334 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 27, 1880. 



a weekly journal, 



Devoted to Fnra> and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natt/rai. 



HISTORY, FD3H CrjI/TURE, THE PROTECTION OF GAME, PltES«RYA- 



tjoh of Forests, and the Inciiloatiok in Mxn and W ome n or 

 A Healthy Interest in Oct-Door Recreation and Study t 



PUBLISHED BY 



FOKEST AND STBEAM PUBLISHING COMPANY. 



NOS. 39 AND 40 PARK ROW (TIME8 BUILDING), NBW YORK 

 [Post Officii Bo* £832.1 



TEEMS, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR, STRICTLY IN ADVANCE. 



Advertising Bate*. 



Inside pages, nonpariel type, 25 cents per line ; outside page, #) 

 cents. Special ratss for three, six and twelve months. Nonces in 

 ■editorial column, DO cents per line— eight words to the Une,and 

 twelve lines to one inch. 



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No advertisement or business notice of an Immoral charaoter 

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brief editorial i iflci illingal ii n thereto.andsendiugmarked 

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



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY' 27, 1880. 



To Correspondents. 



All communications whatever, intended forpublleatlon, most »>© 

 leeompanled with real name of the writer as aguarantyof good 

 faith and be addressed to FOREST akd stream Publishing Com- 

 pany. Names will not be pi ronbemade. Anony. 

 mous communications will not be regarded. 



We ennot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us wtlh 

 brief notes of their movements and transactions. 



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 may not be read with propriety in the homo circle. 

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^* Trade supplied by American News Company. 



Advertisements.— All advertisements should reach us 

 an or before Tuesday morning of each week. An ob- 

 servance of this rule will insure satisfaction to all con- 

 cerned. 



TlIE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE AND READING ROOM.— 



vVe announce with pleasure that there will shortly be 

 opened in Madison Square, in this city, an institution 

 destined to occupy a field of great and permanent useful- 

 ness. We refer to the International Exchange and Read- 

 ing Room, projected by Mr. C. A. O'Rourke, proprietor 

 of the New York City Press Association. The new enter- 

 prise is broad and varied in its scope, but its objects are 

 defined with unmistakable clearness, and the executive 

 ability and thorough experience of its projector give as- 

 surances that every feature of the new institution will 

 be put in perfect working order. In the Exchange, which 

 will be open from 8 a.m. till midnight, will be found all 

 the leading journals of the principal cities of the globe. 

 This feature will probably be more complete than in any 

 reading room in the world, for the latest issues receivable 

 by mail will always be at hand. Not only newspapers, 

 but the leading reviews and magazines and the latest 

 publications dealing with business interests of all kinds 

 will be found at the Exchange. Current general news of 

 the day, stock, mining and produce quotations will be re- 

 ceived there by telegraph, and promptly bulletined. Par- 

 ties desiring to speculate, and at the same time avoid the 

 turmoil of Wall street, can do so by special wires through 

 responsible brokers. The arrival off Sandy Hook of all 

 incoming steamers will be announced at the Exchange, 

 Railroad, ocean steamer and steamboat directions for 

 travelers will be furnished, and tickets sold at regular 

 rates. Not only subscribers resident in this country, but 

 travelers from all parts of the globe will find in the new 

 institution facilities hitherto unattainable in New York. 

 An agent of the Exchange will go on board all incoming 

 steamers. Guides and interpreters will be furnished to 

 travelers. In brief, the Exchange and Reading Room 

 will be an important and valuable feature among the 

 institutions of New York. The business men of the 

 metropolis have been quick to show their appreciation of 

 this fact, for the success of the new enterprise has been 

 assured even on a Metropolitan clientage. 



M I ■ 



—The twenty-third annual shooting festival of the 

 New York Schuetzen Corps, Capt. George Aery, will be 

 held at Union Hill, June 7th, 8th, and 9th. The society 

 always offers its guests a superior entertainment. The 

 annual shooting tournament is one of tliernost important 

 events in the metropolis, 



THE TEAM SELECTION. 



THE Board of Directors are making a pretty kettle of 

 fish out of the selection of the team to go to Ire- 

 land, and a great deal of dissatisfaction has grown up in 

 consequence. Never was a simpler problem presented to 

 the Board ; but the same blundering policy which has 

 made Creedmoor a continuous and expensive subsistence 

 on State pap, and left it to-day more helpless and with 

 less prospect of being self-supporting than it was five 

 years ago, cropped out in the choice of the team ; and as 

 a result there goes— if go it does — a team to Ireland coin- 

 posed of men whom accident has given an elevation 

 which a sober second thought docs not approve. 



The circular issued with such great to do on the 20th 

 ult. has proven to be but a snare and a delusion, and has 

 not been lived up to except in the most airy fashion. 

 The result is that a gentleman representing one of the 

 most influential clubs of the rifle shooting world, and 

 who in his private capacity gave the first medal ever 

 offered in a match at Creedmoor, receives a rebuff, which 

 he very properly resents by declaring himself free from 

 the entire crew of gun agents who go to represent 

 America in Europe, and of the blunderers who manage 

 them. A bit of brief history will explain. The circular, 

 as published in Forest and Stream April 22d last— and 

 which issue, by the way, represented the circular as it 

 was passed by the Board, before the fingers of the med- 

 dlers were seen in amendments for their own purposes — 

 provided that any club could send such representatives 

 as were proper to go on the team and were acceptable to 

 the committee. Dr. Clark was so selected by the Empire 

 Rifle Club without competition. Dr. S. I. Scott, of Wash- 

 ington, went through a brilliant series of contests, and 

 won the honor of representing the Columbia Rifle Asso- 

 ciation. Capt, L, C. Bruce was selected as the represent- 

 ative of the Amateur Rifle Club, of New York, in a com- 

 petition of two days' duration, where he defeated such 

 marksmen as Jackson, Farrow and Fisher. The Amateur 

 Club were prepared to furnish the financial backing to 

 Capt. Bruce, and he himself had contributed handsomely. 

 These three gentlemen — Clark, Scott and Bruce — were 

 the only representatives of clubs selected for the team. 



The Massachusetts Rifle Association made a great 

 pother at first ; but, with a ready excuse to cover up 

 their retreat, saw with Yankee shrewdness a readier way 

 of getting on to the team. Then came the selection of 

 three men at large from the National RiHe Association. 

 The best three in four scores were to count ; but only 

 two scores were made by Messrs. Farrow, Fisher and 

 Rathbone, and by some hocus pocus they reported as the 

 choice of the N. R. A., on Tuesday, the 18th, when club 

 men were expected to be present. Then, having been 

 defeated in the Amateur Club, and again in the open con- 

 test of the N. R. A., Capt. Jackson appears as a free 

 lance. He, with associate marksmen from the Hub, 

 were not the representatives of the Massachusetts RiHe 

 Association, for that fact they were very positive in as- 

 serting. They surely had not won any right to recogni- 

 tion according to the circular, and with only three right- 

 ful claimants to places on the team, or six, if the quasi 

 rigbtB of the N. R. A. representatives were to be regarded, 

 it was the duty of the Board of Directors to fill the place 

 vacant. In place of this, there was a three days' noisy 

 shoot at Creedmoor. Capt. Bruce, with important busi- 

 ness interests in town, and with a positive assurance that 

 his rights were to be protected, did not appear to shoot 

 beside men whom he had already defeated. Some bril- 

 liant shooting was done, with some fortunate days to do 

 it on, and then, with the friskiness of a young colt, Capt. 

 Bodine seemed to go back on his title of " Old Reliable," 

 and in a sort of star chamber proceeding at Creedmoor 

 a team was made up ; a scurry was made by its members 

 to get their names attached to a paper in which they 

 promised to go to Ireland— they thinking, perhaps, that 

 the paper would carry some weight in case of trouble. 

 The rights of Capt, Bruce were quietly overlooked in the 

 grab game of that Friday evening at Creedmoor, and the 

 next morning's papers made public the insult which had 

 been flung at Capt. Bruce, and through him at the club 

 which in 1873 accepted the challenge of the Irish rifle- 

 men, and brought about pretty much all there is of long- 

 range shooting in America. 



Then came the confession of the blunder in the clumsy 

 attempts to patch up the trouble, and in a meeting called 

 on Tuesday afternoon last, after hatching in star chamber 

 confab for some hours the following : — 



Whereas, In accordance with the condition of the 

 circular of April 20th, issued by this Association " to the 

 riflemen of America," asking their cooperation in getting 

 up a team to shoot a return match in Ireland ne^f month, 

 Col. John Bodine has been appointed captain, and Messrs. 

 Brown, Scott, Clark, Farrow, Rathbone, Fisher and 

 Jackson have justly earned their several positions as 

 members of the team and one reserve ; and 



Whereas, Unforeseen circumstances have prevented 

 several of the best marksmen from complying with the 

 requirements for positions upon the team ; and 



Whereas, By the conditions of said circular more than 

 one reserve can be appointed to accompany said team ; 

 therefore 



Resolved, That Messrs. Bruce and Rockwell be added 

 to the number to compose said team and reserve. 



This tissue of prevarication did not help the broil, into 



which the selection had drifted, in the least. Capt, Bruce, 

 when the sop was presented to him, promptly and prop- 

 erly rejected it. He had won a place on the team, and 

 did not need any apologetic resolutions to give him his 

 own. Mr. Rockwell had distinctly said that he could not 

 go over, and therefore seemed a (it blank to keep Capt. 

 Bruce company on the fag end of the resolution . 

 The representatives of the Amateur Club had acted 

 from the start in a manner entirely in accordance with 

 the spirit which should govern the selection of a body of 

 experts to represent American riflemen. His absence is 

 a real loss to the team, for while it is pretty certain to 

 win in any case, it is difficult to get up enthusiasm over 

 a group of marksmen where at any moment the drummer 

 instinct may break out, and a price list switched from 

 the pocket be thrust in the face of our host on the other 

 side. 



It was a stinging commentary on this chapter of team 

 selection when the ohairman of the Finance Committee 

 rose in the Board, and speaking of the financial accounts 

 of the Board, said: "I defy any man to make head or 

 tail out of them, and any firm working with such a sys- 

 tem of keeping its accounts would go to the wall very 

 soon." 



Professional Riflemen.— The question of a plan for 

 barring out professional riflemen is a growing one in rifle 

 circles, and Col. Sanford, in the last session of the Board 

 of Directors, proposed the following sapient rule, which 

 of course means nothing, as the gate money is in all 

 cases taken possession of by the Association controlling 

 the range. There is not money enough offered as prizes 

 in the whole country to tempt the best marksman to its 

 capture as a means of livelihood, and no rifle-making 

 firm will bar off its agents from the ranges by confessing 

 them as paid to shoot the arm. The resolutions read : — 



All matches of this Association hereafter shall be open 

 only to amateur riflemen, unless otherwise specified ; 

 and amateurs only shall be allowed to compete for places 

 on the American International or Inter-State teams and 

 be organized by this Association. An amateur in rifle 

 shooting is one who has never entered into a competi- 

 tion for gate money, or who has never pursued match 

 shooting with the rifle as a means of livelihood, or who 

 has never been paid by any rifle manufacturing firm or 

 dealers in rifles to use said rifles in matches for Ihe pur- 

 pose of advertising or selling them. 



We invite discussion of this question. 



Types of Anglers.— Many people are just beginning 

 to find out that angling is one of the most artistic sports 

 in the world. Its own inherent gentleness makes it the 

 most refined, and although gentlewomen add by then- 

 presence to its charms, yet it does not require, as do most 

 sports, their restraining and refining influence. "Its in- 

 nocence is a feature that has commended it in all ages." 



The angler has most of the cardinal virtues, He pos- 

 sesses the rare quality of taking the luck as it comes, good 

 naturedly. Difficulties and disappointments stimulate 

 instead of depressing him, for like virtue patience is its 

 own reward. It was an angling enthusiast who said : "I 

 did not have a positive bito but I had a glorious nibble." 



The fisherman's life is made up of one grand series of 

 disappointments. He has more of them to the season 

 than any other person. Most of them, however, are hap- 

 py ones ; only enough of the miserable ones happen along 

 to season the rest. Every sign which the angler studies, 

 the scudding clouds, the ripple on the water, the direc- 

 tion of the wind, may all indicate good sport, and yet as 

 he starts out, buoyant with hope, building high his 

 castles is the air, he is conscious of a delightful uncer- 

 tainty, which is the condiment of his recreation and in- 

 creasing its attractions. 



There is an element of chance about it more fascinat- 

 ing than the absolute certainty, but whatever comes he 

 is never discontented with the actual. No evidence of 

 disappointment ever lurks in his face. He has a well 

 regulated tongue, and is never guilty of committing an 

 assault on the English language, no matter how great the 

 provocation or how much of a thinking he may keep up. 

 Still, in spite of this undercurrent of uncertainty, he is a 

 man of sublime faith. He never steps into a stream with- 

 out trying to make liimself believe that it is one of his 

 lucky days ! And well he needs more than a grain of 

 faith, for ofttimes the result of his day's wading will not 

 turn the scale at a grain or less, but he is, under every 

 condition, a philosopher. If he cannot always command 

 success he will at least deserve it. 



We mean the fly fisherman, one who uses the lightest 

 rod and fittest line. There are anglers who employ hooks 

 and lines coarse enough to draw out leviathans, but they 

 are mere fishing machines, whose legitimate business 

 should be hauling a seine, and who have little of the 

 spirit of the fair play that betokens the gentleman, who 

 scorns to take any unfair advantage, but is willing to 

 give the fish some chance for thir lives. 



Anglers are very much like their tackle, coarse and 

 fine. It is the latter who has some object in going to the 

 trout stream besides filling his creel. He likes the vigor- 

 ous rise and strike, but that is not all in all. There are 

 surrounding associations from which he derives pleasure, 

 He is an observer, and is continually making mental note 

 of the beauties and deformities of t,h* ever changing 



