THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 5 
On practically every cabin located on every game 
preserve in Oregon you will find a notice substantially 
as follows: “Unload your gun before bringing it into 
the cabin.” Had a duck hunter observed this simple 
injunction William Blake would not now be lying in 
St. Vincent’s. Hospital with a bullet hole through his 
right leg. Blake had just come in from a duck hunt, 
emptied his gun on the outside of his cabin and was pre- 
paring something to eat when his companion came 
through the door with his automatic shotgun. Blake 
asked him if he had unloaded the gun. His companion 
said that he had not done so and the next instant Blake 
felt the contents of a twelve-gauge shell boring their 
way through his leg. This occurred on Thanksgiving 
day. Blake will be in the hospital for several weeks 
more. . Carelessness alone was responsible for this 
accident. 
Instance after instance could be recorded similar to 
those already related. Carelessness is responsible for 
more than ninety per cent of all the so-called accidents 
which occur through the use of firearms while hunting. 
An abundance of caution will prevent most of these 
accidents. 
Sportsmen of Oregon let us hammer away at these 
simple rules against carelessness until every man who 
carries a gun will observe them! 
TEN THOUSAND SUBSCRIBERS BY 1917. 
On December the first of last year the paid sub- 
scribers to THE SrorTsMAN totalled something over 
400. ‘Today we have more than 2,000 paid subscribers. 
The increase of five hundred per cent is the result of a 
