns, and the physical struggle is being super- 

 ceded by mental strife — health and strength are being sacri- 

 ficed to secure wealth and position. We need some influ- 

 ence to maintain the balance, and the pursuit of game has 

 in all ages of the world supplied this great need of hu- 

 manity. *#**•#•**-### 



The real object of our present work is not so much to 

 preserve the game for our own benefit — we can still find 

 it — but its preservation has been wrongly neglected, and 

 in this, as in many other important reforms, the present 

 generation seeks to make amends to the future lor the neg- 

 ligence of the past. 



An earnest effort is now demanded or it will be too late; 

 few persons who have not been interested observers would 

 believe how rapidly the game is being swept away. We 

 have a great many difficulties to encounter. We are op- 

 posed by the ignorance of the many, who have no con- 

 ceptive view of the value of this blessing, and by the 

 cupidity of the few who can only consider a petty present 

 profit to themselves, and who seem in their selfishness 

 indifferent, whether by killing the game out of season or 

 by wholesale slaughter, the very seed is destroyed. 



It seems strange that the legislatures of the Western 

 States have never considered the value of game simply as a 

 source of income which deserves their care. The game 

 laws have all been passed at the solicitation of the sports- 

 men, and where not opposed, are at least treated with in- 

 difference by men who claim to be too practical for such 

 weakness. I have heard legislators say that they did not 

 shoot and did not care for the game, etc. In England and 

 Scotland very large sums are realized from the game, and 

 in Canada large sums are paid for the privilege of fishing; 

 but here, although no charge is made for shooting on the 

 land of any one, the States which abound in game realize 

 a very handsome income from it. Take Iowa as an ex- 

 ample. She has her spring duck shooting and snipe- 

 woodcock in July, grouse, quail and ducks in August, Sep- 

 tember, October, November and December. 1 think it is 

 a low estimato to say that she has a season of 175 days; for 

 that reason it is safe to say, that scattered over the whole 

 of that State there are not less than five hundred men from 

 other States shooting there during the season. (I have 

 made this estimate after consultation with a number of 

 persons connected with railroads, and who know.) Each 

 man will spend there — including his board, hire of teams, 

 boats, men, boys, etc., etc. — not less than $5 per day. 

 This will give a total of $187,500, brought into Iowa every 

 year by non-residents. But this is not by any means all the 

 contribution. Many of the visitors get interested in locali- 

 ties — see a piece of land for sale —either get some Eastern 

 friend to buy and settle on it, or buy it themselves and 

 throw away some money on it, or they lend some needy 

 farmer the money to improve his stock, etc. Many a dollar 

 is left in Iowa in some of these ways. But take the amount 

 already computed— $187,500— capitalize it, say at 5 per 

 cent., (and this is as high a rate as the land will pay clear 

 of all taxes, etc.,) and you have the game of Iowa consti- 

 tuting an interest of $3,750. This would seem worth 

 some little attention, even from the average legislator. 



In 1870, Iowa had about six hundred thousand head of 

 sheep, I believe, as a source of income, and treated only as 

 wealth. Her game was worth more than twice as much as 

 all her sheep; her farmers would not allow the sheep 

 interest to be slighted. Some of our newspapers keep 

 harping upon our uuty to conciliate, and make the farmeis 

 our friends— perhaps the writers themselves do this, per- 

 haps they know some certain plan for capturing the gentle 

 granger— if so, they should give us the prescription. The 

 farmers are just like the rest of us, they are indifferent to 

 what they do not think is of interest to them, and the only 

 way we can influence them is by educating them. Of all 

 men, the tarmer has the most interest in preserving game, 

 and all insectivorous birds — they are his friends. Pro- 

 lessor Riley, the State entomologist of Missouri, estimates 

 that one grouse will, in one season, consume the eggs and 

 larvae of locusts enough, if hatched out, to destroy one 

 hundred acres of crops. It must be a difficult matter to 

 estimate the number of insecls— the little birds searching 

 the ground over every day the year through— will consume, 

 and one such visitation — as some portions of the West had 

 from the grasshoppers — would seem sufficient to teach the 

 very ignorant that, when the regulations of nature are 

 interfered with, the guards she has furnished are destroyed, 

 the penalty is certain to follow. 



There is, undoubtedly, a certain degree of prejudice 

 against legislation on the subject of game. I presume the 

 reason of this is that in a state of nature there is no right 

 of property in wild animals, and they are the common 

 property of all, and for that reason not proper subjects of 

 legislation; or it may be considered that this object is be- 

 neath the dignity of the legislator — as an object of mere 

 amusement— certainly it has always been difficult to get 

 the attention of law-makers. 



This prejudice cannot be derived from our English an- 

 cestry for they have had game laws from time immemorial, 

 and although some of the laws were made to repress and 

 keep down a hardy race inclined to rebellion, and to dis- 

 courage the use of arms, yet at a very early day laws were 

 made to preserve the game. ****** 



Our first great object is to arouse sufficient interest in 



this matter to make proper legislation possible, when we 



shall have so far succeeded in our missionary effort the 



question that presents itself is, what is the best form of 



legislation. My experience is that we can only succeed by 



punishing those who have the game in possession. Of 



course all game laws will prohibit the killing, but I have 



never } r et known a case tried which did not wholly depend 



upon the proof of possession of the game, if I was 



obliged to choose between a prohibition against the killing 



or against the selling of game out of season, I would 



greatly prefer the latter; where one bird is killed by a man 



for his own use 100 are killed for sale. They are killed in 



out of the way places where detection and prosecution are 



j impossible; they are sold principally in large towns and 



I public places. No law will ever be worth enforcing which 



j does not provide for the punishment of all persons who 



I have game in possession ©ut of season, no matter when 



{ where or how killed. 



The man who buys or sells game out of season must be 

 J held responsible as are those who sell stolen good3. Con- 

 j siderable controversy has arisen about the right to sell 

 L game in one State which had been killed in another State— 

 j not in violation of the law — and this defence has been 

 \ greatly insisted upon. Each State must have the power to 

 regulate the sale of any description of food, or indeed of 

 any property, in its own markets; and it can be no defence 

 in a prosecution for violating the law of one State that the 

 act complained of was made legal by the law of some other 

 State— or that the property while it remained within the 

 confines of the other State might legally be sold and used. 

 If this is not correct, then the officers of one State must 

 administer the %ws of other States from which they have 

 no authority. Prosecutions for violation of the game law 

 are usually tried before a justice of the peace. If the 

 question of guilt is to be affected in the laws of other 

 States, when the game may have been killed— the justice 

 must understand and be able to administer the laws of all 

 the surrounding States. This construction must not only 

 be a rather unreasonable demand upon the legal resources 

 of a justice of the peace, but it makes the laws of one 

 State subordinate to those of other States. This position 

 is not tenable, and the law of any State regulating the 

 possession or sale of game is either valid or void under the 

 constitution of that State, and wholly irrespective of the 

 law of any other State. 



But the man who kills the game or fish out of season, 

 and the man who sells them, are not the only criminals. 

 There is another, and he is scarcely ever reached; he is 

 the one who furnishes the inducement to the criminality; 

 who, either to gratify a low appetite, or a snobbish ambi- 

 tion for display, will pay a high price for game or fish out 

 of season; he has been called "the wealthy gourmandizer." 

 We must spread the information as to the unfitness andun- 

 healthfulness of game and fish out of season, and people 

 should know how unwilling the real epicure would be to 

 use it, and how much of ignorance as well as bad taste is 

 displayed by seeking it. By informing public opinion, its 

 condemnation will be a great corrective. The most im- 

 portant object that we can accomplish is to excite public 

 interest and extend public information. 



Allow me to suggest that the usefulness of our game pro- 

 tective associations are being seriously interfered with by 

 the trap shooting. I have no word to say of objection or 

 condemnation of this amusement, or the men who pay so 

 much attention to it. But I do object to the association of 

 game protection and trap shooting. I do object to the 

 game protective associations being used to arrange shoot- 

 ing matches — for the reason that a great many of the sports- 

 men who are interested in the preservation of gunie, are 

 not interested in trap shooting, and they are beginning to 

 suspect that the chief object of these associations is trap 

 shooting, and they take no interest in them, and we are 

 thus losing this element of strength — which I think it im- 

 portant we should secure. 



I say this with considerable hesitation, and only because 

 I think it ought to be considered. 1 have heard friends say 

 that they took no interest in our State Association, because 

 it seemed to be an arrangement for pigeon shooting— game 

 protection being a secondary consideration. I trust this 

 association may not have to encounter any such prejudice 

 — we cannot afford to lose the support of any of tbesports- 

 meu— certainly not of those who have this correct apprecia- 

 tion of our object. Our friends who are given to this 

 amusement, I know, would not desire it, and we should 

 not allow the erroneous impression to be given or con- 

 tinued — that this association has anything whatever to do 

 with trap shooting. 



A great deal has been said about *\e importance of se- 

 curing uniformity in the laws of different States. We hope 

 that as this association brings together the representatives 

 from different States, we may be able to agree upon an 

 effort; but my experience is that it is difficult to get any 

 legislation at all, not absolutely unfriendly to us. Frank 

 Forester said this trouble all came from ignorance, and 1 

 concur. The game laws of any State might be a fair indi- 

 cation of the average intelligence of its legislature— and 

 until you can secure equal intelligence and honesty of pur- 

 pose in all the legislatures, I douht if you can secure uni- 

 formity of legislation on any subject. Of course time and 

 education will remove our troubles, but will it be removed 

 before the game is game? We can only make an earnest 

 effort to demonstrate now the importance of one object 

 and the great blessing which may be secured to our whole 

 people. We have every reason to be hopeful. 



<fr«<>. 



Camp Lounges.— The Camp Lounge Company, which 

 have advertised extensively in Forest and Stream and 

 other papers, have presented to this office two lounges 

 which may be said to be really luxurious. They are very 

 compact, light to carry, and are folded away in a morocco 

 case, which itself constitutes a pillow when the affair is 

 placed in position for use. It takes but a minute to do 

 this, and the tired voyager is more than compensated for 

 his trouble in carrying it by being kept clear of thiDgs 

 that creep upon the ground, the dew, or even the rivulets 

 that may chance to flood one's resting-place after a shower. 

 There is a frame to hold a mosquito bar— so that, taken all 

 in all, the Camp Lounge is a decided improvement upon 

 the old bed of balsam boughs, with all its fragrance, which 

 poets like to sing of when they have not lain out all night 

 in the wet and got sap in their eye from the limb that pro- 

 jected over their heads. In the day time it serves its pur- 

 pose equally well. 



